The Grizzlie Truth (2022) User Reviews

Not the "Whole" Truth

[vangamer · 7/10 · 19 March 2023]

Following up on her passion project on former Grizzly Bryant "Big Country" Reeves, documentary maker and obsessive Grizzlies supporter Kathleen Jayme takes a fan's look back at why her favorite team was shifted from Vancouver to Memphis.

Jayme certainly shows some moxie and determination, tracking down "villains" like beleaguered ex-exec Stu Jackson and star Steve Francis - the high draft pick who didn't want to play in Canada. One of the best parts of the film is having Francis try to explain exactly why he rejected the city as a younger man - it's a little vague but the word "taxes" does creep into his explanation

Her film also looks at issues such as the horrific exchange rates on the Canadian dollar, Toronto's deeper pockets (on why the Raptors survived) and dwindling fan support after the team struggled year after year.

However one vital part of the story was not touched on. Late in his tenure as NBA Commissioner, David Stern admitted that one of his few regrets on the job was allowing the franchise to move from Vancouver to Tennessee. And while Jayme devotes plenty of time to the passion of manic fans in both cities (including her own), she fails to probe the meatier story of the league's corporate decision to allow moving the franchise - something that's much more difficult in the modern era. Without covering those backroom decisions, the full story is yet to be told.

Great documentary, but where's Brian Winters?

[vedalsverre · 8/10 · 28 March 2023]

Despite this documentary being from the perspective of a mega-superfan, it was very informative and well worth watching. I particularly liked the airing of the many perspectives (from Stu Jackson, Steve Francis, Michael Heisley, etc) that provide one with a fuller picture of what happened. My one disappointment was the conspicuous absence of anything about the head coach, Brian Winters. Surely his role, including his strengths as well as his weaknesses, needed to be included in this story. Nevertheless, when coupled with the director's first documentary on the Grizzlies, Finding Big Country, which incidentally I liked even better than this one, The Grizzlie Truth (cute title, by the way) helped salve a festering wound I've had ever since the Vancouver abandonment.

Padded and a bit melodramatic

[plau_chi · 6/10 · 3 May 2023]

In one of the ending scenes of this documentary, the director stages a scene where she pushes a stack of papers from her desk in frustration, then says "turns out the answer is a lot more complicated than I thought".

No, it's not. You just showed me an hour-plus film proving that it's not. The answer is: Vancouver lost the Grizzlies due to poor performance, bad draft picks, and financial naivety. The end.

The film is (at minimum) thirty minutes longer than needed, padded with nostalgia. It's best when sticking to the facts. Yes, Grizzlies had a bad GM, and prospective superstars didn't want the burden of salvaging a team with a 30% winning rate. That's a fact bigger than Steve Francis, who undeservingly becomes the scapegoat far too often in this story.

If you didn't already know all of this, you will learn a few things from this film and it's worth a skim. But otherwise it's a film distracted with its own insular bias. Not that it's bad to provide a local narrative and share us the cozy memories of fans, but come on... in the end, numbers talk. The NBA is a business and there's no conspiracy here.

A Canadian sports documentary about love, hope, and not Hockey

[BadS33D · 10/10 · 5 March 2023]

I went into this film with low expectations. How could a 90 minute documentary about a "failed" Canadian NBA team be remotely interesting? Seems all pretty cut & dry.

But I'm so very glad I suspended my pretention and gave it a shot.

I wouldn't look at this as a sports documentary, but a documentary about people that share a mutual love and experience about a sport & sports team.

This film does a fantastic job at illustrating the relationship between people from all walks of life and cultures, sharing a mutually accessible passion. A passion that this film shows has not and cannot be taken away, despite the disheartening and blurry circumstances surrounding the departure of their much-beloved Vancouver Grizzlies.

Despite what I already knew about the demise of the Vancouver Grizzlies, there was so much suspense throughout this film.

Don't go into it expecting a silver bullet, or an answer to the "why".

The lessons woven in throughout this film, the continuity of those lessons in the differing perspectives. The way it's presented to us visually... The filmmaker has really, truly demonstrated their mastery of documentary filmmaking, and sincere, balanced storytelling.

Thanks for the creators and participants of this film for sharing your perspectives, your lessons, and your love in this rollercoaster. You really hit this non-sports fan hard.

The main lesson that hit home for me is that failure really is subjective.

And that Vancouver does deserve another shot at having an NBA team - and it doesn't have to be the Grizzlies.

The Truth Hurts!

[ThatMonkey · 4/10 · 9 March 2023]

The truth is The Vancouver Grizzlies were terrible and the reason they left town was financial, but not because of the exchange rate, but because there was no support.

