The Grizzlie Truth

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.

Really.... Basketball is not a sport Canadians live to love; nor will the vast majority of Canadians pay to attend games-Gee-ball hockey and lacrosse have more support. As such, I remain unsure how a movie like "the grizzlie truth" had enough support for people to produce and watch it? While it was mildly interesting to hear some of the sports media personalities talk about the raptors and Vince Carter-it is a wonderful example of non-support, because many in Canada don't know who that guy was or is. It was a dull, channel flipping day that brought me to watch this super fan production.....I think I'll watch synchronized swimming next.

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.

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.

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.