The 1998–99 Vancouver Grizzlies season was the fourth season for the Vancouver Grizzlies in the National Basketball Association. Due to a lockout, the regular season began on February 5, 1999, and was cut from 82 games to 50.

Season summary

Off-season The Grizzlies received the second overall pick in the 1998 NBA draft, and selected point guard Mike Bibby from the University of Arizona; the team also acquired rookie shooting guard, and first-round draft pick Felipe López out of St. John's University from the San Antonio Spurs on draft day. During the off-season, the Grizzlies signed free agents Cherokee Parks, and second-year guard DeJuan Wheat.

Regular season With the addition of Bibby, López and Parks, the Grizzlies had a 4–6 record in their first ten games of the regular season, but then struggled posting a 13-game losing streak between February and March afterwards, as Bryant Reeves only played just 25 games due to weight problems and a knee injury. At mid-season, the team traded three-point specialist Sam Mack back to his former team, the Houston Rockets in exchange for second-year guard Rodrick Rhodes; the team also signed Terry Dehere, who was previously released by the Sacramento Kings. The Grizzlies lost their final seven games of the season, returning to last place in the Midwest Division with a league-worst 8–42 record.

The Grizzlies' 8 wins marked the lowest amount of victories by a team in a season since the league's inception as the NBA; the 6 wins by the Providence Steamrollers in the 1947–48 season occurred back when the league was named the Basketball Association of America. The 2011–12 Charlotte Bobcats later on broke the Grizzlies' record by posting 7 wins in its own lockout-shortened season (66 games), and subsequently held the worst record in NBA history ever since.

Shareef Abdur-Rahim averaged 23.0 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game, while Bibby averaged 13.2 points, 6.5 assists and 1.6 steals per game, and was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team. In addition, Tony Massenburg provided the team with 11.2 points and 6.0 rebounds per game, while Reeves provided with 10.8 points and 5.5 rebounds per game, López contributed 9.3 points per game, and Parks averaged 5.5 points and 5.1 rebounds per game. Off the bench, Doug West contributed 5.8 points per game, but only played just 14 games due to injury, while Michael Smith averaged 4.8 points and 7.3 rebounds per game, Wheat provided with 4.5 points and 2.2 assists per game, and Pete Chilcutt contributed 3.6 points per game.

The Grizzlies finished 16th in the NBA in home-game attendance, with an attendance of 417,966 at General Motors Place during the regular season.

Aftermath Following the season, Massenburg was traded to the Houston Rockets, while Smith, Rhodes, and Lee Mayberry were all traded to the Orlando Magic, who then released all three players to free agency, as Smith signed as a free agent with the Washington Wizards, and Dehere, Wheat and Chilcutt were all released.

Draft picks The Grizzlies' first draft pick was Mike Bibby, which was the second overall pick in the draft.

Round Pick Player Position Nationality College 1 2 Mike Bibby Guard University of Arizona 2 56 J.R. Henderson Forward UCLA

Roster

Roster Notes Rookie power forward J. R. Henderson holds Japanese and American dual citizenship; he was born in the United States, but played for the Japan national team.

Regular season Due to the 1998–99 NBA lockout, the NBA would see a shortened schedule for the 1998–99 season, as every team would play 50 games, compared to 82 in a normal season. The Grizzlies began the season with their best start in franchise history, as they had a 3–3 record in their first six games, the latest in a season that the club had a .500 record. Vancouver would fall into a bad streak soon afterward, though, losing sixteen of their next seventeen games, which included a thirteen-game losing streak, to fall out of the playoff picture entirely in a fast pace. Wins would be few and far between for the remainder of the season, as the Grizzlies ended the year with a record of 8–42, which represented a .160 winning percentage, their lowest in team history. Vancouver finished with the worst record in the league for the third time in four seasons.

At the time, the Grizzlies finished with the second-lowest win total for a season in NBA history behind the Providence Steamrollers winning only six games during the 1947–48 BAA season. Since then, only the 2011–12 Charlotte Bobcats have provided a worst win total (and worst overall record in NBA history) for a season (which coincidentally also occurred during a lockout-shortened season) than this season's Vancouver Grizzlies team.

Highs On February 16, 1999, Vancouver defeated the Los Angeles Clippers 93–89 in double overtime, to even their record to 3-3, the latest they had ever been .500 in a season. This subsequently became their only road win of the season. On February 23, 1999, Shareef Abdur-Rahim led the Grizzlies with 28 points, stunning the Los Angeles Lakers with a 93–83 victory, recording their first ever victory against the Lakers. Notably, the Grizzlies secured victories over the Los Angeles Clippers on February 10, 1999, the aforementioned February 16, 1999 double-overtime game, and on April 21, 1999. This marked the only head-to-head series of the season where the Grizzlies won that season, let alone had more than one win in, which prevented them from attaining the dubious distinction of the lowest win total in a season.

Lows On February 21, 1999, the Grizzlies lost to their expansion cousins, the Toronto Raptors, 102–87 in the first game played at the Raptors' new arena, the Air Canada Centre. On March 16, 1999, Vancouver lost 87–85 to the Seattle SuperSonics, extending their losing streak to a season-high thirteen games. On May 5, 1999, the Grizzlies lost to the Sacramento Kings 99–95, cementing their status as one of the worst teams in NBA history by only winning 8 games in a single season.

