The Only Thing Grizzlies Succeeded at Was Failing

OK, Orange County, one more week before you find out if you get a Clipper franchise of your very own!

Wherever the Grizzlies alight, Anaheim, New Orleans, Louisville or Memphis, it’s a sad day for NBA Commissioner David Stern, who took such pride in his empire.

When the Grizzlies started play in Vancouver in 1995, almost as an afterthought to Toronto, Mexico City was fully expected to be next.

That went by the boards when the peso tanked, followed by the Grizzlies. Now Stern will be lucky to keep the flag planted in Toronto but has other worries, primarily ebbing interest in his own country.

“I accept that the league didn’t do things right,” Stern conceded all-star weekend. “Various ownership groups, including the present one, haven’t been perfect. . . .”

Forget perfect, competent would have been nice.

Stern also blamed Vancouver for a lack of team support, which might have been more forthcoming had the Grizzlies ever won more than 22 games . . . which was how the league set it up.

In 1995, approaching its zenith and maxing out its hubris, the NBA barely considered the possibility of failing, blithely invading a hockey-loving country while saddling the new teams with unprecedented restrictions.

The Raptors, in a bigger city with a bigger corporate base, endured two awful seasons and General Manager Isiah Thomas’ exit before, in their darkest hour, lucking into Vince Carter.

The Grizzlies weren’t that lucky.

April 27, 1994: The NBA grants Vancouver a franchise for $125 million, a price increase of 380% since the last expansion in 1988-89.

Old-line owners are upset at Orlando’s lottery coups, Shaquille O’Neal and Penny Hardaway, so Stern freezes the new teams out of the No. 1 pick for three years.

In their first draft, the Grizzlies and Raptors don’t even get any of the first five. They’re assigned the Nos. 6 and 7 slots. (Meanwhile, the NFL’s expansion franchises in Carolina and Jacksonville are assigned Nos. 1 and 2.)

Stern also says the new teams can spend only 66% of the salary cap their first season, presumably to keep them from bidding up free agents.

July 22, 1994: Grizzly owner Arthur Griffiths hires Stu Jackson, a former New York Knick coach (for one year plus 15 games) as general manager. Jackson never has been a GM but is a league favorite.

Nov. 30, 1995: The Chicago Bulls make their first visit. Local writers, used to unassuming hockey players, are dismayed when interview requests are spurned, if not laughed at.

June 25, 1997: Jackson uses the fourth overall pick for point guard Antonio Daniels, who lasts one season.

July 7, 1997: Jackson gives Bryant Reeves a $65-million, six-year extension. Reeves, who had averaged 16 points and eight rebounds the preceding season, is down to 8.9 and 5.6 in three years.

Aug. 7, 1997: Seeking veteran leadership for his young players, Jackson acquires grumpy Otis Thorpe, who’s such a pain, he’s gone after 47 games.

Feb. 18, 1998: Not that they have an image problem, but Doug West, told he has been traded to Vancouver, says he downed “17 Heinekens.” And he’s coming from Minnesota.

June 24, 1998: Still needing a point guard, Jackson drafts Mike Bibby second overall, passing up Carter and Antawn Jamison, among others.

June 30, 1999: Jackson drafts Steve Francis, who already has told them he won’t go there, assuming they can trade him if they have to.

Aug. 27, 1999: Francis is traded to Houston, where he’s now known as “Stevie Franchise.” The Grizzlies get one starter, Michael Dickerson, out of it.

Summer 1999: Stern intervenes to keep the franchise from being sold to Wal-Mart son-in-law Bill Laurie and moved to St. Louis.

April 11, 2000: Chicago financier Michael Heisley buys the team, promising to try to make it work in Vancouver.

As president, Heisley hires a friend, Dick Versace, a flamboyant former coach and commentator whose audacity has lifted him from nobody-from-nowhere status.

Months before the sale is final, Versace puts his own scouts in the field, creating a shadow front office and angering Jackson’s lame/dead ducks.

Versace thinks about coaching, but his friend, Chuck Daly, points out he would be in the line of fire. Versace considers Lenny Wilkens but hires less expensive Sidney Lowe.

November 2000: Days into his first season, Heisley says he’ll lose $50 million and may have to move. In Vancouver, this doesn’t sound like trying to make it work.

December 2000: Versace tells other general managers he has to dump salary and everyone, even Shareef Abdur-Rahim, is available. This hits the papers in about six seconds--because Versace leaks it deliberately, seeking maximum exposure.

Abdur-Rahim, who has signed long term, is upset and demands to be traded. The Grizzlies take him off the block.

Bibby is still available, however, because he’ll soon be seeking $80 million and doesn’t get along with Abdur-Rahim.

Ultimately, only power forward Othella Harrington is traded, but everyone is shaken up.

January 2001: Versace, who rarely has an unexpressed thought, especially if it covers his own rear, muses, “If I had Lenny Wilkens in here or Chuck Daly in here, maybe their experience would win a couple more games.”

