National Basketball League |
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NBA Hoops Online has one of the most extensive collections of National Basketball League information on the web. The NBL was a precursor to the NBA, in 1949 it merged with the Basketball Association of American (BAA) to form the NBA. |
The NBA, however, does not consider this history to be part of its own, instead taking the history of the BAA, which has caused much of the NBL's history to be lost. Luckily we have pieced a lot of it back together.
National Basketball League history page
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Exclusive NBA History Articles |
The Great Individual Game Ever Played: Wilt Chamberlain's Quintuple-Double in 1968.
On March 2, 1962, Wilt Chamberlain had what many consider to be the greatest game in NBA history. On that day in Hershey, PA, Chamberlain scored an NBA record 100 points, but also pulled down 25 boards and dished out 2 assists. In that game alone Wilt set 8 NBA records. But that famous game may not even be the best individual game in NBA history, or of Wilt's career. Six years later he may have one upped his infamous 100 point game.
On March 18, 1968, the Philadelphia 76ers hosted the Los Angeles Lakers. The Sixers were playing their best ball of the season and where hoping to repeat as the season prior they had ended Boston's reign as champions and ended their 8 year dominance of the NBA title. The Lakers meanwhile were atop the western division and looking to make it back to the NBA finals where they had lost the season prior to the Sixers. The game looked to be one of the marquee matchups of the season.
Unfortunately, for fans, the game was not the great game they had hoped it would be. The Sixers got out to a blistering start and lead by 17 after the first quarter, by 27 at the half, and ended up winning by 30 points 158-128. The issue for the Lakers - They could not stop Wilt Chamberlain.
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New rule change in the G-League could be adopted by the NBA
The G-League is testing a new rule where End-of-Period "heaves" will not count towards a player's missed field goal attempts.
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The Oldest Continually Operated NBA Teams
The NBA began in 1946 as the BAA, this is a fact most fans know. But what many fans do not know is that some of the leagues teams predate the formation of the NBA.
Only three of the original 11 teams are still in existence today. The 1946-1947 had many teams fans are familiar today, they include: The Boston Celtics, New York Knicks, and Philadelphia Warriors. Those are the 3 oldest purely NBA teams, but what often gets left out of NBA history is the history of other leagues besides the NBA, most notable the NBL.
The National Basketball League or NBL was a league born out of other Midwest leagues in the mid 1930s. The League was able to survive the Great Depression and World War II before it finally merged with the BAA to form the NBA. The NBA pretty much washed away the NBL's history and the history of the teams who joined.
Still, most NBL and BAA teams from before 1960 did not make it. Of the 18 teams who were in the NBA during the 1949-50 season, only the Celtics, Knicks, Warriors, Minneapolis Lakers, Syracuse Nationals, Rochester Royals, Tri-Cities Blackhawks, and Fort Wayne Pistons are still around today. And there you have it, the oldest 8 teams in NBA history. But the age of a team does not tell its history, and in some cases a teams history goes way-way back.
So here we go, the 10 oldest teams in the NBA.
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Can Lebron James break Nat Hickey's record?
Lebron James is one of the most accomplished players in NBA history. Anyone who has ever watched the NBA in the last 10 years knows this. Lebron overtook Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the all-time scoring leader in 2023. He will soon overtake Kareem for most games played. But there is one record Lebron is still many years away from setting; the oldest player in NBA history.
Going into the 2024-25 season, Lebron James is just 40 years old and will become the 32nd player in NBA history to play in a game at age 40 or older. Should Lebron finish this season he would be the 19th oldest player in NBA history. Should he play the 2025-26 season, he would move to become the 7th oldest player in NBA history. If, somehow, Lebron James was able to play to the end of the 2028-29 NBA season, he would still only be the 2nd oldest player in NBA history; The oldest player in the NBA would still be Nat Hickey.
You might ask yourself, "Who the hell is Nat Hickey?"
Nat Hickey was the head coach of the Providence Steamrollers, one of the first BAA teams, in 1946.
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The history of the 2024 United States men's Olympic basketball team
After the struggles of the 2020-2021 team in Tokyo, and the Olympics being in France, it looked like Team USA was finally not going to win the gold. The French had new NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama, NBA defensive player of the team Rudy Gobert, and a host of former NBA players. The US is coming off its worst gold medal performance in history.
One positive thing for the US was in late 2022 Stephen Curry, who had played for Team USA in the World Championships but never the Olympics, made a statement that he would like to win a gold medal and would like to play with Lebron James. James followed up the comment saying it would be fun. Soon other elite level NBA players stated their desire to play for the team
The US got more good news when Joel Embiid announced he would play for the US and not France. Embiid born in Cameroon, has both American and French citizenship. Having the 2023 MVP joining two former MVPs would make the US very tough. The US would add a fourth MVP when Kevin Durant announced he would also play.
Soon a lot of American players were committed to playing and newly christened head coach Steve Kerr had a lot of tough decisions to make. In addition to the four former MVP's, Kerr added Anthony Edwards, Tyrese Haliburton, Jayson Tatum, Jrue Holiday, Bam Adebayo, Kawhi Leonard, Anthony Davis and Devin Booker. The roster controversially left off Finals MVP Jaylen Brown.
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The history of the 2020 United States men's Olympic basketball team
No team in American basketball Olympic history is as polarizing as the 2020, or should I say 2021 team. The team struggled and faced adversity like none other, and had the worst start of any team in American history yet found itself late for Olympic glory.
Some of Team USA's struggles come from the fact that the entire world was struggling. In February 2020 the Coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic began and pretty much shut the world down. The NBA stopped play on March 11th and did not resume until July 31st. On March 30th, the IOC announced that the Tokyo Games would be postponed until 2021.
Politics had once again interjected themselves into basketball. After the unlawful killing of George Floydd in May 2020 many players protested in the streets as part of the Black Lives Matter campaign. This brought the ire of right-wing pundits and politicians who lambasted the NBA. Then during the bubble, teams wore slogans on their jerseys and after the killing of another black-man the players threatened to sit out the remainder of the playoffs in the bubble.
By the time the 2021 Olympics came about, US basketball players were probably hated second only to US women soccer players. For example, Foxnews refused to even mention the Team USA.
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History of the 2016 United States men's Olympic basketball team
Going into the 2016 Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro, things were looking good the the US. The stability brought by the changes to Team USA after the 2004 debacle resulted in two World Championships and two Olympic gold medals.
However, there were some areas of concern for Team USA. Complacency once again set in and players were once again not interested in giving up their summers for Team USA.
Two players from the 2012 London team did join the 2016 team, and they were two of the better players for Team USA in Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony. Dwight Howard, Kevin Love, and Andre Iguodala had also shown interest but were ultimately not included on the team.
While top stars like Lebron James declined to play, the roster was loaded with top-tier talent. Jimmy Butler, Kyle Lowry, Harrison Barnes, DeMar DeRozan, Kyrie Irving, Klay Thompson, and Paul George joined Durant and Melo on at the wing positions, and big-men DeAndre Jordan, DeMarcus Cousins, and Draymond Green were the bigs. Once again Mike Krzyzewski was the head coach with Jim Boeheim his lead assistant. Knicks coaches Tom Thibodeau and Monty Williams were also on the squad.
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The 10 best old school NBA logos
There have been hundreds of team logo's in the history of the NBA. Some have been fantastic, some have been okay, and others have been bad. But which ones truly standout as the best of the best?
To find out what NBA logos are the best, we have to find out what makes a logo good to begin with. For the NBA, a logo is going to need to be basketball related. it also has to be unique, and capture the essence of the city it is to represent.
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The failed resurrection of the Providence Steamrollers
On March 17, 1949 the Providence Steamrollers lost to the Fort Wayne Pistons 74-72 in front of a sellout crowd in Chicago, Illinois. The loss would be the Streamrollers 10th in a row as they finished the 48-49 season at just 12-48. The loss would be their last, as the team suspended operations days later.
