Wayback Wednesday: 30 Years of Raptors & Grizzlies in Games
This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m reflecting on the Toronto Raptors and Vancouver/Memphis Grizzlies being in the NBA – and video games – for 30 years.
It’s funny how even though the Toronto Raptors and Memphis Grizzlies have been in the NBA for 30 years now, a part of me still thinks of them as “new” teams. After all, the Charlotte Bobcats came along in 2004. Of course, now that they’re the Hornets again and have reclaimed their history from 1988 to 2002, the New Orleans Pelicans have retroactively become the league’s newest team. Furthermore, 1996 was the year I became a hardcore hoop head. As such, the Raptors and Grizzlies were in the league when my interest in basketball really took off.
However, I was a casual fan before then, so I was aware that they were new. My first basketball video game – NBA Jam Tournament Edition – is set before they entered the league, and thus doesn’t include them. It wasn’t until I picked up NBA Live 96 that I played a game that featured the two expansion teams. As the youngest clubs during the early days of my fandom, they continued to feel new for years afterwards. All this is to say that it’s now been 30 years since the Raptors and Grizzlies were newcomers to the league and video games! Let’s take a look back…way back…
As is the case whenever new franchises join the NBA, the wheels were in motion years before their debut. By the late 80s, there was a growing interest in Toronto having an NBA team, either via expansion or relocation. The league had roots in the city with the Toronto Huskies being a founding team in the Basketball Association of America, and though the Huskies folded after one season, Toronto hosted 16 Buffalo Braves games in the 70s. Following a number of bids in 1993, a group led by John Bitove was formally awarded a team on November 4th. After a nationwide contest to choose a name, the Raptors moniker was officially unveiled on May 15th, 1994.
Toronto wasn’t the only Canadian city seeking an NBA team. There had also been attempts to bring a team to Vancouver in the 80s, and those efforts increased in 1993, the same year Toronto sought to enter the NBA. On April 27th 1994, the league gave full approval for an expansion team in Vancouver. The Grizzlies name – originally on the shortlist of names for Toronto’s new team – was announced on August 11th. Both teams sold enough tickets to begin play during the 1996 season. Interestingly, these events aren’t covered in the 1995 edition of Microsoft Complete NBA Basketball, outside of a fleeting mention of the Raptors at the end of Isiah Thomas’ biography.
Although they weren’t playable in any video games set before the 1996 season, the Raptors and Grizzlies did have an impact on the PC version of the NBA Jam TE. The game’s rosters were updated to reflect the results of the 1995 Expansion Draft, which saw the Raptors select B.J. Armstrong, and the Grizzlies take Gerald Wilkins. This resulted in Armstrong being replaced on the Bulls by Ron Harper, while Wilkins was removed from the PC version, leaving the Cavaliers with only three players. As I’ve previously noted however, Oliver Miller wasn’t removed from Detroit’s roster, as the only other available Pistons were the unlockable rookies Grant Hill and Bill Curley.
Unsurprisingly, the inclusion of the Toronto Raptors and Vancouver Grizzlies became a selling point for video games set in the 1996 season. Indeed, the back of the NBA Live 96 PC box not only mentions that the game features all 29 NBA teams, but goes out of its way to promote the inclusion of the new expansion clubs. The Grizzlies’ entry into the NBA was particularly significant to NBA Live, as the game was being developed at EA Canada in Burnaby. It’s clear the developers were excited at having a hometown team, and the potential for a rivalry with the Raptors. If you open the NBA Live 96 .exe file with a hex editor, you’ll find a hidden reference to the “Craptors”!
The Toronto Raptors and Vancouver Grizzlies officially joining the NBA wasn’t the only notable event of the 1995 offseason. It’s sometimes forgotten because it didn’t result in the loss of any games, but there was a lockout that lasted from July 1st to September 12th. Naturally this affected a few of the earliest 1996 season titles, such as NBA in the Zone by Konami. The Raptors and Grizzlies are the only teams with new rosters, owing to the Expansion Draft. It also includes the phantom stints of B.J. Armstrong and Jerome Kersey in Toronto, before both were traded to Golden State. Additionally, the Raptors and Grizzlies players all sport numbers in the 80s and 90s.
Meanwhile, the addition of the Raptors and Grizzlies combined with the 1995 lockout led to the 16-bit versions of NBA Live 96 including a memorable exclusive feature: the Expansion Draft. Gamers could choose to draft for one or both teams, or have the CPU simulate the proceedings. Either way, this had to be done before you could play your first game. Drafting players to the Raptors and Grizzlies left Roster Players on their old teams that served as the Create-a-Player slots. Quite infamously, entering the appropriate names automatically created the Class of 1995 rookies, as well as missing players such as Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley, and a handful of NBA Legends.
While these handy shortcuts become legendary among basketball gamers at the time, the NBA wasn’t thrilled, and instructed EA Sports to never do that again! Fortunately, by the time that the PC and PlayStation versions of NBA Live 96 were released, the lockout had been lifted and the developers could include updated 1996 season rosters. Other games set in 1996 also came out late enough to feature accurate rosters, with Rookie of the Year Damon Stoudamire in Toronto and “Big Country” Bryant Reeves in Vancouver by default. Obviously, their rosters weren’t particularly strong in their inaugural campaign, but it was still a novelty to play with and against the new teams.
