​Steve Francis finally opens up about the Vancouver Grizzlies

Since draft day in 1999, Steve Francis has been persona non grata in Vancouver. After being taken with the second overall pick by the Vancouver Grizzlies that year, Francis swiftly asked his way out of the team, citing multiple factors including distance and opportunity. His electrifying handle and aerodynamics at the point guard position — imagine a proto-Russell Westbrook — were instead to the delight of Houston Rockets fans, who watched Francis blossom into a three-time All-Star. Short-lived as the Grizzlies were in Vancouver, it was one of the more bitterly memorable moments in team history. To be unwanted as a city, at that earlier stage in Canadian basketball, was one of those closely held fears in Vancouver, and it manifested to greater scale just a few years later when the Grizzlies left town for good.

For the first time since he was drafted, Francis is sharing his side of the story in full detail. Vancouver-based filmmaker Kat Jayme, previously known for Grizzlies documentaries such as the Bryant Reeves-centered Finding Big Country, is tackling the team’s history and departure at large in her latest, The Grizzlie Truth. She was hoping for — optimistically — a five or ten-minute interview with Francis. Instead, Francis invited Jayme and her crew back to his hometown in Maryland, and took the opportunity to speak more honestly about his life and the factors leading into his Grizzlies decision. He gets to talk about how he might’ve navigated things differently, and how his perspective of Vancouver has changed in the intervening years. This isn’t so much Francis’ mea culpa, but it is his genuine effort towards reconciliation.

In October, Francis returned to Vancouver — for him, the “belly of the beast” — with Jayme and other former Grizzlies players to attend the premiere of The Grizzlie Truth. The two spoke about Francis’ evolving relationship with Vancouver, the past and future of Vancouver basketball and other takeaways from the documentary, which premieres this week in Toronto.

Kat, you’ve been a filmmaker covering the Vancouver Grizzlies for some time now, starting with the Bryant Reeves documentary a few years back. This time around tackling the Grizzlies relocation, what did you learn and uncover in the process of filming this one?

Kat Jayme: One of the main things that I learned is getting to know Steve and his story, and the whole situation that happened with Steve when we drafted him. I know that a lot of fans were hurt, confused about how things played out, but of course, there’s always two sides to a story. So, when I set off on a mission to try to track Steve down, I really just wanted to understand and approach Steve with a level of empathy and understanding to really get to hear what he had to say about what happened.

What I found was that the situation is complex. It’s not black and white. I felt like I got closure after talking to Steve, and became friends with him. [laughs] He invited me and my crew to where he grew up. It was just a different perspective that none of us in Vancouver had ever heard or seen. That’s one of the goals of this film, to show these people that were involved in the Grizzlies story and humanize them. Just give them a voice in the story, because Steve is part of Vancouver’s history. He’s part of the Vancouver Grizzlies’ history, and so if we’re going to talk about Steve, I felt like it was important to have him speak for himself.

Steve, for you personally, this documentary is kind of the first time you’re really talking at depth about your time with the Grizzlies. Obviously, your relationship with this city of Vancouver is fairly complicated, so for people who watch this documentary, especially people who are from Vancouver, what do you hope they take away from your part in it?

Steve Francis: Just that I’m a regular person, just like them. We all go through things in our lives. Sometimes, things can be reconciled, as long as you talk it out professionally and make sure that you’re being open and honest. To me, Kat gave me that opportunity to be open and honest about not only my life, but the situation in Vancouver. I’m blessed that I was able to come out here [to Vancouver] and go into the belly of the beast. This is the belly of the beast for me. It’s been hard, over the last [23 years] since it happened. I thought basketball would cure me and cure some of the people around the situation.

Kat mentioned tracking you down for this documentary. What was the process of getting yourself involved in this doc?

Francis: [laughs] Ask her for that one.

Jayme: It was January. We had to deliver the film in August, and I was like, I have no idea how to get in touch with Steve. You have to remember, I’m a childhood fan and became a filmmaker with no prior connections to NBA superstars. I grew up watching Steve on the television, seeing the slam dunk competition and all that stuff. So, I remember just waking up one morning and being like, how am I going to do this?

My researcher Gerald saw that Steve was doing an autograph signing in Houston. He sent me this Instagram Story, and I called my producer Michael. It was a Monday and this autograph signing was on Saturday. I was like, “I don’t care what we need to do, you need to put me on a flight, and I need to be at the autograph signing.” Steve could say no, and that’s totally fine, but I just wanted the opportunity to pitch him for like five minutes. If I’m able to talk to him and explain what my goals were, maybe he’ll say yes?

[turns to Francis] The plan was, when I pitched to you... I’ll take whatever you give me. If it’s five minutes right now, if it’s ten minutes after you’ve done this signing. Steve was generous enough to say, let’s actually do this for real. He invited myself and my crew to D.C. and showed me where he grew up.

You touched on it a little bit actually, but I wanted to ask. For you, what was it like growing up in Vancouver as a childhood fan of the Grizzlies?

