Final Rating: 3.5/5
I’m a basketball fan. But I am from Toronto and didn’t start following the sport until I was in college, around 2007. That meant two things, firstly that I supported the Toronto Raptors. The team I fell in love with included Chris Bosh, Jose Calderon, Andrea Bargnani and others. The second thing was because of my east coast lifestyle, and being late to the sport, I knew almost nothing about the Vancouver Grizzlies. Sure I knew they existed, I knew they had really cool jerseys and they had moved to Memphis at one point, but that is where my knowledge ended.
The Vancouver Grizzlies existed as a franchise from 1995 until 2001. Both Toronto and Vancouver got an expansion team at the same time as a way for the league to establish itself in the two of the three largest markets in Canada. Director Kathleen Jayme was a massive Grizzlies fan. Her dad grew up loving the sport of basketball in the Philippines and passed on his passion to his two children. Kat and her family went to plenty of games to support their local team. Every school project and assignment would be about the team and she collected all kinds of paraphernalia. Kat wasn’t unique in this regard because despite the team’s lack of success on the court, off the court every child and adult in the city were obsessed with the Grizz. When the team abruptly moved from Vancouver, British Columbia to Memphis, Tennessee after only a six year run fans were left feeling hollow and grief stricken. Attendance was great! The team improved every year! How could they move, and why were no concrete reasons ever given by the franchise or league to the fans?
Jayme structures this documentary about finding the truth about her beloved team like a noir gumshoe detective story. We get scenes of her in a dimly lit office, with a cork board behind her with criss-crossing red string like she’s looking for Pepe Silvia. She sits behind a 90’s style desktop computer watching game footage and old interviews of the Grizzlies as she searches for ledes. We get an entire oral history of the team, how the city was awarded a franchise, who ran the team, the players selected and how they performed. Most importantly we see how the city immediately embraced the team and despite their poor performance on the court, they still showed love.
Jayme gets interviews with former players including Mike Bibby, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Bryant Reeves aka Big Country and more. They talk about how loved they felt and how they wished they were able to win more for the deserving city. Jayme speaks with fans in a mock therapy group who all show up wearing their old (and sometimes new) Grizzlies gear, except for one guy who shows up in a Memphis Grizzlies jersey that bristles the group the wrong way. These fans talk about how some of them just stopped being basketball fans when the team left and one guy talks about how whenever he plays NBA 2K, the popular video game franchise, he immediately moves the team back to Vancouver proving he isn’t over them leaving yet. Kat asks the group who they believe is to blame for the franchise leaving and we get plenty of names thrown our way. One of the biggest names was the original team President and General Manager Stu Jackson. Jackson who now works for the league head office in New York City agrees to an interview and gives quite candid responses about mistakes he may have made, and giving reasons to some questionable moves he orchestrated while in charge of the franchise.
The film gets most interesting when Jayme decides to track down the person who is perceived to be enemy number one for the fanbase. Steve Francis was a highly touted prospect out of the University of Maryland, he was projected to be the number one pick in the 1999 NBA draft, but after Elton Brand was selected first overall by the Chicago Bulls the Vancouver Grizzlies used their number two pick on him. Francis made it publicly known that he didn’t want to be drafted by Vancouver and after the fact refused to report to the team and demanded a trade. The Toronto Raptors were able to become relevant in part due to Vince Carter being a superstar for the team and the Grizz had hoped that Francis would be their superstar. Almost 25 years later, the city still harbours a grudge against the man who spurned them. Jayme is fruitless in trying to contact his people to arrange an interview so she travels to Houston, the team he is most associated with, to an autograph convention where she essentially ambushes Francis to ask for an interview. He clearly knew who Jayme was since he asks if she is the same person who tracked down Big Country. She pleads with him that she wants to tell his side of the story, from his mouth and it works. He agrees to finally break his silence on the incident in an emotional turn of events of the film.
At times the film feels a bit over produced, but considering the quantity and quality of guests that Jayme secures, you have to marvel at her prowess. If you didn’t grow up a Grizzlies fan or weren’t paying attention to the NBA during this time period, you likely won’t have the same visceral reaction that others will. We learn that the team moving wasn’t because of any one reason or person, but instead a multitude of factors that likely won’t be satisfying for hardcore fans, but it is the truth, The Grizzlie Truth.
The Grizzlie Truth was seen during the 2022 Vancouver International Film Festival. Thank you to Pender PR for the screener.