I'm a 50 year old man and former Sonics STH (Season Ticket Holder). I am going to tell you the story I lived through and assure you this movie did not tap into the details as the filmmaker was a near toddler and her father most likely had no United States NBA experience.

I was in my early 20's when the Griz entered the NBA, and Vancouver has always been my favorite city in North America, so Grizzly games were am amazing treat. For most of their tenure, the exchange rate was bananas! A US dollar was worth $1.40 Canadian, Grizzly tickets were also less, The cheapest courtside seat at Key Arena was $450, and chances are, you'd never get access to it, because single seats weren't available based on the Sonics being only second to Chicago in popularity. We sat courtside at, at least 2 Grizzly games a year and the tickets were about $135 US. We saw 4-5 games in Vancouver per year and it was rare GM place was ever more than half full. They used to scroll the rules of the game on the big screen for about 20 minutes prior to tipoff. No doubt there was Canadian pride, but almost no one had any idea what the game was and how it was played. There were people that would just stand and wave Canadian flags just to be seen on TV.

I honestly don't even remember if I was at a game the Griz won, but it was more about other teams like Chicago, LA, Detroit and San Antonio. Ironically, the one Bulls game we saw, Jordan didn't make the trip, but we did sit courtside behind the Lakers bench and I had a conversation with both Van Excel and O'Neal.

I don't know what the Griz issues were. Big Country, never produced and Shareef played his heart out, but it's not 1 on 5. In my opinion, the most effective player in Griz history was Mike Bibby. He was the only Griz to put up post Griz All-Star numbers.

Now, I can tell you, like the Documentary claimed, it was always a show. We sat near Lynda Carter one game, she was filming something in town and another game I thought TV's Webster was in front of me, until Shawn Kemp came off the floor to hug him and it was MC Hammer. The games were a true celebrity trap. It was also easy to hang with players post-game at Richards on Richards and Level 5.

You knew the Griz would lose and you knew the visiting team was going to empty their bench. It wasn't uncommon to see star players sit in the second quarter, and never play again.

This is when I knew the team was finished. I was in town for a game and in a 7-11. There was a sign in the window that said, "Buy a Slurpee, get a free Grizzly ticket. I'm guessing at that time, the cheapest ticket was $10, but still a Slurpee was maybe $1.50. They were desperate to fill seats, but at the end of the day, most people don't supports losers and in general, I just always got the impression the city wasn't interested in basketball. I met a lot of cool people at games, people asking questions about players, rules and fouls, but it was seriously a social activity for locals, most didn't care about the game. And most didn't stay for the whole event.

The movie addresses Steve Francis. I'm glad she got time with him, but again living through it. My opinion was simple, he was a brat and who wants a brat on their team. The city is better off not having him, but I feel bad they wasted a draft pick.

This movie asked a question the film maker couldn't answer because she didn't love through it as an adult. The team left because of all of the above. Poor management, poor ownership, poor players, poor coaching and poor attendance.

I'd love to see the city get another franchise, but I don't think they have the support. Seattle put up a stellar effort as well as millions of dollars and we don't have as much as a gift shop. This was a fans film, but since it was done through the eyes of a child, it comes of childish, just like her previous work. I'm fairly confident she is the only one to search for Big Country.

Vibes of an elementary school project

[Bognog · 1/10 · 5 March 2023]

Wow was this painfully bad. I myself am a Vancouver Grizzlies fan and always get excited for ANYTHING & EVERYTHING about them. This was utter garbage. Feels like a 9 year old did this documentary.

Also, this chick is obsessed with them from childhood?? She was 6 ? Get a grip. You have built up memories of them. You weren't old enough to form a decision.

The Grizzlies deserve a proper documentary. Not some fan just blabbing on about her collectibles and how obsessed she is. Because no one cares about HER, we came to hear about our nostalgic team... thanks for wasting my time but I will now go out of my way to make sure no one I know watches this.

The star shouldn't be the film maker

[michaelteepr · 3/10 · 25 July 2023]

Just saw this documentary on TSN.

While the topic was very interesting, having the film maker the central figure made this a tough viewing. This includes regularly outlining how subjects in the film were interviewed (who cares - that's part of the process of making a documentary right?).

The gold standard for sports documentaries is ESPN, including 30-for-30 and The Last Dance currently airing on TSN. Simply riveting!

If you approached this differently, it could have been a very good documentary. Instead, I found it tough to watch in one viewing (fortunately I taped it).

Former Grizzlies GM Stu Jackson also asked a good question: Why now? Not sure we ever got an answer.