For decades, Memphis had wanted a permanent place in major-league professional sports.
On July 17, 2001, it finally got one.
NBA owners approved the relocation of the Vancouver Grizzlies to Memphis, officially transforming the team into the Memphis Grizzlies.
The move represented more than basketball.
Memphis had pursued major professional franchises before, including an unsuccessful attempt to secure an NFL expansion team. The city had hosted temporary and minor-league teams, but it had never permanently belonged to one of America’s major professional leagues.
That changed with the Grizzlies.
The team would initially play at the Pyramid, the distinctive downtown arena that had opened a decade earlier. Almost immediately, however, discussion turned toward building a new NBA arena.
There were plenty of questions.
Would Memphis support 41 home games every season? Could one of the NBA’s smallest markets generate enough corporate support? Should taxpayers help pay for another arena? And would basketball really contribute to downtown redevelopment?
Those questions produced heated political and legal battles during the summer of 2001.
But something else was happening at the same time: Memphians were beginning to think of the Grizzlies as their team.
Nobody yet knew about FedExForum, playoff runs, Zach Randolph, Tony Allen or “Grit and Grind.” Those pieces of Memphis culture were years away.
On July 17, 2001, there wasn’t even a Memphis Grizzlies game to remember.
There was simply an announcement.
But with that announcement, Memphis had crossed a line it had been trying to cross for decades.
It was finally a major-league city.