Through their first 8 years in the NBA, the Memphis (neé –ancouver) Grizzlies had more L’s than a 20 year anniversary copy of SI’s Swimsuit Edition – 472 of them, in fact. Consistently awful, the Grizz won less than a quarter of the games they played, and even when they moved into the indistinct geographical region called the Greater Mid-South, things weren’t any better.

It was only when they added some personnel with surnames starting with ‘W’ that the Grizzlies franchise started getting some in the results column; Wright, Williams, Wells, Watson. And, most importantly, West. As a result, this season will be the first in franchise history that the Grizzlies will be playing more than 82 games.

Who has been the biggest surprise of NBA Season 2003/04?

Zach Randolph? Carlos Boozer? Terry Stotts? Or perhaps the Nuggets or the Jazz? or the 21-54 Chicago Bulls?

Without a doubt, it has to be the Memphis Grizzlies. The Grizz, the league’s 2nd worst franchise in the league over the past 5 seasons (how are you feeling, Mr Krause?), have just won their 48th game – of the season, not the decade. Incredibly, not only are Memphis guaranteed to make the playoffs, they’re currently only 1? games out of securing home court.

Before the beginning of last season, an article was floating around the ESPN website about a proposed local TV ad promoting the 2002/2003 campaign of the Memphis Grizzlies. Maybe you can recall it, and maybe the link is even still active. But I can’t find it, so the following is from memory;

Two guys at a bar. NBA on in the background. Grizzlies playing.

The guys sit there, watching, drinking.

Guy 1 – “Jerry Freakin’ West”

Guy 2 – [shakes head]

end.

That’s it. Apparently the commercial never went to air, vetoed by the Logo himself, but it has proved to be amazingly prescient. And about the only way it would have been even more accurate would have been if Guy 1 had said “Hubie Freakin’ Brown” instead.

In just 2? seasons, the old stagers West and Brown have re-built a team that was so consistently bad, it was in danger of becoming the NBA’s biggest embarrassment since Michael Ray Richardson. Or perhaps the officiating in the 2002 Western Conference Finals.

And it’s not ancient history, either. The NBA made the decision to expand into Canada with not 1 but 2 new teams in 1995, and life for the Grizzlies started well when they won their first ever game. But the fans, players and front office staff quickly found out just how merciless professional sport can be, as of their first 4 seasons in the NBA, the Vancouver Grizzlies finished dead last 3 times. And because they were prohibited from landing the 1st overall draft pick, they weren’t able to draft their way out of the basement with gimme selections, although they certainly had enough chances;

1995 – 6th pick – Bryant Reeves (passed on Damon Stoudamire 7th, Kurt Thomas 10th)
1996 – 3rd pick – Shareef Abdur-Rahim (passed on Stephon Marbury 4th, Ray Allen 5th)
1997 – 4th pick – Antonio Daniels (passed on Tim Thomas 7th, Tracy McGrady 9th)
1998 – 2nd pick – Mike Bibby (passed on Vince Carter 6th, Dirk Nowitzki 9th, Paul Pierce 10th)
1999 – 2nd pick – Steve Francis (passed on Baron Davis 3rd, Lamar Odom 4th, Shawn Marion 9th)
2000 – 2nd pick – Stromile Swift (passed on Eduardo Najera 38th, Michael Redd 43rd)

Even if the drafts are shallow, and some of these certainly were, 5 straight picks in the top 4 and 3 straight number 2s are enough to invigorate any moribund organisation and/or overcome any amount of abysmal coaching. But not the Grizzlies, who simply stumbled from one 20-win season to another, closer and closer to irrelevancy and, possibly, extinction.

The Steve Francis saga was the lowest point in franchise history. Publically stating his refusal to play for the abhorrent Grizz immediately after he was drafted, Francis demanded a trade and the Grizzlies allowed themselves to be stared down so abjectly they simply gave him away. The eventual 3-team deal, sending Francis (and 5 bench players) to Houston in exchange for Michael Dickerson, Othella Harrington, Antoine Carr, Brent Price and a first round pick was one of the most lop-sided deals with no salary cap implications in a generation. This move actually makes their future personnel exchanges of Bibby for Jason Williams and Shareef for Lorenzen Wright seem rather equitable by comparison. Little wonder Canada didn’t want them to stay.

