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From day one to 2001, the Grizzlies were one of the model organizations (we don't want to downplay the efforts of the Clippers) for how not to run a franchise. It would take days to catalogue all of their errors, so I'll just touch on the highlights.

The disaster began early, when they selected Bryant "Big Country" Reeves as their first-ever pick in the 1995 draft. After showing inconsistent flashes of NBA-worthy play, the injury-plagued Reeves ended his brief, but painful, career this past offseason. The team probably should have known not to draft a player with a nickname that highlighted his size, but not his game.

In 1996, they drafted a solid player in Shareef Abdur-Rahim with the third pick, but backslided in a big way by drafting Antonio Daniels with the fourth pick in 1997. Daniels, of course, is now the second, third, or fourth point guard option off the bench for Portland, while Abdur-Rahim was not able to lead them to a record better than 23-59.

In 1998 and 1999, they drafted excellent point guards in Mike Bibby and Steve Francis. Subsequently, in the typical run-your-team-into-the-ground fashion, they traded both players for far less talent. They dealt the no-nonsense Bibby to the Kings for the no-sense Jason Williams, along with former NBA Finals goat, Nick Anderson. The trade for Francis landed them a effective scorer, but one who has not seen the court much in the past two seasons due to injuries in Michael Dickerson, plus Othella Harrington, and two players who no longer suit up in the league. During the season after the deal, I'm certain there were more than a few moments when they would have liked to trade their entire franchise to get Steve "Franchise" Francis back.

Finally, in 2000, they drafted Stromile "Yearly Trade Bait" Swift with the second pick. Swift has not accomplished a thing outside of generating mild excitement when he is mentioned in a prospective trade.

The Grizzlies roster moves rivaled only those made in the movie Major League, when the owner intentionally put together a team that would lose so much that they would be sold to another city. The differences, of course, are that the Grizzlies moves were unintentionally bad, and unlike the team in the movie, they did lose too much and were removed from Vancouver, with little protest from fans.

In 2001, the naive people of Memphis, who certainly hadn't seen enough Grizzlies games, decided it would be a good idea to take on this less-than-sputtering franchise. They clearly had a law of averages attitude summed up by the phrase "they can't lose forever."

Oddly enough, good things began to happen. Whether it was a slower-than-normal learning curve, dumb luck, or just doing the opposite of what they believe is right, the Grizzlies have started moving in the right direction. In a Cosby Show's Theo Huxtable-like fashion, when it was discovered that the son of a doctor and a lawyer was not actually unintelligent, but just had a learning disability, the Grizzlies management seemingly have begun to work around their NBA player management learning disorder.

In 2001, they acquired the Rookie of the Year, Pau Gasol, and the well-rounded Shane Battier with the sixth selection on draft day. In addition, they obtained a solid center in Lorenzen Wright and backup point guard Brevin Knight (both in the deal that sent Shareef Abdur-Rahim to Atlanta for Gasol).

In offseason 2002, they hired one of the best GM's in the league, Jerry West, and drafted highly-touted Drew Gooden with the fourth pick. Not to mention picking up the underrated and under-appreciated Wesley Person.

After struggling to start the season, the team fired coach Sidney Lowe and replaced him with one of the greatest minds in the game, Hubie Brown. Brown has not disappointed and has shown to be a fine teacher for this young group. At his age, Hubie Brown will not be the coach long-term, but for the time he is there, they should continue to show great improvement.

They still lose, but have finally shown signs of evolving into a real NBA team. Maybe now they will sign a coach like Larry Brown to follow Hubie Brown, and he will lead them to the playoffs. And maybe they will add a player like Kobe Bryant and a coach like Phil Jackson in a couple of years and truly make some headway. Then again, they could just return to the days of trading franchise players for no one special, but can they really lose forever?

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