The Steamrollers, or Rollers for short, had a tumultuous history at best. One of the original teams that founded the Basketball Association of America in 1946, the franchise had been an absolute disaster. In their final two seasons of operations they managed to win just 18 games, going 18-90. Their 6 wins in 1948 is still a low mark for the NBA. There was very little to get excited for in Providence and fan support and sponsors dried up.
The Steamrollers where owned by Lou Pieri, a shrewed businessman who had connections at all levels of basketball in the 1940s and 50s. Pieri knew the gig was up and sold what assets the team had and closed up shop.
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23rd Annual NHO Awards
Every year NHO staff and fans pick the end of season awards. It has now been 21 seasons that we have been doing it. Check out all the awards
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The history of basketball logos
A logo defines a company or organization. It is what people can quickly see and immediately recognize your brand, and in no industry is that more true than in sports. Sports logos go back to the earliest days of any kind of sports teams. Logos were seen from the seals and crests monarchs and nobles used during the medieval period, which themselves may have come from Roman imperial crests.
The earliest logos which are associated with sports come from the ancient Athenian Olympic games. Athletes from various guilds and towns would wear something to show solidarity with others from their region. One of the earliest examples of this was an ancient Lesbosian who painted a symbol on his body to signify that he was from the Island of Lesbos. Roman gladiators too had symbols and logos which were district from one and other. In the ruins of the city of Pomeii there is some graffiti which seems to have been done to show support for someone's favorite gladiator.
With the rise of organized sports in the latter half of the 19th century, teams started having simple designs to tell teams apart. This became important in college sports as often times many of these early events had several schools competing.
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The Biggest Comeback In NBA History
Over the years, the NBA has seen some incredible nail-biting recoveries. There were teams that were able to come back after 30 points down within a quarter, and some even managed to come back after 20 points down in a matter of minutes.
That's one of the things that makes basketball so fun to watch - if the team and the player have heart, it's not over until the end.
Phoenix Suns 29-Point Comeback
One of the greatest comebacks for the Suns came in 2003 in a game against the Celtics. The low point came four minutes into the second quarter when the Suns were 30 points down. It wasn't the team that we know now. They hadn't yet signed Steve Nash but had Rookie of the Year Amar'e Stoudemire.
The comeback was mostly led by Stephon Marbury, who finished the game with 34 points and seven assists. The Suns ended up winning with 110:106, and an amazing dunk by Archie Goodwin was the perfect way to end the game.
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John A. Sbarbaro: The NBA owner with Mob connections
Despite it's best efforts, the NBA has had a long unpleasant history with the Mafia, and organized crime. This problem goes all the way back to its founding in 1946 when the league owned a corrupt funeral home director who was also a lawyer and judge own one of the leagues first franchises.
John A. Sbarbaro was a Chicago lawyer and Businessman who had a lot of shady dealings with organized crime. His funeral home was known as the funeral home of the mob because so many high profile Chicago gangster's had their funerals there.
In 1928 Sbarbaro's warehouse for his funeral home was bombed by either a rival gang from Detroit or possible the precursor to the FBI, because it was a known location for illegal alcohol to be dumped off there.
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A look at an early professional basketball game from 1900
This game is from 1900-01 and was played in Hudson, Massachusetts. It was the third season of professional basketball and just 10 years after James Naismith created the game of basketball. Hudson is about an hours drive from the birthplace of basketball, Springfield, MA, but in 1900 it was about a days ride away. Webster is about an hour away as well. The Webster team was able to get the Hudson via train and it still took them several hours.
The game was played as part of the MCBL (Massachusetts Central Basketball League), sometimes called the MSBL(Massachusetts State Basketball League). The league merged from the earlier MBL (Massachusetts Basketball League) which formed in 1899.
Webster played their home games at Music Hall in Webster, Massachusetts which had a seating capacity of 800.
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5 Greatest Detroit Pistons Teams in Franchise History
The Detroit Pistons have a long-running history in the NBA, founded in 1937. The Eastern Conference Central Division team plays in Little Caesars Arena and, over the years, has produced some of the best teams in the league. Let's take a look at the best of the best below.
5. 2005-2006 Team
Going back a few decades, the 2005-2006 team led by Flip Saunders was a force to be reckoned with. The team won 64 games during the regular season and featured the third-best defense in the NBA. The team only gave up an average of over 90 points per game.
The team reached the 2006 Eastern Conference Finals after defeating the Milwaukee Bucks and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Unfortunately, the team lost the finals to the Miami Heat in six games. Members of this team included Richard Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace, Chauncey Billups, Ben Wallace, and Tayshaun Prince.
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Top 8 Greatest Coaches in NBA History
The National Basketball Association (NBA) has been home to some of the sport's best coaches. These renowned figures led their teams to victory, leaving an indelible mark on the game. These coaches have significantly impacted the NBA, from their coaching beliefs to their abilities to inspire and encourage players.
Let's take a look at some of the best NBA coaches of all time:
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The Salt Lake Series: The NBA and ABA's weird failed attempts to expand to Utah.
The late 1960s were an unprecedented time for growth in the NBA. The league entered the decade with just 8 teams and on the verge of collapse. By the decades end the league had ballooned to 14 teams and was on the cusp of adding 3 more. The decade was dominated by the greatest dynasty sports had ever known in the Boston Celtics, and the league was facing real competition from the ABA and was winning.
The competition from the ABA is what spurred the expansion of the NBA. When the ABA was founded in 1967, the NBA had just 10 teams, but when the ABA announced it was going to put teams in Seattle and San Diego, the NBA quickly added teams to those cities. This kicked off an expansion arms race which culminated in the race for one city that no one would expect. A city located in the western reaches of the Rocky Mountains and who until this point had been a sports afterthought - Salt Lake City, Utah.
Salt Lake City had always been a popular destination for basketball. The city was home to several minor league teams during the 1950s and 1960s, it had even held an exhibition game of the NBL's Denver Nuggets in 1948. The three major universities - Utah, BYU and Utah States - had turned out several prominent NBA players. But it was a small city, which had strict morality laws, and it was racist.
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Canadian Invasion: How Canadian players are influencing the NBA
Our neighbor to the north has always been a big fan of basketball, and has played an important role in the development of the game. Two facts that many American basketball fans sometime overlook is the game was created by a Canadian and one of the first NBA teams was Canadian.
In 1896, James Naismith, invented the game of basketball when he hung up two peach baskets at the YMCA in Springfield, Massachusetts. And on November 1, 1946, the Toronto Huskies hosted the New York Knicks in the first ever NBA game.
Sadly, the Huskies only lasted one year, but their impact was felt. Many Canadian players joined the NBA in the years following the Huskies dispersal. But by the 1950s there was a sharp drop off of Canadians in the NBA. Between 1954 and 1984, there was only two Canadian born NBA players to play in the NBA.
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Penny Anne Early: The first professional female basketball player
During the height of the contravery at Churchill Downs, the Kentucky Colonels signed the 110 pound, 5'3", 23 year old Early to a contract in 1968. Colonels head coach Gene Rhodes was not happy, and was not going to play Early, but Colonels management forced him to not only keep her on the roster, but play her in a real game.
On November 28, 1968, the Colonels where playing the Los Angeles Stars, and early in the first quarter Rhodes put Early in the game. Early wore the number 3 to symbolize the number of races that other jockey's had boycotted. She inbounded the ball to a wide open teammate, Bobby Rascoe, then Rascoe immediately called a timeout and the Colonels removed Early from the game to a rousing standing ovation.
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The Top 10 NBA's Worst Regular-Season Losses per Franchise
In the NBA, a team losing by a large margin (even by 40 points or more) isn't uncommon, but it's few and far between. Most people would believe that a team that suffers such a humiliating defeat is among the league's weakest. That can mislead even the oddsmakers of online casinos in the UAE who have NBA on their offers. There have been moments, however, when a team has suffered its worst loss in franchise history and still made it to the playoffs.
