Memphis Grizzlies: The Young Team from Tennessee

When you talk about a team that was founded in 1995, like the Memphis Grizzlies, you are essentially talking about a pretty young basketball team. The Memphis Grizzlies is indeed a team that still has to prove itself to their fans and their detractors alike and while they are still winless when it comes to the division, conference and finals of the NBA, they can only try to get better since they are in the midst of more seasoned teams.

The Memphis Grizzlies was actually born as the Vancouver Grizzlies, an expansion team that was supposed to help create more basketball teams from Canada. The move to Memphis, Tennessee and the change in name actually came about when the team was bought by Michael Heissley with the promise that the team will stay in Vancouver. This was untrue, however, since the Memphis Grizzlies was indeed moved to Memphis in 2001. Ironically, the first potential buyer that made a bid for the team actually stated that he was planning to move the team after the purchase and was denied the sale because of such a statement.

The Memphis Grizzlies is actually doing better than it did when it was still in Vancouver. The team has a few playoff spots to their name but never got beyond the first round. The teams that the Memphis Grizzlies went against in the first round of playoffs included the San Antonio Spurs, the Phoenix Suns and the Dallas Mavericks. All of these first round playoff spots were earned by the team in the early part of the 2000s and had them losing such slots in clean sweeps by their more experienced and stronger competitors.

So far, in the 2007 to 2008 season, the Memphis Grizzlies have already racked up 7 wins and 16 losses but it is too early to tell whether this newest season will be another disappointing one for them or a good one.