Despite team promotions ranging from giving away entire uniforms over five games to offering free basketballs, the Grizzlies continue to have trouble drawing at GM Place, according to Kent Gilchrist of the Vancouver PROVINCE. Gilchrist, on the promos offered Sunday: "The bitter taste of a sixth straight loss likely flushed any good of the expensive promotion." With the team's 7-17 record, Gilchrist wrote that Grizzlies VP/Business Operations Mike Golub and the team's "business side could be doing a masterful job and still be losing ground. Team success is the engine that powers the bandwagon and in Year 6 the Grizzlies have shown precious little improvement, so there are more and more seats on the wagon." Golub: "What we're hoping is the team continues to get better and the things we do on the business side and community side all add up to our season-ticket fans staying, our casual fans coming more often, and creating new fans" (Vancouver PROVINCE, 12/18). EXIT POLLIN? In Chicago, Lacy Banks cites an anonymous Wizards player as saying Wizards President of Basketball Operations Michael Jordan "sounds like an arrogant owner slamming everybody" when he criticizes the team. The player: "It's easy to criticize when you're not out here. If he thinks I'm not trying to play hard for him, he's wrong. But I can't win by myself" (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 12/19). In DC, Tony Kornheiser writes, "What I think most Washingtonians want from Jordan is a sense that he is with us. I would like to see him at more games. ... Jordan defenders say [team Owner Abe] Pollin has tied Jordan's hands. If that's true, Jordan should walk now, and come back when Pollin sells the team" (WASHINGTON POST, 12/19). B'GORAH! In Boston, Shira Springer writes that for the third time this season, the Celtics set a record attendance low at the FleetCenter, as 11,327 attended the 9-15 team's game last night against the Mavs (BOSTON GLOBE, 12/19).