But as destructive as the Francis swap was for the state of pro basketball in Vancouver, it may not even take the title of the Worst Trade in franchise history. In 1999 when they prized Olden Polynice away from the Detroit Pistons for some badly-needed muscle, no-one in the world could have foreseen that a ubiquitous 1st round draft pick thrown in at the time would, by 2003, turn into the 2nd overall selection. But it did. And while the Pistons were content to pass on Carmelo Anthony last June and store Darko Milicic on the bench as they battle the Pacers and Nets to be the best team in the East, the Grizzlies have, to their credit, moved on. This is the kind of draft day horror story that haunts bad franchises for years, but are instantly forgotten by good ones that wake up and go out and win regardless. And that’s what’s happened in Memphis.

It wouldn’t have happened in Vancouver.

Studying exactly how West and Brown have transformed, so quickly and so comprehensively, the nature of this team would be so instructive if it were easy to comprehend. It’s interesting to note that West’s first moves as GM, after risking his legacy and deciding to coming out of dignified retirement in the summer of 2002, were singularly unremarkable. The addition of benchwarmers Earl Watson and Mike Batiste, and the drafting, then trading, of Drew Gooden, were the sum total of West’s personnel moves his first 9 months in power. But by far the most significant addition came a few weeks into last season, when he was able to persuade his old acquaintance Hubie Brown to take off the headset and teach kids again.

Hubie Brown knows the game. Simply by listening to him call any amount of any NBA game at anytime over the previous 10 years, you couldn’t help but improve your hoop-IQ. Just imagine how much this millenium generation crew in teal and that murky gold colour have been learning since Hubie came on board. The results, after a modest end to last season, have been astonishing.

Memphis share the ball. They’re deep. They defend. They trust each other. No, they don’t lead the league in scoring, or team defense, or rebounding. No, they’re not going to win the championship. This season. But they, along with Utah, Sacramento and probably now New Jersey, set the standard in chemistry and basketball smarts. Hubie Brown instantly gave the Grizzlies a legitimacy and an authority not only that they never had before, they’re now among the most respected organisations in the game. And quite apart from the level of talent on the floor, it’s this confidence, this positivity, this progressiveness – at the management level – that separates a good corporation from a bad one.

West does his job, continually adding talent, whether it be through free agency or by convinicing clubs with financial or personality problems that he is the man they can talk to. And Brown does his, melding what is, on paper, a modestly skilled assortment of players into a living, breathing, successful team.

All season the Grizzlies have been floating at or above .500, always in the thick of the playoff race, but seemingly always on the verge of slipping back behind the more traditionally favoured postseason ballclubs in Portland, Houston and, most amazingly, Dallas. But the longer the season’s gone on, the more Memphis have shown themselves to be a miracle, not a mirage. And their initial successes have fuelled fan support, higher expectations and greater confidence, both within and without the organisation. It must be a fun time to be a bball fan in Tennessee.

It’s stimulating just watching Hubie rotate his squad around, asking them to sacrifice minutes, and stats, for the satisfaction of being on a winning team. He starts Mike Miller over the electric Bonzi Wells. He starts James Posey over the All-American Shane Battier. He starts Jake Tsakalidis over common sense. And they win.

Pau Gasol is the closest thing Memphis has to a franchise player, and he plays just 32 minutes a night, averaging 18 points and 8 boards. Their next 7 players average between 8 and 13 points, which is why they consistently score over 95 points a game, and why opponents find it difficult to shut them down. Even with Wright out injured for a quarter of the season, Memphis lead the league in blocked shots, plus they lead in steals, a rare feat that is testament to the effort and energy of the players, 1 through 11.

Despite collecting all these talented young kids like scrabble tiles, Memphis are not inordinately over the salary cap, and they potentially free up $12 million this summer when Swift, Tsakalidis and Dickerson come off the books. Whether West will be willing to change strategy and relinquish some of his efficient bit parts in order to snare an available big-name (Kenyon Martin, Steve Nash, Erick Dampier, or maybe even Kobe Bryant?), remains to be seen.

But this season isn’t over yet. There’s still 8 games to go before the playoffs, and it looks as if Memphis will draw the reigning NBA Champion San Antonio Spurs in the first round. If so, this season of much promise and growth could end very rapidly and the hands of Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili. Although the Grizz have a strong rotation, good shooting and impressive size, apart from Bo Outlaw there’s is a roster relatively thin on postseason experience. But no matter if Memphis ends up winning 4 games or 0 games, they’re making the playoffs. That’s a major accomplishment and all the hard work this team has put in over the past 2 years means this is a secure foundation for further success.

Thanks to a pair of old men with grey hair and the gift of basketball wisdom, the Memphis Grizzlies are in good shape, both today and tomorrow. They’re the envy of every team behind them, and even some ahead of them, in the Standings.