It helped that they had appealing branding. Look, I realise that not everyone is a fan of some of the designs that came along in the mid 90s, and that nostalgia plays a big role in how I feel about them. With being said, I love the original branding for the Toronto Raptors and Vancouver Grizzlies! The unique colour schemes and designs for their jerseys and logos made them stand out; something I appreciate even more in an era where every team is determined to have a bland circular logo. I understand that times and fashions change, but honestly, I’d still rank the original branding for the Raptors and Grizzlies as being among the best – if not the best – in the history of both clubs.
Speaking of jerseys, there’s an interesting mistake in NBA Hangtime as the Raptors and Grizzlies are wearing each other’s uniforms. That is to say, they’re wearing each other’s colours, since the jerseys in NBA Hangtime are generic designs that (mostly) reflect each team’s colour scheme. As I said when I covered the mistake back in 2020, much like Kevin Edwards’ incorrect face and portrait, I’m not sure how I overlooked it for so many years! My best guess is that it comes down to not using those teams very often, facing them early on in the campaign, and enjoying the game too much to care. Also, inaccurate or outdated colours were a common issue in Midway’s Jam games.
Toronto and Vancouver also took the Dallas Mavericks’ place at the bottom of the ladder in arcade games such as NBA Hangtime, and were likewise ranked near the bottom in sim titles like NBA Live. As the years progressed and they acquired better players through trades and the Draft, it was interesting to see them improve in both the real life standings and video game rankings. Being a Bulls fan, I’m obviously not particularly invested in the success of the Raptors or Grizzlies, but it’s been fun to see the bad teams from early on in my fandom rise and have more success. It feels special to witness history, such as an expansion team finally make it to their first Playoffs.
With that being said, witnessing history can also be bittersweet. Whereas the Raptors made their first postseason in 2000 while still in Toronto – and remain there to this day – the Grizzlies didn’t reach the Playoffs until after their move to Memphis. It was the first time that a team had relocated since I took a keen interest in the NBA, so it was undoubtedly an interesting event. I was sorry to see Vancouver lose their team after they were sold in 2001; not the last time that would happen. It also made a host of video games extremely outdated. Sure, there’d been branding changes every year, but outside of the Bullets becoming the Wizards, the teams had remained the same.
Needless to say, seeing the Raptors win the championship in 2019 – and against the best team of the decade no less – was definitely more of a feel-good moment; at least to a neutral observer! It’s something that I couldn’t have seen happening outside of a video game when they were a lottery-bound team in the 90s. Even after the Raptors became more successful, part of me always remembered them as one of the bad teams from when I started watching the NBA. However, that also made it fun to see them climb the mountain and win it all. Once again, the fun part of being a long-time fan is that you get to see history being made, and results that you never would’ve expected.
Mind you, on the virtual hardwood, the Raptors became a blast to play with from the moment Vince Carter arrived. His video game debut was delayed by the lockout of 1998-1999, but fortunately the official patch added him to the PC version of NBA Live 99. The 2000 Raptors of course ended up as a classic team in NBA 2K, being historically significant as the first Playoff team in club history, and a fun squad to use with Carter and Tracy McGrady flanked by a solid assortment of capable veterans. As for the Grizzlies, their most memorable squad – the “Grit and Grind” era – is decidedly less flashy, but has also rightfully been celebrated as one of the classic teams in 2K.
I know I say it to the point of being cliché, but basketball video games are interactive almanacs, and at this stage a host of titles have captured three decades of history for the Raptors and Grizzlies. Their entry into the league as expansion clubs has been represented, right down to the Expansion Draft that initially filled their rosters. Their early struggles and rise to relevance is reflected on the virtual hardwood, with all of the notable names that donned their jerseys throughout the years. All of their branding changes, and in the Grizzlies’ case, their move from Vancouver to Memphis, can be observed over decades of video games. And of course, there’s a whole lot of trivia.
There are the aforementioned phantom stints of B.J. Armstrong and Jerome Kersey, along with a couple of other players. There’s the mistake of the switched jerseys in NBA Hangtime. There’s Ashraf Amaya in NBA Live 96 PC with a medium portrait from Media Day 1993 in a Rockets jersey, and a newer large portrait in a Grizzlies uniform. There’s the bug that causes the Grizzlies’ court to be used for every alternate venue in Season mode. There’s the fact that so many games that feature the Raptors’ new uniform from the 2000 season – either as the contemporary jersey or a throwback – depict it with pinstripes. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s more trivia to discover!
Again, the fact that the Toronto Raptors and Vancouver/Memphis Grizzlies have been around for three decades underscores how it doesn’t make sense to think of them as “new” teams. To put it into perspective, in 2005 – when the Bobcats originally became the 30th NBA team – the Raptors and Grizzlies had been in the league longer than the Heat, Hornets, Magic, and Timberwolves had been when I started watching in 1996! To that end though, for me they’re a memorable part of getting into basketball and basketball gaming. They’re familiar to us now, but back in 1996, the Toronto Raptors and then-Vancouver Grizzlies were a novelty, in real life and on the virtual hardwood.
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