In this article, we''l look at each NBA team's worst regular-season loss in franchise history, starting from the biggest to the lower losses overall among them.
Oklahoma City Thunder (-73), 2021
Without Ja Morant in the lineup, the Thunder were unable to keep up with Memphis in this game. They were behind 36 points at halftime, only to be outscored 39-17 in the fourth quarter, losing 152-79.
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Muggy Bogues: Shortest Player in NBA History
It is not often that the shortest guy on a basketball court is the biggest on the court. But that is exactly what Tyrone "Muggsy" Bogues was in his stellar NBA career.
The NBA has always been a game centered around tall human beings. Even in today's game where the game is played on the perimeter, the best players are tall. For example Kevin Durant is almost 7-feet tall and Lebron James is 6'9". It is rare for anyone under six feet tall to play in the NBA. Even the WNBA is littered with giants. The Average WNBA player is just under 6-feet tall, and the shortest WNBA player in the 2021 season was Leilani Mitchell at 5 foot 5 inches
Muggsy Bogues on the other hand was short, even by WNBA standards. He was just 5 foot 3 inches, making him the shortest NBA player ever and 2 inches shorter than the shortest WNBA player currently in the WNBA. Debbie Black and Shannon Babbitt are the two shortest WNBA player's in WNBA history at 5'2", or 1 inch shorter than Bogues.
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Utah Prospectors: Utah's second professional basketball team
The Utah Prospectors, or Pro's as they were sometimes called, were a Western Basketball Association team that lasted only one season and played their home games in the Salt Palace in downtown Salt Lake City. Sometimes the team is referred to by it's original name: Salt Lake City Prospectors.
The WBA as a whole was a league set to rival the NBA and pick up where the ABA had failed, but with a regional aspect. The seven-team league included the Fresno Stars, Great Falls Sky, Las Vegas Dealers, Reno Bighorns, Tucson Gunners, Washington Lumberjacks, and of course the Prospectors. The names and locations of the team tried to play off of the history of the locales that the teams. The league was founded by Larry Cregar who was an assistant coach in both the NBA and the ABA and businessman Neil Christiansen.
The Utah team was owned by Frank Nelson, a Salt Lake City area businessman. The team was coached by former Utah Stars player Dick Nemelka.
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Top 10 Number 1 NBA Draft Picks Of All Time
The NBA has had some fantastic players shine in the drafts. But to be picked first also comes with a lot of pressure.
As we wait for the games to begin, we should turn back to the past. Maybe looking at the previous impressive number one NBA picks can guide us on the games to come.
1. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar - Center - Milwaukee Bucks
Abdul-Jabbar was picked first in the 1969 drafts, and he had to take the top spot due to one particular undefeated title. He is the NBA's all-time scorer.
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The top 15 players to never win DPOTY
The defensive player of the year award, or DPOTY, has been an award given annually to the game's best defender since 1983. There have been some great defensive players to win DPOTY such as Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, Dikembe Mutombo, and most recently Rudy Gobert. But there have also been some great defensive players to never win the award. Which begs the question, why?
Here is a list of the top 15 greatest NBA defenders, in the DPOTY era, to never have won the award.
15 Chris Paul
CP3 is one of the game's best offensive players, but also one of the best defenders of all time as well. He is consistently defending the opposing team's best guard and has ranked top 10 in steals 12 times in his NBA career, and the first six times.
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15 Worst All-stars in NBA History
Making the NBA All-star team is usually a moment of celebration and a reward for a player having a great season. All-star teams are filled with the biggest names in the game, names that even non-NBA fans know. The NBA all-star game is the culmination of the greatest all-star festivities in sports.
The NBA All-star is one place where the NBA absolutely beats the pants off the NFL, MLB, and NHL. Nobody cares about the NFL's pro-bowl, it's a week after the Superbowl and is usually missing some of the top stars in the game. The MLB all-star game always finds new unique ways to suck and ruin the game of baseball. The NHL all-star game? Who the hell watches the NHL all-star game? But the NBA has its all-star game midseason and hypes the event like nothing else it does. It's a star-studded spectacular every season.
But sometimes the NBA gets things wrong. Sometimes injuries and attrition take their toll on NBA stars and the coaches and commissioner are left to sort through what is left of the league's top players. Historically, the NBA has gotten the all-star selection process right more than it has gotten it wrong. More often than not you will hear about snubs, not fans complaining about undeserving players making the team.
The NBA is a star driver league, and each team usually has a clear best player and those players are then ranked against other team's players and that is what gives us a rough estimate of who the best players in the league are.
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The NBA's Weirdest Forgotten Players
Each professional sports league has its list of strange personalities. While a few odd comments and weird habits are enough to endear fans to new players, the level of interest tends to double when the player is one of the best in the game.
Take Luis Suarez of Uruguay; no one would argue that he's been one of the most influential strikers of the past decade in association football, but many raise their brows at his penchant for biting. The same goes for golfer John Daly, who's one of the greatest enigmas to take the greens.
However, the NBA seems to have an inordinate amount of weirdos on the court, which has led to more than a few strange moments, much to the delight of fans. There's the Malice at the Palace in 2004, or the time Charles Barkley tried to spit on a heckler but hit a bystander in 1991, or the time Latrell Sprewell choked out his coach during a live game in 1997.
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The Architect of Show-Time
The Showtime Lakers of the 1980s are undoubtedly one of the greatest dynasties in NBA history. Behind Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, and Pat Riley they made nine NBA finals and won 5 of them. Their epic battles with the Larry Bird lead Celtics established what a rivalry should be, and they helped usher in the NBA to its glory days.
But what if I told you that the brand of basketball synonymous with that era and the Lakers themselves was not put in place by Pat Riley? What if I told you that this whole era got started by a man that NBA history has largely forgotten, and who coached the Lakers for just 14 games? You'd say I was crazy, right? Well, it's the truth.
The 1970s Lakers were a rollercoaster. They had the star power that is always associated with the Lakers, they had names like Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain, but they never dominated the decade. They were just one of the many teams that won NBA championships during that era. The late 70s in particular were a difficult era for the team. From 1975 to 1977 they did not make the playoffs in the beleaguered west, and they had no star.
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A look back at the 2013 NBA draft
It is a common notion that the NBA draft is a crapshoot. You may draft the next superstar, or you may draft the next bust. But being able to manage draft capital is what separated the title contenders from the fodder in the NBA. No draft encapsulates this notion more than the 2013 NBA draft.
From the get-go this was not a highly touted draft class. There was no clear #1 pick and their international players all seemed to reach who would take years to develop.
Usually in the build-up to the draft players start to separate themselves into teirs during team workouts. This was not happening for the 2013 draft class. GM's and team staff were as confused as fans as to who would go where. The top pick was especially concerning. It was hard to stay up to date when reports of players' workouts were coming in so fast.
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History of NBA super blowouts
On December 2, 2021, the Memphis Grizzlies utterly and absolutely annihilated the Oklahoma City Thunder 152-79, a 73 point differential. It's the largest blowout in NBA history. But the blowout is not something new in the NBA and it has been happening a lot more frequently than it use to.
The game between the Grizzlies and the Thunder was never close. The Grizzlies scored 31 points in the first quarter and the Thunder did not hit that mark until the 2:41 mark in the second quarter, by which time the Grizzlies had a 30 point lead. With 9:39 to go in the third quarter, the Grizzlies had 80 points, which means had they not scored again in the game they would have still won.
There are several kinds of blowouts in basketball. There is the traditional 20 point blowout, something every team suffers several times a year. Even the great 73-9 Warriors suffered 3 20+ point blowouts in their season. The 72-10 Chicago Bulls suffered just one. You can also find one of these blowouts almost nightly in the NBA. Then there are the bigger blowouts, where a team loses by 35 or more points. These are rare, but you see them a few times a month. The Grizzlies, who handed the Thunder this epic blowout, were themselves blown out by 43 points a few nights before by the Minnesota Timberwolves. Finally, there are the super blowouts; these blowouts are 50 or more points and are just one team utterly dominating another.