Season standings

Game log # Date Opponent Score Record Attendance 1 February 7 @ Sacramento Kings 87-109 0-1 17,317 2 February 8 Portland Trail Blazers 76-95 0-2 18,353 3 February 10 Los Angeles Clippers 105-99 1-2 14,818 4 February 11 Indiana Pacers 97-101 1-3 14,914 5 February 14 Dallas Mavericks 96-92 2-3 16,059 6 February 16 @ Los Angeles Clippers 93-89 (2OT) 3-3 9,626 7 February 17 Boston Celtics 129-131 (3OT) 3-4 13,041 8 February 19 @ Minnesota Timberwolves 96-115 3-5 17,907 9 February 21 @ Toronto Raptors 87-102 3-6 19,800 10 February 23 Los Angeles Lakers 93-83 4-6 19,193 11 February 25 Phoenix Suns 86-94 4-7 13,494 12 February 27 Houston Rockets 74-86 4-8 19,193 13 February 28 @ Denver Nuggets 112-116 4-9 9,248 14 March 2 Sacramento Kings 101-111 4-10 13,252 15 March 3 @ Utah Jazz 86-109 4-11 18,556 16 March 4 Minnesota Timberwolves 93-102 4-12 13,329 17 March 6 Houston Rockets 92-107 4-13 19,193 18 March 8 Portland Trail Blazers 73-92 4-14 13,552 19 March 9 @ Golden State Warriors 82-92 4-15 10,043 20 March 11 @ Houston Rockets 91-102 4-16 16,285 21 March 13 @ Dallas Mavericks 74-91 4-17 14,184 22 March 15 @ Denver Nuggets 84-110 4-18 8,251 23 March 16 @ Seattle SuperSonics 85-87 4-19 17,072 24 March 18 Minnesota Timberwolves 86-81 5-19 17,466 25 March 20 San Antonio Spurs 88-92 5-20 19,193 26 March 22 @ Phoenix Suns 84-89 5-21 18,855 27 March 24 Philadelphia 76ers 90-95 (OT) 5-22 16,615 28 March 26 Utah Jazz 80-85 5-23 19,193 29 March 29 @ Los Angeles Lakers 98-116 5-24 17,312 30 March 30 Denver Nuggets 101-87 6-24 15,018 31 April 1 @ San Antonio Spurs 91-103 6-25 16,384 32 April 2 @ Atlanta Hawks 81-84 6-26 8,748 33 April 4 @ Chicago Bulls 87-88 6-27 22,198 34 April 6 @ Portland Trail Blazers 89-98 6-28 18,105 35 April 7 Denver Nuggets 84-87 6-29 17,151 36 April 9 Seattle SuperSonics 98-93 7-29 19,193 37 April 11 Sacramento Kings 88-91 7-30 17,167 38 April 12 @ Utah Jazz 80-98 7-31 19,911 39 April 14 @ Houston Rockets 85-102 7-32 16,285 40 April 16 @ Minnesota Timberwolves 75-89 7-33 18,347 41 April 18 Golden State Warriors 85-90 7-34 17,063 42 April 19 @ Los Angeles Lakers 102-117 7-35 17,505 43 April 21 Los Angeles Clippers 97-94 8-35 15,885 44 April 23 Seattle SuperSonics 84-97 8-36 19,193 45 April 24 @ Los Angeles Clippers 96-105 8-37 13,493 46 April 27 @ Dallas Mavericks 75-84 8-38 12,650 47 April 29 San Antonio Spurs 72-99 8-39 18,848 48 May 1 @ Phoenix Suns 77-107 8-40 19,023 49 May 3 Golden State Warriors 83-91 8-41 17,990 50 May 5 @ Sacramento Kings 95-99 8-42 17,317

Schedule and results citation:

Player statistics

Regular season PlayerSF50 50 2,021 374 172 69 55 1,152 40.4 7.5 3.4 1.4 1.1 23.0PG50 50 1,758 136 325 78 5 662 35.2 2.7 6.5 1.6 .1 13.2C 48 41 1,118 243 36 28 28 266 23.3 5.1 .8 .6 .6 5.5PF 48 10 1,098 350 48 46 18 230 22.9 7.3 1.0 1.0 .4 4.8SG 47 32 1,218 166 62 49 14 437 25.9 3.5 1.3 1.0 .3 9.3PF 46 0 697 117 30 22 12 166 15.2 2.5 .7 .5 .3 3.6PG 46 0 590 45 102 26 2 208 12.8 1.0 2.2 .6 .0 4.5PF 43 35 1,143 257 23 26 39 481 26.6 6.0 .5 .6 .9 11.2SF 30 0 331 47 22 9 4 97 11.0 1.6 .7 .3 .1 3.2C 25 14 702 138 37 13 8 271 28.1 5.5 1.5 .5 .3 10.8†SG 22 0 271 22 26 5 3 74 12.3 1.0 1.2 .2 .1 3.4†SF 19 15 577 53 23 20 1 242 30.4 2.8 1.2 1.1 .1 12.7SG 14 2 294 25 19 16 7 81 21.0 1.8 1.4 1.1 .5 5.8†SG 10 1 123 13 10 4 2 34 12.3 1.3 1.0 .4 .2 3.4PG 9 0 126 3 23 7 0 20 14.0 .3 2.6 .8 .0 2.2SF 6 0 39 7 2 2 0 11 6.5 1.2 .3 .3 .0 1.8†PF 4 0 42 8 3 0 0 6 10.5 2.0 .8 .0 .0 1.5PF 4 0 27 5 1 0 1 5 6.8 1.3 .3 .0 .3 1.3

Awards and records Mike Bibby, NBA All-Rookie Team First Team

Transactions The Grizzlies signed free agent Cherokee Parks, who spent the 1997–98 season with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Parks averaged 7.1 points in 79 games with Minnesota last season.

The San Antonio Spurs and Grizzlies made a trade, with Vancouver sending Antonio Daniels to the Spurs for Felipe López and Carl Herrera. Lopez was the Spurs' first round draft pick in the 1998 NBA draft.

References

Grizzlies on Basketball Reference