Local filmmaker digs deep into demise of the Vancouver Grizzlies in latest doc
The Vancouver Grizzlies’ time in this city was short, but anything but sweet.
After six lowly seasons, the franchise’s second owner Michael Heisley relocated the team to Memphis, Tenn., for the 2001-02 NBA season.
It’s a move many Vancouver basketball fans have yet to get over.
"Everyone who I spoke to was still filled with anger, bitterness, heartbreak,” said Vancouver filmmaker Kathleen Jayme.
The lingering anger is what inspired Jayme, a basketball super-fan herself, to create the film The Grizzlie Truth, a deeper look at what led to the demise of the Vancouver Grizzlies.
“As a filmmaker, when you see all of these emotions that are still lingering 20-plus years later, you know there’s something there,” Jayme told CTV News.
Jayme was just six years old when the team came to Vancouver in 1995.
"The Grizzlies came to town at that perfect moment when I was just starting to fall in love with the game,” she said.
The documentary is the fourth Jayme has made about Vancouver’s lone NBA Franchise.
Two were short-form, while in 2018 she released Finding Big Country, the story of the once-promising Grizzlies centre Bryant Reeves, whose career was cut short by numerous injuries.
The team’s attendance numbers started strong, with over 17,000 fans attending home games, on average, during their inaugural season.
However, after finishing dead last in their division in all but one season, attendance dropped to just over 13,000 per game by the 2000-01 season, the team's last in Vancouver.
Over the years, many have placed blame for the team's departure on poor coaching, management, and, of course, play.
However, there’s perhaps been no bigger villain than Steve Francis.
In 1999 NBA draft, the Grizzlies selected the highly touted guard out of the University of Maryland with the second overall pick.
A player seen as good enough to be a potential franchise saver, the American had no interest in playing in Canada, and was traded to the Houston Rockets that summer without ever playing a game for the Grizzlies.
This week, however, Francis has made his long-awaited return to the city for the premier of the film.
"You’ll get an opportunity to see who Steve Francis is, even 23 years later, and I guess some of the reasons why Steve Francis didn't want to come to Vancouver," said Francis.
“One of the things I’ve loved most about this process is getting to know Steve Francis as a friend,” said Jayme. “I’m excited for Vancouver to hear his story, and maybe this can be a healing experience for the city of Vancouver and for Steve Francis."
The film, which premieres Saturday as part of the Vancouver International Film Festival, also features Shareef Abdur Rahim, Stu Jackson, Mike Bibby and Bryant “Big Country” Reeves.
Saturday’s screening sold out, but another one is planned for Oct. 5 at The Centre for Performing Arts.
Jayme is hopeful that another big turnout could help get Vancouver back on the NBA’s radar.
“This is history in the making,” she said. “This could be a great opportunity to show the NBA how much Vancouver loves the Grizzlies and how much we could support a team in the future.”
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Western University researchers unlock potential 'cure' for ALS
New research out of London, Ont.'s Western University is shedding light on a potential cure for ALS, in which the targeting of the interaction between two proteins can halt or fully reverse the disease's progression.
What Michael Cohen said on the stand in Trump hush money case
The star prosecution witness in Donald Trump's hush money trial took the stand Monday with testimony that could help shape the outcome of the first criminal case against an American president.
Collapsed Baltimore bridge span comes down with a boom after crews set off chain of explosives
Crews conducted a controlled demolition Monday to break down the largest remaining span of the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.
Police release 3D images of young child found in an Ontario river two years ago
Police have released a three-dimensional image of a young child whose remains were discovered in the Grand River in Dunnville, Ont. almost two years ago.
A child killer legally changed his name in B.C. The province is trying to stop that from happening again
The BC NDP have tabled legislation aimed at stopping people who have committed certain heinous acts from changing their names.
Security video caught admitted serial killer disposing of bodies in Winnipeg garbage bins
Security video caught admitted serial killer Jeremy Skibicki on multiple late-night outings, disposing of body parts in nearby garbage bins and dumpsters in the middle of the night.
Kamala Harris drops F-bomb during White House live-stream
U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris used a profanity on Monday while offering advice to young Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders about how to break through barriers.
Behind the barricades: How protesters spend their first days in a new encampment
Students in Montreal describe life in a newly erected encampment in Montreal as a whirlwind of preparations, from facing rain and a potential police crackdown to setting up a space for the exchange of ideas.
Next 48 hours will be 'extremely challenging' for B.C. wildfire crews near Fort Nelson: officials
A wildfire burning dangerously close to Fort Nelson, B.C., has grown to more than 50 square kilometres, and officials are warning that the blaze's behaviour is expected to become more volatile over the next 48 hours.