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Military Veterans who have played in the NBA
The United States Military has been a big piece of American history and American lore. Before every basketball game fans stand an honor America and the men and women who have served with the playing of the Star Spangled Banner. The song immortalizes the defense of Fort McHenry from the war of 1812. The Veterans Administration (VA) estimates that 22 million Americans have served in the military. Countless famous Americans have served in the armed forces and that includes several NBA players.
During the early days of one of the NBA's precursors, the NBL, it was not uncommon for a player to leave the league to join the military. The military offered better pay and better accommodations than the league did.
World War II was nearly the end of the NBL as the majority of players left to serve. The lack of players caused the first racial integration in any major sport in American history
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Greatest 2nd Round Picks since 2010
The NBA draft as a whole is a crapshoot. For every Lebron James a team drafts, there are 10 guys who do not last long enough in the NBA to get their second contract. Stars are hard to come by even if you have the #1 pick in the draft, and they are harder to find as the draft winds on. But some teams have hit paydirt late in the draft.
Most fans usually do not pay attention to the draft beyond the first round. After that point, the players picked rarely make an impact in the NBA. From 2010 until 2020 only 3 first-round draft picks have not played in the NBA; Livio Jean-Charles, Nikola Milutinov, and Leandro Bolmaro. Bolmaro, a first-rounder by the Thunder in 2020 will likely make his NBA debut in a few seasons. First-rounder plays in the NBA because of guaranteed contracts, but even before guaranteed contracts it was rare for a first-rounder not to play in the NBA. In the entire history of the NBA, only 31 first-round picks have never played in the NBA. Out of those 31 picks, 22 are before the ABA-NBA merger in 1976, and most of those were back in the days when getting a job at a bank would likely earn you a higher income than being an NBA player.
Second-round picks do not enjoy an automatically guaranteed contract like their first-round counterparts, they have to earn the guaranteed money.
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Bucks win first title in 50 years; a brief history of the Milwaukee Bucks
The Milwaukee Bucks closed out the Phoenix Suns to win their first NBA title in 50 years. The title was a long time coming for a franchise who has quietly been one of the better franchises in the NBA, but one who has just not been able to get over the hump and win big games.
The Bucks history started out probably better than any expansion team in sports history. Just 3 years after being introduced to the league the Bucks were hoisting their first NBA title banner. Part of that was due to them hitting pay dirt following their first season.
Like all expansion teams, the Bucks struggled their first season in the NBA going just 27-55. The 27-55 mark is their 4th worst in franchise history. But it allowed them to have a coin flip with the Phoenix Suns for the top pick in the draft, which they won. They were able to take UCLA center Lew Alcindor first overall.
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USA Women look to dominate once again
The 2020, er 2021, Olympic games are underway in Tokyo, Japan. Once again the United States is favored to dominate the medal count. The US is favored in many of the traditional American powerhouse sports; swimming, track and field, gymnastics, and of course basketball. While we have seen the men's team get challenged often we have not often seen the women's team face similar challenges; until now.
The USA is favored to win gold once again, but several teams look to challenge the USA's dominance. The US women are in a tough pool with Australia and Spain, two nations that have given the US problems in the past. Beyond that France, Canada, China and Nigeria all look to give the US women trouble
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Racism runs deep in the Jazz DNA: a history of racism and the Utah Jazz
The Utah Jazz have once again found themselves at the forefront of a racism controversy following yet another fan incident at a game. This time it involves several Jazz fans saying racists comments to the father of Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant. But the Jazz are no stranger to racist controversy from their fans, ownership and even players. It is who they are, it is part of their DNA.
The Jazz started in New Orleans in 1974. New Orleans was part of the old confederacy, part of the racism belt in America that thrived off Jim Crow laws and segregation. The Jazz were founded just six years after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr, and were the first expansion team to ever be placed in the deep south.
The Jazz first owner, Sam Battistone Jr, also owned several restaurants called Sambo's. While the name was a combination of Sam Battistone's name and co-owners Newell Bohnett name, it soon began to get associated with the book The Story of Little Black Sambo. The book's cartoonish depiction of African and other black peoples are now considered to be highly racists and highly offensive. The book is one of the most banned children's books in the American library system due to its offensive nature.
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The Worst Draft in NBA history: 1952
When discussing the worst NBA draft classes in NBA history, two classes often get brought up: The 1986 NBA draft and the 2000 NBA draft. Both drafts, while disastrous, did produce multiple NBA all-stars. However, only one draft class has failed to produce multiple NBA all-stars and that is the draft of 1952: The worst draft in NBA history.
1952 was just the beginning of NBA history and drafts until the 1990s were truly crap-shoots as few if any of the teams had video or scouting on the majority of the players they drafted. The 1952 draft class was just the sixth draft in NBA history, but teams had begun getting use to the process and some of the preceding and succeeding drafts provided the league with some of the all-time greats.
Excluding the two most recent draft classes of 2019 and 2020, every other draft in NBA history has produced at least 3 all-stars except for 1951 and 1952. Even the dreaded 2000 draft was able to give the league three all-stars in Michael Redd, Kenyon Martin and Jamal Magloire. While the 1951 draft only produced two all-stars in Mel Hutchins and Don Sunderledge, it was able to produce several solid role players who played multiple seasons in the NBA such as Whitey Skogg, Lew Hitch, Al McGuire and George Dempsey. The 1952 draft was not even able to do that.
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Lusia Harris: The first female NBA Draft Pick
Rarely in the annals of NBA history does a team pick a six-foot-three-inch center in the draft; even more rare does an NBA team draft a woman. But that is what the New Orleans Jazz did in the 1977 draft.
With the 137th pick in the 1977 draft the New Orleans Jazz drafted Lusia Harris. Harris was a well known product in the bayou having been a star at near by Delta State. While attended college in Cleveland, Mississippi, Harris had lead the Lady Statemen to 3 NCAA titles. She finished her career at Delta State as one of the winningest college players in history and was widely considered the best female player in the country.
Still, the pick was unorthodox. Many women had played at very high levels in college before, but none had even gotten the attention of a men's league. Harris herself was shocked by the pick. She thought it was a joke. "...Drafted by a Men's team?" was a quote from Harris taken from a Mississippi based news paper.
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The Smallest City to ever Host an NBA Game
The City of Negaunee, Michigan, is known as a mining town in the Upper Peninsula, that has turned into winter sports hub with one of the best luge tracks west of the Mississippi River. With a population of just 4,500 people, it seems to be an unlikely place to find an NBA game. But on January 16, 1952, that is exactly what happened. Negaunee, Michigan, became the smallest city to ever host a regular NBA season game.
Of the four major North American professional sports leagues the NBA has always had a reputation for having some of the smallest markets. Seven NBA markets do not have a corresponding NFL, MLB or NHL team. The BAA's merger with the NBL also added several cities like Waterloo, Iowa; Anderson, Indiana; Sheboygan, Wisconsin, and Moline, Illinois to the ranks of small towns home to an NBA team. But by 1952 the NBA had done away with much of the smaller markets in the league. In the 1951-52 season the NBA was struggling. The league had shrank for the 18 teams it had just 2 seasons prior to just 10 teams for that season. Several of the teams that entered the season were on shaky ground. The Western Division was rife with trouble, all 5 teams had serious financial issues and rumors were rampant about their possible relocation. This relocation talk is what spurred the NBA to look into new markets and other ways to attracted new fans.
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Top Centers from 1999-2020
The once proud and dominate center position has been much maligned the past two decades. From 1946 until 1999 the center position was the premier position in the game. If you were going to be a title contender, you needed a great center.
