Memphis Grizzlies

From The UCSC Wikipedia Trust Project

The Memphis Grizzlies are a professional basketball team based in Memphis, Tennessee. They play in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and are currently coached by Tony Barone Sr. as of December 28, 2006. The team is owned by Michael Heisley. Jerry West serves as the team's President of Basketball Operations.

1 Home arenas
2 Vancouver
3 Memphis
4 Season-by-season records
5 Trivia
6 External links

Home arenas

:General Motors Place (1995-2001)

Pyramid Arena (2001-2004)

:FedExForum (2004-present)

Vancouver

The Vancouver Grizzlies along with the Toronto Raptors became NBA franchises in 1995. Both teams were the first NBA teams to play in Canada since 1946–47's Toronto Huskies. The Grizzlies were initially composed of players taken from other teams via an expansion draft and the Grizzlies' first draft pick, Bryant Reeves. Although they won their first home game in franchise history, the Grizzlies finished with the worst win/loss record in the NBA in 1995–96 season, as is typical for an expansion team, and lost 23 straight games from February to April (setting an NBA record now shared with the Denver Nuggets). In 1996, the Grizzlies drafted Shareef Abdur-Rahim as the 3rd overall pick. However, the Grizzlies continued to struggle and finished with the worst record in the league.

In 1997, the Grizzlies drafted Antonio Daniels with the 4th pick. The team saw some improvement as it finished in 6th place. The Grizzlies were back in last place after the 1998–99 season, however, despite drafting guard Mike Bibby with the second overall pick in the NBA Draft during the offseason. In the lockout-shortened season that followed, the Grizzlies would only win 8 games.

After the NBA lockout, the attendance at Grizzlies games began to drop, and the team's owners, OrcaBay (who also owned the Vancouver Canucks of the NHL) began to lose money. Businessman Michael Heisley bought the team in 2000, and one subpar year later, after considering New Orleans, St. Louis, and Anaheim among others, the team moved to Memphis, in 2001.

Memphis

In the 2001 NBA Draft, the Atlanta Hawks drafted Pau Gasol as the 3rd overall pick who was traded to the Grizzlies and won the Rookie of the Year Award. The Grizzlies also drafted Shane Battier, who quickly became an unofficial spokesman for the team and a fan favorite. However, despite the strong draft class, Billy Knight was let go. After Billy Knight's departure and the 2001-02 season, the team hired former Los Angeles Laker and Hall of Famer Jerry West as general manager in 2002, who later received the 2003–04 NBA Executive of the Year Award. After West's arrival the team was changed a great deal from Knight's team, with the removal of Sidney Lowe as head coach after a dismal 0-8 start to the season and a great deal of player movement with players such as Mike Miller and James Posey becoming vital to the team's success. During the 2002-03 season, Hubie Brown was hired to coach the Grizzlies. Brown won the NBA Coach of the Year Award during the next season when the Grizzlies made the NBA playoffs for the first time in team history in the spring of 2004 as the sixth seed in the Western Conference in a drastic change from being perennially one of the worst teams in the NBA.

Hakim Warrick

However, Hubie Brown stepped down as head coach during the 2004–05 season. At the time of his resignation, the Grizzlies had a losing record but West was able to hire TNT analyst and former coach Mike Fratello to replace Brown. The Grizzlies' record markedly improved and the team advanced to the postseason for the second consecutive season. However, upon reaching the playoffs, the Grizzlies were once again swept out in the first round, this time by the Phoenix Suns. After this season, which ended tumultuously with anger between Fratello and many of the players, namely Bonzi Wells and Jason Williams, the team had an active 2005 offseason in which they revamped the team and added veteran talent. While the Grizzlies lost Bonzi Wells, Jason Williams, Stromile Swift, and James Posey, they acquired Damon Stoudamire, Bobby Jackson, Hakim Warrick, and Eddie Jones. They made the playoffs for the third consecutive year as well.

With their record they owned the fifth playoff seed in the Western Conference and would have to face the Dallas Mavericks. The Dallas Mavericks swept the Grizzlies in 4 games. The Grizzlies have the longest losing streak in the playoffs with 12 losses. This makes three consecutive years in which the Grizzlies have not won a playoff series, or even a single game, and they have remained winless in the playoffs during their short franchise history.

Following the 2006 NBA Draft, Jerry West traded Shane Battier to the Houston Rockets for their First Round Pick, Rudy Gay of the University of Connecticut, and former Grizzly Stromile Swift, the only player on the team still remaining who had played for Vancouver. Before the 2006-07 season, the Grizzlies suffered a crippling blow when Gasol broke his left foot while playing for Spain in the World Championships. The Grizzlies started the season 5-17 without Gasol, and then went 1-7 while he was limited to about 25 minutes (out of 48) per game.[1] At that point, Fratello was fired and replaced by Tony Barone, Sr. as interim coach. Barone was the team's player personnel director and had never coached an NBA game though he had coached at the collegiate level for both Creighton and Texas A&M being named coach of the year in their conferences three times during his tenure.[2]

Season-by-season records

Template:Start NBA SBS|- |colspan="6" align=center bgcolor="#14cec7" | Vancouver Grizzlies |- |1995-96 || 15 || 57 || .183|| |||- |1996-97 || 14 || 68 || .171|| |||- |1997-98 || 19 || 63 || .232|| |||- |1998-99 || 8 || 42 || .160|| |||- |1999-2000 || 22 || 60 || .268|| |||- |2000-01 || 23 || 59 || .280|| |||- !Vancouver Totals ||101||359||.220|| |||- |colspan="6" align=center bgcolor="#182d59" | Memphis Grizzlies |- |2001-02 || 23 || 59 || .280|| |||- |2002-03 || 28 || 54 || .341|| |||- |2003-04 || 50 || 32 || .610 || Lost First Round || San Antonio 4, Memphis 0 |- |2004-05 || 45 || 37 || .549 || Lost First Round || Phoenix 4, Memphis 0 |- |2005-06 || 49 || 33 || .598 || Lost First Round || Dallas 4, Memphis 0 |- |2006-07 || 12 || 36 || .231 || |||- !Memphis Totals ||207||251||.452|| |||- !Totals || 306 || 602 || .327 || |||- !Playoffs || 0 || 12 || .000 || ||Template:End box

Stats updated January 13, 2007

Trivia

Geographically, the Grizzlies' hometown of Memphis is further east than any team's hometown in the Western Conference.
The Memphis Grizzlies was also the name of the franchise that was part of the World Football League in the 1970s.
On the team's original franchise application to the NBA, the team name was listed as the Vancouver Mounties. The government of Canada took exception to the name, however, claiming that the name was trademarked, prompting the change to the current name.
The Grizzlies were the first NBA team to have a website, which was created in 1995 by Bob Kerstein, Chief Information Officer of the Grizzlies at the time.
As of 2006, the Grizzlies are the only team representing Memphis, Tennessee in the United States four major sports leagues (NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL).
The Vancouver Grizzlies and Charlotte Hornets both applied with the NBA to relocate to Memphis on the same day, March 26, 2001 (The Hornets would go on to move to New Orleans).
FedEx hoped the team would change its name to the Memphis Express when the team moved to Tennessee. The NBA quickly quashed that idea, ruling that they would not allow teams to be named for corporations.
Sidney Lowe was the first coach of the Memphis Grizzlies franchise in Memphis.
The Grizzlies have never won a playoff game in three series. They were swept by the San Antonio Spurs in 2004, by the Phoenix Suns in 2005, and by the Dallas Mavericks in 2006.