Grizzlies

The Vancouver Grizzlies can shop around for a new home. The Grizzlies, who will lose at least $40 million this year, were given permission by NBA commissioner David Stern to explore moving to another city next season. St. Louis, New Orleans, Las Vegas, and Nashville, Tenn., have been mentioned as possible destinations. Owner Michael Heisley, a Chicago businessman who paid $160 million to buy the Grizzlies in 1999, met with Stern and deputy commissioner Russ Granik yesterday at a Washington hotel to discuss the team's future.

This is how bad things have gotten in Detroit: The Pistons already have been swept in the season series by Vancouver, they have the fourth-worst record in the East and they don't have any explanation. The visiting Grizzlies completed a sweep of the season series when Grant Hill missed two foul shots with 2.1 seconds left in the Pistons' 97-95 loss last night. Antonio Daniels hit a short running jumper with 3.1 seconds left to break a tie, and Shareef Abdur-Rahim then fouled Hill on the inbounds pass.

The Memphis Grizzlies rehired Lionel Hollins, a former assistant and interim head coach with the team, as an assistant coach. Hollins, 49, was the Grizzlies' interim head coach for the last 60 games of the 1999-2000 season, finishing with an 18-42 record, when the team was based in Vancouver. The former 76ers guard had been the Grizzlies' lead assistant coach beginning in 1995-96, their inaugural season, until getting the interim job. After leaving the Grizzlies, Hollins served briefly as a head coach in the United States Basketball League and the International Basketball League and as an assistant with the Harlem Globetrotters.

The Memphis Grizzlies have taken Hubie Brown out of the broadcast booth, picking him to coach the NBA's only winless team after Sidney Lowe resigned yesterday. Jerry West, Memphis' president of basketball operations, called the 69-year-old Brown "the consummate teacher" and said the Turner Sports analyst is exactly what the young Grizzlies need. West declined to give details of Brown's contract except to say "it's for more than one year. " Brown last coached in the NBA in the 1986-87 season with the New York Knicks.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - The Memphis Grizzlies advanced to their first Western Conference semifinals and made NBA history in knocking off the top-seeded San Antonio Spurs, 99-91, on Friday night. Memphis had been the franchise best known for empty seats and the unenviable NBA mark for playoff futility at 0-12 after being swept in its first three appearances. This time, a third straight sellout crowd cheered every bucket with a couple signs begging the Grizzlies to "Finish Them" in a town in desperate need of a hero.

The issue is fear. Fear - your muscles tense, your nerves feel like they've been plugged into a high voltage line. It's worse when the terror is unpredictable. The fright from a theme-park roller coaster has a clear beginning and end. The sudden appearance of a big grizzly bear on a remote, mountain trail - well, that's a different experience. That's fear in a situation without rules, without any guarantee of safe landings. Such fear of untamed nature lies beneath a debate now roiling Idaho and threatening to move across the continent and into Congress.

The Memphis Grizzlies fired coach Mike Fratello yesterday after an NBA-worst 6-24 start - even worse than the Sixers' 7-21 showing. The Grizzlies' career winningest coach, Fratello had a 95-83 record and had guided Memphis to consecutive playoff appearances. Tony Barone Sr., the Grizzlies' director of player personnel, was selected as the interim coach. Fratello started the season without All-Star center Pau Gasol, who broke his foot this summer in the world championships and missed the first 22 games.

They do things a little differently in Memphis. Last night, the Grizzlies caught fire, but only after a water-line break in the fire sprinkler system. The visiting Los Angeles Clippers once led by 18 and held a double-digit lead through most of the second and third quarters. But following a 36-minute delay caused by the water problem, the Grizzlies outscored the Clippers by 27-13 the rest of the way and finished with a 104-102 victory. "It was a little bit of adversity, something a little different," Grizzlies guard O.J. Mayo said.

The Memphis Grizzlies general manager refuses to confirm whether the team made a formal offer to Allen Iverson. Iverson wrote on Twitter Wednesday that Memphis had made him an offer, and ESPN.com reported general manager Chris Wallace confirmed the Grizzlies had made a formal offer. But Wallace, through a team spokesman yesterday, would only say he did not confirm an offer to ESPN.com. "We have had a strong level of interest in Allen Iverson since the beginning of free agency and we have made that very clear to him," Wallace said in a statement.

Twenty and counting. Vancouver tied the NBA record for consecutive losses in a season when the Grizzlies lost, 92-88, to the visiting Denver Nuggets last night, despite one of the better efforts by the expansion team. Vancouver got 21 points and 11 rebounds from rookie center Bryant Reeves. Blue Edwards had 17 points and Greg Anthony 16. "These are the dog days right now," Anthony said. "You have to be man enough to accept them and deal with them, and understand it's not going to be like this forever.