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Once upon a time, in a basketball universe that now seems so far away, the seeds of a new sports culture were taking root in Vancouver and sprouting at a rate few could have imagined.

In mid-March of 1996, near the end of Vancouver’s first season as an NBA city, a moment occurred meaningful enough that just over 20 years later, it symbolizes what might have become commonplace had the Grizzlies actually stuck around and this week, gathered for what would have been their 22nd season in this city.

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In 1995-96, the Grizzlies debuted in their sparkling new digs at General Motors Place, and that same season, the B.C. high school boys’ Triple A basketball championships relocated to the same facility for its mid-March classic.

“But the Grizzlies were already booked in to play Orlando on the Friday night that year,” remembers former B.C. Boys High School Basketball Association president Chris Kennedy, then a coach at Richmond’s McRoberts secondary. “So they started a day early and they scheduled around it. There was a real connection and linkage for the kids that year, to be playing on the same court on the Thursday and Saturday that Shaquille O’Neal played on on the Friday. How cool was that?”