The Basketball Fans

Memphis Grizzlies

Published April 18, 2026 · Updated April 23, 2026 · By The Basketball Fans Editors

Editorial tile: Memphis Grizzlies
Photo via Unsplash. Unsplash License.

The Memphis Grizzlies have never reached the NBA Finals. They have made the Western Conference Finals once (2013). They began in 1995 as the Vancouver Grizzlies, one of the NBA’s two Canadian expansion teams (the other being Toronto), played six losing seasons in British Columbia, and moved to Memphis in the summer of 2001 after ownership failures and a bankruptcy filing. The franchise’s competitive identity, to the extent it has one, is the “Grit and Grind” core of the early 2010s, the Mike Conley, Marc Gasol, Zach Randolph, and Tony Allen roster that reached the playoffs seven consecutive years. The current roster, built around Ja Morant, has produced two playoff teams and three lottery seasons. The franchise is owned by Robert Pera, a wireless-networking executive who purchased the team in 2012 for approximately $377 million.

FedExForum in Memphis
FedExForum in downtown Memphis, the Grizzlies' home since 2004. The arena, built across the street from the Gibson Guitar factory, is one of the louder small-market arenas in the Western Conference. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.

The 1995 Vancouver founding

The NBA granted two expansion franchises to Canadian cities for the 1995–96 season: Toronto and Vancouver. The Vancouver ownership group, led by Arthur Griffiths (who also owned the NHL Canucks), paid a $125 million expansion fee. The franchise name “Grizzlies” was chosen for the grizzly bear’s association with British Columbia wildlife. The teal-and-bronze color scheme was a period-specific 1990s branding choice.

The Vancouver Grizzlies’ six seasons in British Columbia produced a combined record of 101–359, still the worst six-year win percentage of any expansion team in NBA history. The roster over those six years included Bryant Reeves (the 1995 first-round pick and the franchise’s initial face), Shareef Abdur-Rahim (the 1996 third-overall pick), Steve Francis (who was drafted second overall in 1999 but publicly refused to play in Vancouver), and Mike Bibby. Francis was traded before playing a Vancouver game. The inability to retain or attract star players was the structural issue Griffiths never solved.

Griffiths sold his controlling interest in 1997. John McCaw Jr. and Michael Heisley (a Chicago industrialist) co-owned the team during its final Vancouver seasons. Heisley assumed sole ownership in 2000 and publicly committed to keeping the team in Vancouver. The commitment held for eighteen months. In June 2001, the NBA approved the relocation to Memphis.

Memphis, Jerry West, and the first playoff runs

The Grizzlies played their first two Memphis seasons (2001–02 and 2002–03) at the Pyramid Arena, a 20,142-seat structure built in 1991. The team moved into FedExForum in September 2004. Heisley hired Jerry West as team president in April 2002. West had spent the previous forty years with the Lakers as a player, coach, and executive, most recently as general manager and head of basketball operations. The West hiring was, at the time, the most consequential executive acquisition in the franchise’s history.

West acquired Pau Gasol (19th overall, 2001, via the Hawks), Shane Battier (6th overall, 2001, from the Grizzlies’ own pick), James Posey, Jason Williams, Bonzi Wells, and Lorenzen Wright. West’s own account of the Memphis years (and a life in basketball) is in West by West: My Charmed, Tormented Life (Little, Brown, 2011), written with Jonathan Coleman. The 2003–04 team, coached by Hubie Brown, finished 50–32, the franchise’s first winning season. The Grizzlies reached the playoffs three consecutive years (2003–04, 2004–05, 2005–06), lost in the first round each time, and became the only franchise in NBA history to lose its first twelve playoff games. West retired in 2007.

The Pau Gasol era ended in February 2008 with Gasol’s trade to the Lakers for Kwame Brown, Javaris Crittenton, Aaron McKie, two first-round picks, and the draft rights to Gasol’s younger brother Marc. The Lakers-trade return was, at the time, widely criticized as lopsided in Los Angeles’s favor. In retrospect, Marc Gasol became the single most important player in Memphis franchise history, and the trade is now re-evaluated as an even exchange.

The Grit and Grind era (2009–2017)

Lionel Hollins, promoted from assistant coach to head coach in January 2009, built the “Grit and Grind” identity over four seasons. The core was Marc Gasol (the 2013 Defensive Player of the Year), Zach Randolph (acquired from the Clippers in 2009), Mike Conley (drafted fourth in 2007), and Tony Allen (signed as a free agent from Boston in 2010). The style was defensive, slow-paced, physical, and low-turnover.

The 2010–11 Grizzlies, as an eighth seed, upset the top-seeded San Antonio Spurs in the first round, the first time an eight-seed had beaten a one-seed in a seven-game series in NBA playoff history. The 2012–13 Grizzlies finished 56–26 and reached the Western Conference Finals, losing to the Spurs 4–0. Gasol was Defensive Player of the Year. Allen made the NBA All-Defensive First Team. The Grit and Grind Grizzlies reached the playoffs in seven consecutive seasons between 2010–11 and 2016–17. They never reached the Finals.

Hollins was fired in 2013 despite the conference finals appearance. Dave Joerger succeeded him. David Fizdale replaced Joerger in 2016. The era ended with Gasol’s departure via trade in 2019 and Randolph’s 2017 move to Sacramento.

The Ja Morant era (2019–present)

The 2018–19 Grizzlies went 22–60. The 2019 NBA Draft Lottery produced the second overall pick. Memphis selected Ja Morant out of Murray State. Morant was 2019–20 Rookie of the Year. He was an All-Star in 2022 and 2023. The 2021–22 Grizzlies went 56–26, Morant’s All-NBA season, and reached the Western Conference Semifinals, losing to Golden State in six games.

The 2022–23 and 2023–24 seasons were disrupted by off-court incidents. In March 2023, Morant was suspended for eight games after appearing in an Instagram Live video holding a firearm. In May 2023, a second Instagram Live video with a firearm triggered a 25-game NBA suspension at the start of the 2023–24 season. Morant has since returned to the Grizzlies roster. The 2024–25 roster, with Morant, Desmond Bane, Jaren Jackson Jr., and Marcus Smart, is positioned as a top-six Western Conference team.

Ownership and franchise valuation

Michael Heisley sold the Memphis Grizzlies to Robert Pera in October 2012 for approximately $377 million, then the second-largest purchase price for a NBA franchise. Pera, the founder and CEO of Ubiquiti Networks, was thirty-four years old at the time of the purchase. His minority-ownership group includes Justin Timberlake (a Tennessee native), Peyton Manning, Penny Hardaway, and Justin Mascoll. The franchise’s 2025 Forbes valuation was approximately $1.98 billion, the lowest in the NBA.

Retired numbers

Four jersey numbers have been retired:

Mike Conley Jr.’s number 11, a presumed future retirement, has not been retired as of the 2024–25 season; Conley was traded to Utah in June 2023 and is still active.

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