Twenty-three times from 1956 until 1983 the leagues highest honor, the MVP award, went to a center. Two of the other times it did not go to a center, it went to the other big man position the power forward - both awards were won by Hawks PF Bob Petit. The other three times the award went to a non-center was Point Guards Bob Cousy and Oscar Robertson and Small Forward Julius Earving. A Shooting Guard did not win the award until 1988 when Michael Jordan won his first MVP.
The 1980s and 1990s seen the award be more spaced out, but big men still dominated the game. It was this era, specifically the success of Michael Jordan, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, which changed the game from a game dominated by big men in the paint, to the more perimeter game we see today.
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Why the NBA Succeeded Where Other Leagues Failed
Today when we think of professional basketball we think of the NBA. The NBA has become a cornerstone in American sports along with the NFL, NHL and MLB. It is the most successful basketball league of all-time, raking in tens of billions of dollars annually and has about a billion viewers world wide.
But this wasn't always the case. At one time the NBA was little more than a footnote, not just to the NHL, NFL and MLB, but to other basketball leagues as well. So what changed? How did the NBA succeed where these other leagued failed. Two things really, big cities and consistency.
The NBA, or the BAA as it was called back then, began in 1946 as a way for NHL owners to make money on days when their NHL teams were not playing. This is why the first group of teams where in cities with NHL teams; Boston (Bruins), Toronto (Maple Leafs), New York (Rangers), Detroit (Redwings), and Chicago (Blackhawks).
A History of Women's Basketball
James Naismith is acknowledged as having invented the game in 1891. With the football and lacrosse seasons over and due to winter causing students to be snowbound in school, the young men were becoming restless. James Naismith had been trying to develop a game already when his boss requested he find an activity that the young men could play to remain fit, active and occupy their minds. This resulted in peach baskets being raised ten feet high either end of a courtyard and 13 basic rules being drafted up and thus basketball was invented.
It only took one year before women started playing the game. In 1892 Senda Bereson, who was at Smith College as a teacher after spending time at Boston Normal School of Gymnastics, organized the first women's basketball game. She had seen Naismith's invention and wondered whether it would be a suitable game for women to play.
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5 Cities the NBA could expand to
The NHL recently announced that it's newest team will be called the Seattle Kraken. The Kraken will be the latest in a series of expansions for the four major North American leagues going all the way back to the 1960s. However, expansion has slowed considerable in the last 25 years. The Kraken are the first major expansion team in any North American league since the Vegas Golden Knights joined the NHL in 2017. The last NFL team to be added was the Houston Texans in 2002, the MLB has not added a new team since 1998 when they added the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The NBA last expanded in 2004 when it added the Bobcats. The NHL has expanded 4 times since 2000 and 11 times since 1990. The NFL has expanded once in the last 20 years, and only 4 times since the late 1970s. The MLB hasn't expanded since the late 90s and has added only 4 teams since the 1970s. The NBA has seen considerable expansion since 1980. Since 1980, when the NBA added the Dallas Mavericks, the NBA has added 8 teams to its league.
The NBA's last expansion is a bit confusing. in 2004 the NBA returned to Charlotte and added the Bobcats as its 30th team. The Bobcats replaced the Hornets which went to New Orleans two seasons prior. The Bobcats were considered an expansion team and had their own unique history, while the New Orleans franchise kept the Hornets history. Than in 2014, the New Orleans Hornets became the New Orleans Pelicans and the Charlotte Bobcats became the Charlotte Hornets once again. The Hornets history from 1988 until 2002 went back to Charlotte, while the history after 2002 was kept by the Pelicans and the Hornets kept the Bobcats history. Still, the Charlotte Bobcats were an expansion team. They had an expansion draft and were treated as such until 2014.
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The 2009 NBA Draft: A retrospect
As the pro-longed 2019-2020 season comes to a close, several team are left waiting for their next big basketball thing - the NBA draft. The NBA draft is where teams can instantly change their fortunes or continue in their cycle of despair. Some draft classes though, are better than others. The well vaunted 1984 draft may be the greatest in NBA history, while the much maligned 2000 draft class may be the worst.
The best drafts change the game and people look back in awe at how some of the best players in the draft could have fallen. John Stockton, the NBA's all-time leader in steals and assists, was part of the 1984 but fell all the way to 16th. Knowing what we know now, he likely would have been the 4th pick behind Hakeem, Jordan and Barkley.
Other well know modern day draft classes that provided the NBA with a ton of legends are the 1996 and 2003 classes. Another class is starting to very quietly rival those great classes; The 2009 draft class.
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Australia's basketball history
Basketball is primarily associated with certain countries. Obviously, the United States where the game was created and home to the NBA. But also, Canada, where the creator of the game was born; Europe and China. But one part of the world often gets overlooked, and that part of the world has played a big part in the development of basketball. I am talking about the land down under: Australia.
It did not take long after its creation for the game of basketball to make its way from Springfield, Massachusetts, to nearly half way around the world in Australia. The first recorded game of basketball was played at a gym in Adelaide in 1897.
Unlike the United States and the rest of the world, basketball did not take off in the Australia until well into the 20th century. Australia did not make the summer Olympics until 1956
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The Greatest Teams To Never Win An NBA Title
An often-debated topic among NBA circles is "Who is the greatest franchise in NBA history?". There are lots of very good teams to chose from. Could it be the team with the most NBA titles in 17, the Boston Celtics? Could it be the team with the most consistency in winning titles; the Los Angeles Lakers? Maybe it could be the most consistent team in terms of overall winning the San Antonio Spurs? The Warriors, Bulls, and 76ers also get honorable mentions. All these teams have one thing in common - multiple NBA titles.
One thing not often discussed is who is the greatest NBA franchise who has never won a title? The list is actually quite short, as only eleven NBA teams have yet to win an NBA title. Five of those teams to never win a title are recent having just joined the NBA in the past 35 years. Six of the eleven teams have yet to even make an NBA-finals.
Three of the four teams from the ABA have never won an NBA title, though the Indiana Pacers and Brooklyn Nets have both gotten close
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NBA Players turned Politicians
With the recent unrest in America, a lot of current and former NBA players have made comments online and let their feels and opinions be known. For some, this is seen as the players stepping out of their industry; for most it is just the players exercising their 1st Amendment rights. But, players getting political is nothing new. Many former athletes have left the court and gone on to have very successful playing careers.
Most people will recognize that several former football players have made some very high profile runs of office. The most famous of these, and successful, is former University of Michigan star Gerald Ford. Ford served 25 years in the House of Representatives, before in 1973, being nominated by Richard Nixon to become the Vice President. When Nixon resigned the office following the Watergate scandal, Ford became the 38th President of the United States. Ford would lose his re-election bid in 1976 to Jimmy Carter.
Another famous football star, Jack Kemp ran for the office of president in 1996 as the Republican challenger to Bill Clinton. Kemp, a star quarterback for the Buffalo Bills, selected another former athlete to be his running-mate. Kemp selected former New York Knicks forward Bill Bradley to be his Vice-Present.
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Who Were the Toronto Huskies?
It's a documented fact, and well-researched already on this site, that the first game in the history of the NBA took place in Canada. On Nov. 1st, 1946, at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens, the inaugural game in the Basketball Association of America - as the NBA was originally known, was contested between one team that remains synonymous with the NBA, and another that faded away rapidly into oblivion.
On opening night, the New York Knicks edged the Toronto Huskies 68-66.
Decades before the Toronto Raptors beat the odds at the online betting sites and upset the Golden State Warriors to win the 2018-19 NBA Finals, it was actually a quirk of circumstance that the league would be launched in its lone Canadian city. It's also a little-known fact that the NBA owes it origins in no small part to the operators of the six NHL franchises that played in hockey's major league in the mid-1940s.
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That one time a Saudi arms dealer connected to Iran-Contra tried to buy the Utah Jazz
We sometimes forget that sports and other forms of entertainment are not done in a vacuum and that some times the real world comes crashing into our beloved sports. In 2020 the Coronavirus or COVID-19 has put a harsh stop to our games, and this latest real life interference is not the first time or will it be the last time the real world and the sports world collide.
