The NBA expanded to add the Vancouver Grizzlies in 1995.
The Grizzlies never put together a good enough team to even make the playoffs the entire time they were in Vancouver. In 2001 they moved to Memphis and drafted Shane Battier, an Uncle Tom from Duke as Jalen Rose would say. The Grizzlies also were able to trade their only star, the forgettable Shareef Abdul-Rahim, for the Atlanta Hawks' 1st round pick Pau Gasol.
Battier and Gasol would turn the Grizzlies' franchise, if not around, at least significantly rotated.
Between 2003 and 2006 the Grizzlies would make the playoffs 3 consecutive times and be swept 4-0 in the 1st round every year. In 2006 Memphis traded Battier for the Houston Rockets' 1st round pick, my alma mater Uconn's Rudy Gay, who has since become the Grizzlies' maximum salaried franchise player. In 2008 the Grizzlies would trade Gasol to the Los Angeles Lakers who had been struggling to find a star compliment to Kobe Bryant since trading Shaquille O'Neil. One of the players the Grizzlies would receive in return was Pau's rookie younger brother Marc. Pau would help the Lakers reach the NBA finals every year since then, winning the NBA championship in the last 2 years. The Lakers already had a dominant 7 foot center in Andrew Bynum and thus were able to play Pau at power forward (for the brief periods of the season where Bynum is not injured). Many teams in the NBA do not have a true center and play a shot blocking power forward at center, as has often been the case in the career of such power forwards as Emeka Okafor who has been forced to play out of position at center his entire NBA career.
Two years ago Memphis acquired the talented yet troublesome Zach Randoph from the Knicks. Randolph quickly developed alongside Marc Gasol to help the Grizzlies almost make the playoffs last year. While not as dominant as the Lakers' frontcourt, Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph comprised what was essentially the only other front court in the league with 2 centers playing the 4 and 5.
This year Memphis has been determined to make the playoffs. And for the first half of the year it seemed as if Gay, Randolph, Gasol, and their finally breaking out point guard Mike Conley were leading them to that goal.
But just before this year's trade deadline, Gay went down.
Rudy dislocated his shoulder so bad that it would require season ending surgery a few weeks later. At the trade deadline the Rockets, who had taken on a lot of salary over the last few years, decided to dump Battier's contract. The Grizzlies, with their sudden need for a new starting small forward, were eager to take him back. Immediately after the trade there was turmoil amongst the team and even a full on fight aboard the Grizzlies' plane. But the team rebounded from that experience to become closer and finish the season very strongly, nabbing the last playoff spot in the western conference. As the 8th seed, the Grizzlies were matched up in the 1st round of the playoffs against the team with the best record in the NBA, the devil's own boring ass San Antonio Spurs.
Tonight in game 1 of their playoff series, Gasol, Conley and Randolph gave great performances, and Shane Battier hit the game winning shot to beat the Goliath Spurs and give the Grizzlies their 1st ever playoff win.
Earlier today Battier's wife gave birth to their first daughter.
This is why I love the NBA, the stories.
It's my soap opera.
I love stories.
Stories are one of the reasons why I'm fascinated by history and politics. History particularly so. If you know the stories of history, you can understand and anticipate how the story will continue.
On a related note, heres a video of Uconn winning the NCAA tournament over Battier's Duke Uncle Toms in 1999
Just when they say you can't;
you can.
