On Sunday, the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team will face off against Japan in the World Cup Final at BC Place in Vancouver, Canada—just a mere 300 yards from Rogers Arena, where NBA basketball used to be played. Yes, you read that correctly—NBA basketball. From 1995 to 2001 Vancouver was home to the Grizzlies, indisputably one of the worst products in League history.

What happened to the Vancouver incarnation of those Grizzlies, though? What made that experiment so, so bad? In honor of the 20th anniversary of the Vancouver Grizzlies’ inaugural season, we tried to find out.

Posting an abysmal record of 101-359 in six seasons (with a staggering five different head coaches), the Vancouver Grizzlies are mostly remembered today for their jerseys. In 2001, the Grizzlies migrated south to Memphis for the winter—forever.

Mike Bibby, best known for his time in Sacramento alongside C-Webb and Vlade Divac, started his career in Vancouver, when the Grizzlies drafted him with the No. 2 overall pick in the 1998 NBA Draft.

When Bibby touched down in Vancouver, right in the middle of the short-lived tenure of the franchise, he knew he might not be there for long. “I think it was kind of in the air,” Bibby said over the phone recently, when we asked if at that time he thought the franchise was going to be moving. “I don’t know if I saw it coming necessarily, but I think it was being talked about. It was just a matter of finding the right city and all that.”

During the Grizzlies’ stint in Vancouver, the Canadian dollar was a mere 70 cents to $1 USD—a huge element to why the Grizzlies became extinct in British Columbia. Jon Azpiri, a Web Producer for Global BC in Vancouver, covered the Grizzlies extensively during their run in Canada.

“You’re paying your employees—which is their biggest expense—in U.S. dollars and they’re taking in money, most of their money, in Canadian dollars,” Azpiri explained. Not only were the Grizzlies losing money on the typical ticket and advertisement revenue (which stir the economy of an NBA franchise), they were losing serious green before the opening tip every night.

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