Jayme: I loved them so much. A lot of my fondest childhood memories are of going to Grizzlies games with my dad and my grandfather. They were a way for my family to bond. They became part of my identity as a Filipino-Canadian. Basketball’s a huge part of Filipino culture, and so when the Grizzlies came to town, they gave me roots in Canada. I was like, I’m Filipino, basketball’s the number one sport in the Philippines, this makes sense as to why I love them so much.

I have such special memories of the Grizzlies, watching the other players that are in town today [for the premiere], so again, it’s really surreal to be sitting here besides Steve Francis. It’s actually mind-blowing. Sometimes when I stop and think about it, that like, I can text Steve or he sometimes gives me a call. All these players, we chat and we text. If you had told six-year-old Kat that this would’ve happened, it would’ve just blown my mind, because even though the Grizzlies were in town, they were still so far away. I never bumped into any of these NBA players on the street. Some of my friends were neighbours with some of the players, but that was never my experience. They were still untouchable, and still people that I saw on the court from the nosebleeds or what not.

Obviously, Steve, you’re speaking to me from Vancouver, you’re there for the premiere for the documentary. I’m curious, with the way time has passed, how would you define your relationship, or your general perception, of the city of Vancouver now?

Francis: Well, now I got to walk around and see what it’s like to go to those basketball courts that I grew up on, and interact with those type of kids. That’s what I came from growing up, that’s what I knew. To be in the community. Just to be able to walk around and go down Robson Street without a thousand cameras firing on me, just to see the city, the culture of Vancouver, has been great.

These days, player empowerment is one of those things that we always talk about with the NBA, but I always say, with you, you weren’t by any means the first player to get drafted by a team that you didn’t want to play for. Dominique Wilkins with Utah in the ‘80s comes to mind for me, but you are one of the earlier and more notable examples of that sort of thing.

How do you compare your decision at that time to the player empowerment era in basketball now?

Francis: Well, for me, it wasn’t like I wanted to play with a superteam or nothing like that. I just wanted a new space... Respectfully, I didn’t want to be under that pressure with two guys who wanted to play the same position, and we played a completely different way. To me, if I wasn’t going to start and to have me come into the NBA as a shooting guard, I wasn’t ready to check a Kobe Bryant or a 2-guard at that time. For me, the best thing was to try to be a lead guard, and that’s what was able to happen [in Houston].

I do really like what Kat said, in terms of making that effort to humanize you and take a more sympathetic lens in this documentary towards you. Looking back at it now, was there anything different about how you made or navigated that decision?

Francis: I would’ve had my head down. By seeing this city, if I had came for the workout and seen the city, maybe it would’ve been different, but, you know, some things happen.

Kat, for this documentary, you were able to secure a lot of rare footage, archival and behind-the-scenes footage, as well as a really impressive amount of interviews with Vancouver players and others from around the organization. Of everything you got, is there anything in particular that you’re looking forward to people seeing in this one?

Jayme: I feel like one of the things that the film highlights is just what the Grizzlies meant to young fans and especially second-generation Canadian kids. We interviewed a bunch of superfans who shared their story. What I think is so interesting about the Grizzlies is that they were not the greatest team, and yet the team was so loved. I feel like that’s so special, and I’m really excited that I was able to capture that. That to me is the heart of the Grizzlies, and I’m excited to share that with the rest of the world through this film.

The way you put that is really meaningful to me, because for me, I grew up in Vancouver. I’m familiar with just how strong and ingrained the basketball culture there is, and we can also talk about, more contextually, the success of the Toronto Raptors or other Canadian basketball leagues like the CEBL, or even just Canadian players in general.

This question really goes to both of you guys. How hopeful are you about the idea of an NBA team in Vancouver again one day?

Francis: For me, it would be a full-circle [moment] for both the organization and myself. The city needs a basketball team, as you can see. Everywhere I went... the basketball court I went to, you can see the passion that’s still here. Even some of the fans that I met, they’re still passionate about basketball, so I pray that things can come full circle.

Jayme: Yeah, I took Steve to [Kitsilano] Beach yesterday.

Oh wow, I love that.

Jayme: Steve, you gotta help us bring a team back to Vancouver.

Francis: Yeah, definitely. [laughs]

Kat, you’ve been in this space for a good amount of time. In your opinion, what are the steps that you think are needed or will have to happen for a team to come back?

Jayme: The big thing is just money. I have been in talks with a few individuals... I think it is possible. Nowadays, it’s billionaires who own a team, but if we could get a group together to get that financing, it would be possible here in Vancouver. Maybe not just one person, but if you got a group of shareholders or what not. I do think it’s possible, I think that’s probably the main thing that’s missing. We do have the passion, we have the arena, we have the city. I think it’s just about finding people who can see what I see, and who can see what a lot of Vancouverites see in terms of the potential of bringing an NBA team to Vancouver.