When we think of departed sports franchises in Canada, most people might think about the Montréal Expos. Kathleen Jayme thinks about her Vancouver Grizzlies.
6 short seasons in Vancouver. The NBA opened its way to Canada in 1995 for Toronto and Vancouver. The Toronto Raptors had their struggles and stuck around. Why not the Vancouver Grizzlies? The Grizzlie Truth is out to find answers.
Basketball was invented by a Canadian (James Naismith). The Toronto Huskies hosted the first Basketball Association of America, frontrunner to the NBA, in 1946.
Jayme is a superfan and talks to other superfans of the Grizzlies. She talks about the popular support for basketball in her home country of Philippines and adapted that in her home in Vancouver.
Stu Jackson gets a lot of blame for why the Grizzlies stay was short. Steve Francis is another villain in his own way. Vancouver drafted Francis but he didn't want to come to Vancouver. The only negative he listed was taxes. The story was remnant of Eric Lindros with Quebec Nordiques, except the Nordiques got a lot more value for Lindros than the Grizzlies got from Houston for Francis.
Jayme got to talk to both of them in a rather surprising fashion. Did they answer every question every fan had? No. They answered quite a few questions.
She touches on the Canadian teams being placed in a huge disadvantage by the NBA. This was not done before or since to other expansion teams, only for the Canadian teams. The new teams were not allowed to make a pick in the top 5 in the regular 1995 NBA draft. The Raptors and Grizzlies were also not allowed to get the top pick for their first 3 seasons, even if they were to win the draft lottery. They were not allowed to use their full salary cap for 2 seasons.
The Raptors and Grizzlies suffered severely from these restrictions. Vince Carter (Raptors) might have been a key force for why the Raptors stayed.
The NBA had played in places such as Buffalo, Cincinnati, Baltimore, St. Louis, Kansas City, and twice in San Diego. Memphis wasn't necessarily a better destination for the Grizzlies as Oklahoma City wasn't for the Seattle SuperSonics. The NBA had the potential for great rivalries with Portland (Trail Blazers), Seattle, and Vancouver but sacrificed that for smaller cities in the U.S. south.
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Unlike people ironically wearing Montréal Expos hats, the Grizzlies haven't been all that visible in the 20+ years since leaving Vancouver. Jayme takes a bold move and goes to Memphis to see if she can love these Grizzlies. Those fanbases that have lost a franchise wouldn't dream of going to the new place.
We won't give away what happened but this bold move might lose some of the people on her side throughout the documentary.
The documentary is a good catharsis for fans who have lost a franchise. Finding answers as to why a franchise disappears is often futile but there is meaning in the search. The NBA didn't have a strong commitment to succeeding in Canada and not a strong sense of where franchises can succeed. Vancouver is a very strong market to support a NBA team but if the league can't see going back to Seattle, there will never be another chance in Vancouver.
There is a generation that knows little to nothing about the Vancouver Grizzlies. If you are a fan of Vancouver, the NBA, or both, The Grizzlie Truth will be a good watching experience.
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The film was screened in Toronto at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema in late 2022 with a brief Canadian theatrical run earlier this year. The Grizzlie Truth is available in Canada via Crave.
video credit: YouTube/Cargo Film & Releasing
photo credit: The Grizzlie Truth
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