The 1980's where a great time for the NBA. Most see it as the beginning of a golden era for the league and it was the building blocks for the league we see today. It was also a time of cold war politics and tension.
But while the Lakers and Celtics of the 1980's were seeing success, some NBA teams were struggling and on the brink of financial ruin. No team was more close to financial ruin in the early 1980's than the Utah Jazz.
Today we think of the Utah Jazz as one of the most stable franchises in sports, but in June of 1984 that was anything from reality. The Jazz had just relocated to Salt Lake City five years earlier from New Orleans, and actually had finally made the playoffs the season prior for the first time. But the team was in financial disarray and the future looked bleak for their survival in Salt Lake City.
Jazz owner Sam Battistone was losing money fast, not just with the Jazz but with a lot of his businesses. The highly inappropriately named Sambo's restaurant chain was dying and with it his fortune
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The History of the NBA Cancelling, Suspending, and Postponing Games
On March 11, 2020, Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for the Coronavirus, or COVID-19. Gobert's test results came in seconds before the Jazz and the Oklahoma City Thunder were set to tip-off their game. The positive results for Gobert resulted in the game in Oklahoma City being postponed.
As news broke of Gobert's virus it became clear that this was the first domino that needed to fall. For a few days the league had talked about playing games without fans. But as the first case of an athlete testing positive for the virus came to light the NBA took the extortionary measure to completely suspended the 2019-20 season.
There were several games that had already been played on that Wednesday night, with one game airing nationally on ESPN, and one that was waiting to be played.
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How Cocaine caused the New York Knicks to throw games
Cocaine was the scourge of the NBA in 1970s and 80s, the drug lead to 8 players being banned from the NBA and 3 of them permanently. But no case of drug use, or potential use, is as crazy as what is rumored to have been doing on with the 1980s Knicks.
The Knicks were the main attraction in New York City during the 1970s. The team won their only two NBA championships and made the eastern finals 5 times. But by the late 70s and early 80s the team had fallen on hard times. But things had started to look up, the Knicks had used the 4th pick in the 1978 NBA draft on Montana guard Michael Ray Richardson.
Richardson was going to change the franchise and bring back the glory days of the early 1970s, or so the Knicks thought.
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Who is the worst franchise in NBA history?
Losing is as much a part of basketball as winning, but some teams do the former a lot more often than the latter. They lose so much that they become synonymous with losing. The Clippers have been the butt of many jokes, especially during the 1990s, about their winning futility, but they seem to have turned it around once being sold off.
So who is the worst team in NBA history? Obviously, the Los Angeles Clippers come to mind first and foremost. This is a franchise that all but embraced losing and made it part of their identity. But a forced ownership change has seemingly given the Clippers a new identity that has taken them away from the trash heap of the NBA. The glitz and the glam of LA also added to the Clippers mystic as the unlovable losers, and the franchise did deserve a lot of the bashing it got for sucking.
The Clippers were run by a terrible owner in Donald Sterling and had a terrible general manager in Elgin Baylor, that Sterling insisted on keep even though the team was always terrible
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The story of the New Jersey Swamp Dragons
For most of their history the Nets have been one of the most maligned teams in the NBA. They've been the eastern conferences version of the Clippers. A team who habitually loses and does so many stupid things that it becomes comical. And if comedy is what you like that the tale of the New Jersey Swamp Dragons is for you. Swamp Dragons? What the .... are the Swamp Dragons? what is a Swamp Dragon? In the summer of 1994 the New Jersey Nets considered rebranding their franchise the Swamp Dragons.
To fully understand this you have to go back to the early 1990s. The league had just experienced its first full explosion into American society and pop culture. The 1980s had been great for the NBA, it added 5 new teams, and the Magic-Bird rivalry had driven fans to the arenas like nothing before.
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Who got the first triple-double in NBA history?
One of the most impressive stats a player can get in the modern NBA is the triple-double. A triple-double is defined as a player getting ten or more of any of the five statistical categories of points, rebounds, assists, steals or blocks.
But who got the first triple-double and when was it? That question is hard to answer as in the early days of the NBA and BAA stat keeping was not well kept. Many of the early box scores have gone missing or are incomplete. Add to that the NBA did not keep track of blocks and steals until 1973. The NBA also did not accurately record rebounds until after the 1950 season.
Triple-Doubles were not even well tracked or a thing until the 1980s,
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The NBA's 6 Overtime Game
Sometimes a game can seem like it never ends. The last two minutes of a game can take thirty minutes in real life minutes, but the game usually ends in regulation and occasionally goes into overtime. But on January 6, 1951 it seemed like a game between the Indianapolis Olympians and Rochester Royals would never end.
On May 5, 2019 the Portland Trailblazers outlasted the Denver Nuggets 140-137 in four overtime, but that game would pail in comparison to the January 6th game. On that cold night in Rochester the Olympians beat the Royals 75-73, in SIX OVERTIMES!
The six overtime periods is still a record for the NBA. The game broke the record set a year earlier when the Syracuse Nationals outlasted the Anderson Packers in five overtimes. The NBA was still in its infancy at the time
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John Barber the man who scored 188 points in a basketball game
Basketball fans are well versed in two of the most legendary games in NBA history: Wilt Chamberlain's 100 point game vs the Knicks and Kobe Bryant's 81 point game vs the Raptors. Both games are legendary, but in the grand spectrum of high scoring games both come up short. in fact, Bryant's 81 point game does not even crack the top 25 of highest scoring games, all 25 games are games where a player scored over 100 points, and Chamberlain's game comes in near the bottom.
On February 16, 1953 the granddaddy of all super scoring games occurred when Los Angeles State took on Chapman Community College. Barber scored an astronomical 188 points, as the result of an "experiment" concocted by his coach, Sax Elliot, to debunk the notion of "Bevo" Francis as a "Superman" of the courts. Rio Grande's Clearence "Bevo" Francis was a scoring machine and was attracting a lot of national attention. He scored 116 points earlier in the season against Ashland Junior College and was averaging over 50 points a game. Los Angeles States John Barber was a scoring machine himself having already dropped 103 against Los Angeles Community College.
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Marie Boyd: The First 100 Point Scorer:
Great scorer's and basketball seem to go hand-in-hand, so it is a rarity that a great scorer goes unnoticed, especially one that scores an astonishing 156 points in a game. But Marie Boyd, whose name is often misattributed as Mary Boyd, is just that; a prolific scorer that nobody knows of. She was the first player, man or woman, to score 100 points in a basketball game, a feat that has largely gone unnoticed.
Boyd is arguably the greatest woman basketball player of the first 50 years of basketball. An era where both the men's and women's game lacked the competition that we see today. Nonetheless she still dominated at such a high degree that was unmatched in the men's game until Wilt Chamberlain come along.
Central High School in Lonaconing, Maryland, was one of the first dominant schools in basketball history. The Black Knights as they were called went 4 years, 1922-25, without a loss and were in large part lead by the dominating Boyd
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Tallest Basketball Player Ever
The tallest player in NBA history is a tie between seven-foot-seven-inch Manute Bol and Gheorge Muresan. Both players played in the 1990s and were considered giants among their peers; peers in themselves who are considered giants among men. But both Bol and Muresan get dwarfed by the tallest player to ever play basketball.
At Eight-foot-four-inches tall, Gilbert "Tiny" Reichert was truly a giant of giants. Reichert played in an era where the average center was maybe six-foot-four or six-foot-five and he towered over players.
Reichert played for a couple of barnstorming teams during the barnstorming era, he most notably played for the House of David Israelite; a barnstorming team made up of mostly people of Jewish decent in and around the Cleveland, Ohio area. The team was unique in that all it's members grew beards. Beard were a rarity in basketball at the time because it was well within the rules to grab and pull on a beard. He also briefly played for a team called the Detroit Clowns.