Then, making a belated stab at diplomacy, Versace adds, “I think Sid’s doing a good job.”

Feb. 9, 2001: Stern, who thinks he has another buyer, Internet millionaire Daniel Chiang, says, “We would very much like to remain in Vancouver.”

Feb. 10, 2001: Stern says he keeps “reaching out” to Chiang, who isn’t returning calls or e-mails.

Feb. 12, 2001: Stern, out of moves, says Heisley can leave.

In subsequent days, Versace, renting a 9,000-square-foot house in the stylish British Properties, with an indoor pool and a panoramic view of Howe Sound, exercises his option to terminate the lease, since his employer will “not continue to occupy its business within the defined marketplace.”

That he even had such a clause doesn’t sound too good to locals, either.

In a chat with Vancouver reporters, Versace is asked why Toronto is making it but Vancouver can’t.

“Toronto is one year away from our position,” says Versace, noting Carter’s looming free agency.

The Raptors are enraged. The league fines Versace $10,000.

According to the Toronto Sun, Versace tries to get team publicists Deborah Butt and Diana Schultz to pay his fine, presumably for making him talk to the reporters.

In a move heralded throughout Canada, the women refuse.

Former Grizzly George Lynch says players in Vancouver miss stateside things--like grocery stores. Maybe he means they don’t have Ralphs. Maybe he thinks Canadians are fed by airlift. Maybe he ate out all the time he was there, who knows?

Heisley is off scouting locations for his team, although insiders say Stern will have a say--or will decide.

This may or may not be good news for Anaheim. On one hand, it is bigger and demographically superior to its rivals. On the other, the league never has been keen on having three teams here, on the assumption there’s only enough corporate support and air time for two.

Indeed, Fox already carries a full slate of Laker and many Clipper games.

“I don’t know where we’d put the Grizzlies,” a Fox guy says. “Maybe Fox Sports Net 3.”

Grizzly forward Grant Long notes the prospective cities all had teams in the NBA or the old American Basketball Assn.

“They’re all recycled cities,” Long says. “They’ve all had teams before and lost them. If one of them gets a team again, well, Vancouver shouldn’t worry. Another NBA team will be around in a few years.”

Having just gotten the full NBA treatment, Vancouver isn’t sure which way it’s rooting.

FACES AND FIGURES

You know how the political media won’t let go of Bill Clinton? Same with sportswriters and Michael Jordan. The report by Sports Illustrated’s Rick Reilly that Jordan is “90% committed” to returning next season was laughable, if understandable. Reilly’s source was probably Charles Barkley (with whom he once did a book) and probably represents some throwaway comments by Jordan, which fueled Barkley’s fondest dream, of playing with his hero. This might, in turn, help motivate Charles get his weight below 325.

Indeed, a day after the “story” broke, Barkley said he’d love to come back with Jordan. However, Jordan would be 38, hasn’t played in three seasons; would have to sell his stake--reported to be as high as 20%--in the Washington Wizards, the hockey Capitals and MCI Center; might need surgery for a damaged finger on his shooting hand, and says he’s not interested.

The funny thing was watching everyone run to form. Newspapers and TV outlets treated it as a real possibility. Phil Jackson, who dreamed of bringing Jordan to the Lakers, mused about the possibility anew. Maverick owner Mark Cuban, trying to recast Dallas as the center of the basketball world, said he’d try to figure out how to get Jordan. A Toronto columnist said it was another American plot to lure Carter south of the border to play with Jordan in Washington.

More bad signs for internationalism: Carter’s mother, Michelle, who runs his career, says Vince will make his decision sooner rather than later--which looks like the summer of 2002, when the Raptors are eligible to offer him a long-term deal.

“Vince will make his decision as early as he possibly can so we and everybody else in the league can move on,” Michelle said, appearing with her son at the NBA Store in New York. “I can’t tell you what the exact date is, but it will be made as early as possible. I’ll tell you this--it’s not going to be a circus like it has been for some other players.” In other words, if Carter turns the Raptors down to “test the market,” in 2002, it’ll mean he’s probably out of there when he’s an unrestricted free agent in 2003.

Yao Ming, the coveted 7-foot-5 Chinese center, may not be allowed to enter the draft by his local federation. “The team is playing better and better and Yao Ming’s role is getting bigger and bigger,” said Li Yaoming, deputy manager of Yao’s Shanghai Sharks. “Why should I let him go?”

Walking billboard Marcus Fizer, the Bulls’ player who recently had “truly” and “blessed” tattooed up and down his calves, is adding Chinese characters for “love” and “hate” on the backs of his left and right forearms. “There’s a lot of hate in this world and when I think about that, I think about all the things I love,” Fizer said. “That’s what keeps me sane. A lot of guys go to clubs after games. I get tattoos.” His mother must be so proud.