 The Grizzlies were the first NBA relocation since the Kansas City Kings relocated to Sacramento, California and became the Sacramento Kings in 1985. It was followed by two others in the same decade. The first was the relocation of the original Charlotte Hornets to New Orleans in 2002, with the team becoming the New Orleans Hornets (now Pelicans). (That relocation is no longer treated by the league as such; after the 2013 – 14 season, the franchise then known as the Charlotte Bobcats reclaimed the Hornets name and also received sole rights to the history of the Hornets in Charlotte.) The second was in 2008, when the Seattle SuperSonics relocated to become the Oklahoma City Thunder. In the NHL, two teams were moved from Canada to the U.S. during the mid-1990s: the Quebec Nordiques became the Colorado Avalanche in 1995, and the Winnipeg Jets became the Phoenix Coyotes in 1996 and were rebranded as the Arizona Coyotes in 2014 (a new Winnipeg Jets team returned to the city by relocation of the Atlanta Thrashers in 2011). In 2005, one of Canada's two Major League Baseball teams (the Montreal Expos) relocated to Washington, D.C. and became the Washington Nationals. The failure of the Vancouver franchise was part of the reason the NBA changed the expansion drafting rules following the return of Charlotte to the league as the Bobcats in 2005. The Bobcats were allowed to pick fourth in their first draft, and were later not restricted from first picks.