Before playing basketball Reichert made a living as a circus or sideshow freak. During this time a lot of his physical measurements get confusing with some reports having him listed at over 12 feet tall and others at a more modest 7-foot-six inches tall. The most reliable reports come from the House of David official pamphlets and Reichert himself which state him between 8'1" and 8"4'. It should be noted that he is not listed on the Guinness Book or World Records list for tallest human beings.
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The Long Weird History of the NBA Draft
Every June fans line up waiting to see who their favorite NBA team will select in the draft. In today's NBA it is a pretty straight forward process. Each team normally has 1 pick in the first round, and 1 pick in the second round based on their record and maybe a little luck in the draft lottery. But in the long history of the NBA draft things have not always been that simple. Before the league started to curtail the draft in 1988 the rounds could go on and on indefinitely if they wanted them too. For example the 1960 draft had 21 rounds and the 1984 draft seen 228 players drafted.
The process for the draft became cumbersome and the majority of the players selected after round three never played in the NBA. Several of the early drafts did not keep accurate records so its unknown which players went where in the draft, each team is just listed as having selected players listed in an alphabetical record. Basketball betting tips for the experts suggest that most of these players never even knew where they were drafted and the majority of them did not care as they planned to focus on other endeavors rather than the NBA.
Than there was the territorial picks. For a time in the NBA a team was allowed to forfeit their first round pick to select a local product that the league thought would help boost attendance to the games. While it was true that these picks did help boost attendance and fan interest, it was several taken advantage of as several really good teams got better by using giving up their late first round pick to get a superstar. There was a total of 23 territorial picks made in NBA history between 1949 and 1965 and 13 of them are in the hall-of-fame and two others were all-stars. Teams had a better chance of landing a hall-of-fame player than they did a bust at nearly 2-1 odds.
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Minnesota Madness
The NBA in the 1980s and 1990s is often seen as an era of financial stability and expansion. The league saw money come in at a previously unprecedented rate, most of it coming for the new found television revenue. The NBA added 11 new teams from 1976 until 1996. The league also found three superstars to hang its image on in Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan.
But there was an underbelly to this glorious side as well. In the same time span that saw the NBA add 11 new teams, four teams relocated and three others attempted to relocate.
One of the most interesting cases involved the Minnesota Timberwolves who were awarded by the NBA to the city of Minneapolis in 1989. The Wolves were one of four NBA teams that entered the league between 1988 and 1989, and the second NBA team to play in the Twin-Cities.
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The NBA's First Season
Following World War II sports in America began to pick up a lot of popularity. Fans clamored for entertainment and Football, Baseball and Hockey brought just that to the American populace. Basketball at the time was still in its infancy, with most leagues lasting less than a season before disbanding. There were two established leagues in the United States following the War, there was the ABL and NBL. Both leagues played in small Midwest cities and were regional at best.
Walter Brown, owner of the Boston Garden and the landlord of the Boston Bruins of the NHL, thought that money could be made on the off-nights if the Boston Garden were to host basketball games. Brown had thought about attempting to purchase an ABL team but that did not pan out. He was skeptical that an NBL team could succeed so far away from the Ohio Valley where most teams resided, and often failed.
Brown got in contact with other business owners in other major cities such as Philadelphia and New York to try and establish a new league based in larger cities with teams playing in large venues.
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Leo Ferris: The man who saved the NBA
The early days of basketball often seen slow fan-unfriendly low scoring matches that often left spectators bored. Games often only got into the 40s and many of the best players averaged less than 15 points a game. Many early basketball games looked more like a glorified version of the childrens game of keep-away than an action packed professional sport. This style of play culminated in a game between Minneapolis and Fort Wayne, where the Pistons of Fort Wayne held the ball most of the second half nursing a 1 point lead over the Lakers. The Pistons would win 19-18 in the lowest scoring game in NBA history. Prior to that the fewest points ever score 33 points, just 4 fewer than both teams scored, and that game was one the opening night of the NBA, or BAA as it was called back then.
This place pace bored fans, many of whom where promised an action packed fun experience and attendance and interest in the new league had begun to dip. The NBA needed a solution and needed it fast. The solution was an ingenious one and one that would revolutionize the game as we know it. A simple clock, with just 24 seconds on it would forever change the game.
The clock was the brain child of Syracuse Nationals general manager Leo Ferris, a man that the NBA has long forgotten in one of the biggest travesties in the games history. Ferris, is as important to the early days of the NBA as anyone and one could argue that without Ferris there would be no NBA today; and there definitely would be no Atlanta Hawks, or Philadelphia 76ers. The NBA would look much different today without Ferris's input all those years ago.
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History of point shaving in basketball
Point shaving is arguably the biggest cardinal sin in the basketball world. While there has been several cases of it involving college basketball, the NBA has had relatively few incidents of point shaving, that is not to say that the scandals have not affected the NBA, quite the contrary.
Of the four major leagues in the US the NBA has been the most ardent opponent of betting on games, especially during its early years. The league has soften its stance in later years, but is still waging a fight against the state of New Jersey over online betting.
Point shaving is when a bookie or better convinces a player or official to help a favored team not make the spread. For example, if a team is favored to win by 10 points, the player or players involved make sure that the team wins by fewer than 10 points. This is accomplished by intentionally missing shots, committing turnovers or fouls, or in the case of a corrupt official making bad calls.
Basketball is an extremely easy sport to manipulate because of the tempo of the game and the affect just one player can have on the game. The NCAA is much more susceptible to point shaving than the NBA because of the NCAA's strict emphasis on amateurism. NCAA players do not make any money and are often struggling college students, while the NBA players are making millions of dollars. It is much easier for a bookie to convince a poor college student to miss a few shots for a few hundred dollars than it is to convince a millionaire NBA player to do the same thing.
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Connie Hawkins fight against the NBA
On October sixth, the NBA lost one of the great pioneers in league history. Connie Hawkins was a four time NBA all-star and former ABA MVP, who's legal battle with the ABA and NBA helped change the landscape of professional basketball.
Few athletes in American history have ever been as victimized by the system as Hawkins was. In 1961, while Hawkins was a freshman at Iowa and ineligible to play on the Hawkeyes varsity team due to NCAA regulations at the time, a humongous college betting scandal erupted and Hawkins was kicked out of school.
The scandal involved 22 different schools and 37 players, but Hawkins was not implicated. The scandal mostly focused on players associated with Jack Molinas, who had escaped the CCNY betting scandal a decade and a half earlier. Hawkins, growing up in New York City, knew many of the players involved and had borrowed $2,000 for school expenses from Jack Molinas, but Hawkins brother had paid Molinas back before the scandal erupted.
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History of the Westward Expansion of Basketball
Basketball's early roots on the east coast are well document, from that cold December day in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1891 when the game first formed to the present, we know the stories, the players and the histories. What is less known is how the game developed out west. While at the time of basketball's founding the east was pretty much an established mega-industrial center catering to the worlds needs. The west, it was still wild and untamed.
When James Naismith invented basketball in 1891 the United States states had just 44 states and Wyoming and Idaho had just joined the Union. Three states that would join the union after the founding of basketball, Utah, Oklahoma and Arizona, now contain NBA teams. The battle of Wounded Knee, the last great battle between the United States Army and the Native American's had happened just shy of a year before the game of basketball was invented. And the infamous gun fight at the OK Corral had happened just a decade before. In fact, the early days of basketball are closer in time to the French Revolution than they are to today.
It is easy to see why basketball's roots began in the east and why it has stuck and become such an integral part of the urban landscape. The east had the infrastructure and had young men with free time to play the game and form leagues. In contrast, the west lacked the roads, rails, and metropolitan areas to give rise to the infrastructure that is required to play basketball.
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The Collapse of the PBLA and the end of multi-league basketball in America
Following World War II many Americans were looking for some sort of entertainment outlet, and sports quickly became one of the most popular outlets. Basketball was still in its infancy but would soon see epic growth as war weary Americans needed more and more entertainment outlets.
In 1946 there were three major American basketball leagues in the US. The oldest, the ABL had been around in some from since the 1920s but had spotty attendance and fans and players alike had a hard time figuring out what teams were actually in the league. The newest of the leagues was the BAA, which had just formed an 11 team league on the eastern seaboard with a couple of teams as far west as Chicago and Detroit. The most successful of the leagues was the NBL, which was entering its 11th season and had the best players in the world.
The NBL and ABL had little direct competition as the ABL stuck around mostly New York City, Philadelphia and Washington and the NBL was primarily focused in Ohio, Indiana and the Great Lakes regions. The inclusion of a third league which directly competed with both leagues worried both leagues ownerships and started to bring about instability to both leagues.
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The Bad Attitude Choke Artists of Chicago
The 1970s were a difficult time for the NBA and for America in general. The Bill Russell lead Celtics dynasty which had dominated the 1960s had come and gone. Wilt Chamberlain was a shell of the man who once scored 100 points in a game. Cocaine and drug abuse was a serious problem in the league. The Summer of Love had descended into Helter Skelter. The US had ended its involvement in Vietnam The people did not trust their own government because of the Watergate scandal. Than there was the circus sideshow known as the Chicago Bulls.
Even with the difficulties of the era the Bulls had seen some success on the court. The team made the playoffs eight times in their first decade and had even made a few serious deep playoff runs. But the Bulls still struggled to bring in the big bucks, despite playing in the third largest market in the US. Fans in Chicago would rather watch the Bears in the fall and winter and the Cubs and Whitesox in the spring. This forced the Bulls to get creative with their ways to get fans in the seats.
Pat Williams is widely considered to be one of the best general managers the NBA has ever seen, he has rebuilt team after team after team, but in the early 1970s he was just starting out in the NBA and had the unfortunate task of saving the Chicago Bulls.
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History of early professional basketball in Indiana
Before the Indiana Pacers joined the ABA and eventually the NBA, the state of Indiana was the hot bed of professional basketball. From 1935 until 1953 the state hosted no less than 11 different teams in the major professional basketball leagues. Unfortunately, almost all of them would end and leave the state with no professional basketball teams for nearly two decades.
Indiana is synonymy with the game of basketball. The University of Indiana is one of the most storied programs in all of college basketball winning 5 NCAA titles, but it was Purdue who would bring the state its first NCAA basketball title in 1932.
Through out the early years of basketball a lot of fly by night leagues and teams called Indiana home, in fact Indiana even had its own semi-pro league of teams completely made up of teams in the Indianapolis region. It was not until 1935 when the Midwest Basketball Conference formed did the state of Indiana start seeing regular professional basketball at the highest levels and quality
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Wat Misaka broke the color barrier years before Jackie Robinson
he was the first non-Caucasian to ever play in the NBA, or as it was known at that time the BAA or Basketball Association of America. Watura Misaka, the second generation son of Japanese immigrants, grew up on Ogden's 25th street in the back of a barber shop and would often find him and his family the victim of rampant racial discrimination. Yet despite this Misaka was able to find a love of basketball and was allowed on the Ogden High Schools basketball team, where in 1940 he lead them to the state title.
In 1942 he began attending college at Weber College, which is now Weber State University. This was a dangerous time to be Japanese-American as president Roosevelt had recently signed Executive Order 9066 which required that Japanese-American's in the western United State be placed into interment camps. It remains one of the darkest chapters in American history and one of, if not the most, egregious violation of Human and Civil Rights in the 20th century.
Misaka was allowed to get an exemption to continue his studies at Weber and play basketball. He only played two seasons at Weber College but would lead the Wildcats to the Junior College championship both season.
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The Merger that formed the NBA: How and why it happened
When the Basketball Association of America (BAA) merged with the National Basketball League (NBL) in 1949 it was the culmination of two great basketball leagues that would give us one final and polished product; the National Basketball Association (NBA). A league, that in 1949, looked much different that the product we see today. Today we have 30 teams nestled in mega arenas in 28 cities across the United States and Canada and income in the Billions of dollars.
The 17 team league would be a mixture of big east coast cities, small Midwest farming communities, and one lone enclave in the Rocky Mountains. From the start problems started to arise with the disparity between the former NBL teams and the BAA teams. One of the biggest was income disparity as the BAA teams had a lot more money than did the NBL teams, the one thing that the NBL teams did have an advantage over the BAA is that the NBL tended to have the bigger stars.
One of the major factors in the merging of the two leagues was that the BAA, after three years of existence, was finally able to start not only plucking the top stars away from the NBL but also the NBL's top teams as well. Two seasons after its existence in 1947, the BAA was able to lure the Minneapolis Lakers away from the NBL along with the Rochester Royals, Fort Wayne Pistons and Indianapolis Jets.
Adding the Lakers to the BAA gave them the games biggest star in George Mikan
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Bruce Jenner's brief NBA career
The 1970s were a interesting decade for America and for sports in particular. The decade saw the US withdraw from Vietnam and seen the presidency mired in the biggest scandal in American history; Watergate. It saw the Superbowl rise to dominance lead by the dominant teams of the era, the Steelers and Cowboys and it seen the Miami Dolphins deliver the only perfect season. In the basketball world it seen the NBA go head-to-head with the dazzling ABA only to see the larger NBA eat the ABA and take four of its teams.
It was also an era in the NBA when the annual NBA draft was like that annoying song from the children's show Lambchop; it would go on and on and on..... But looking at the seemingly endless list of picks and one can find some funny and interesting picks. The Chicago Bulls would draft runner Carl Lewis in 1984, the same year they drafted a guy named Michael Jordan. The New Orleans Jazz drafted a woman named Lusia Harris. The Boston Celtics drafted a water boy and the Lakers tried drafting both Scooby Doo and a chair but both picks were rejected by the league. But one of the most interesting publicity stunt picks, mostly because he may have actually been able to play in the NBA, was the Kansas City Kings 7th round pick Bruce Jenner.
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The NBA Ghost Team: Utah Rockies
One of the great anomalies and interesting facts of the NBA revolves around a team that is not even in the NBA, but yet receives a portion of the NBA revenue. It is the rumored ghost franchise of the NBA, also known as the Utah Rockies or Spirits of Saint Louis.
Even some of the most die hard fans have never heard of this franchise and that is because they have never played a game in the NBA. Ever. The Spirits are a semblance of the NBA's old rival, the American Basketball Association. But unlike teams like the San Antonio Spurs, Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers and New York Nets; the Rockies/Spirits never joined the NBA, nor did they disband like the Virginia Squires, Kentucky Colonels or San Diego Conquistadors. Instead they got one the good side of one of the best business deals of the 20th century, and deal that is still making its benefactors a fortune today.
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Top 10 NBL Players of All-Time
In 1949 the Basketball Association of American(BAA) and the National Basketball League(NBL) merged to form the National Basketball Association; this is a fact that most NBA fans know. Many NBA fans also know about the brief three year history of the BAA, but what about the NBL? Not many fans know about the 12 year history of the smaller market NBL or its players. Who were these players?
In fact, little can be found about them. This list is a collection of information about the 10 best players who played in the NBL. Emphasis is giving to NBL careers, which is why some players rank higher on this list then on other lists composing mostly of NBA players.
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PLAYER FILES
Was Michael Jordan the best player to ever play? some people dont think so, read this compelling argument to weather or not Jordan is the greatest to ever play.
Jordan File
Or Maybe you think Wilt Chamberlin is the greatest ever?
Wilt Chamberlin Files
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Maurice Podoloff......... 1946-63 President
Walter Kennedy........... 1963-67 President
Walter Kennedy........... 1967-75 Commissioner
Larry O'Brien............ 1975-84 Commissioner
David Stern.............. 1984-14 Commissioner
Adam Silver.............. 2014- Commissioner
Team location by state
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