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.

In 1983 North Carolina State made one of the greatest runs to a championship in the history of college basketball, a run that was capped off with one of the greatest plays in basketball history and a moment all basketball fans will recognize.

Before Lorenzo Charles epic put-back against Houston to win the 1983 NCAA tournament and Jim Valvano's epic run out to mid court in celebration; the wolfpack were just a mediocre team that not many had given much thought to winning the championship. But, it was a moment that Valvano and the Wolf pack had been preparing for, as forward Thurl Baily put it, "he brings a ladder to practice. He puts the ladder underneath the hoop, he takes out a pair of scissors, and he said: "Today, for the next two hours, all we're going to do is to practice cutting down the nets"

But for all Valvano's bravado, it did not appear that the Wolf Pack were going to do very much that march. The year prior as a 7th seed they had been bounced in the first round by 10th seeded Chattanooga and in 1981 they failed to qualify for the tournament. The Pack entered the 1983 tournament as a 6th seed.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A topic that's often debated among NBA fans is around the greatest Australian player of all time. There have been some great Aussies in the NBA over the years. From Luc Longley to Ben Simmons, they've all had an impact in America. But there's one name that tends to get mentioned more than most – Andrew Bogut. Let's take a look at his illustrious career, which began back in 2005.

Milwaukee Bucks 2005-2012
Bogut was the first overall pick in the 2005 NBA draft. He was the first Australian to be drafted number one overall. The Australian's first season saw him average 9.4 points and 7.0 rebounds per game.

The next few years saw Bogut struggle with injuries. From back fractures to broken hands and dislocated elbows, it wasn't easy for him to stay at the top of his game, but he did. The 2009-10 season was pivotal in being a breakout year as he was named in the All-NBA Third Team.

A hip circle is a great sports tool that can be used at home, in a sports club or training outdoors. Due to its versatility and compactness, a hip circle is often also used by professional athletes. Especially for those who play contact sports professionally, where good reaction, speed as well as coordination are required. This time we will try to answer the question of how the club circle can benefit basketball players. Let's have a look!

Nothing builds hype more than a super team - after all, everyone wants to see what a team with two or more elite players would do in a league. In some cases, super teams lead teams to finals and even to winning cups. But in others, it ends in tears - like what happened when LeBron, Dosh, and Wade joined the Heat in 2010. But make no mistake, the super team went ahead and won back-to-back in the subsequent years. The below graphic taken from a Betway NBA article illustrates some of the recent super teams.

Without further ado, here are the top 9 most hyped super teams in NBA history:

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.

Earlier this month, the Houston Rockets swung a deal with the Washington Wizards for disgruntled point guard, John Wall, in order to appease their fickle superstar, James Harden. The cost to acquire the 30-year-old Wall was perennial All-Star, Russell Westbrook, so this deal was not without its consequences.

But to hear Wall speak after the trade was a done deal suggests that his perception was identical to that of Houston's management when he stated, "Me and James had a great talk since I've been traded here.

The next NBA season is literally hours away now. The long wait is finally over. Of course, the NBA wouldn’t be the multi-billion-dollar sport that it is without iconic superstars that have committed decades of professionalism to the game. The likes of LeBron James, who is set to enter his 18th NBA season as he prepares to turn 36, have set the bar high.

But although it’s important to continue to celebrate and acknowledge the ageing heroes that have given so much to the world of NBA, it’s also exciting to pinpoint the young upstarts battling to take their place. Let’s take a look at six young guns looking to make their mark and cement themselves as part of the NBA’s next generation of MVPs.

Zion Williamson

20-year-old Zion Williamson is one of the first names on the lips of every NBA analyst right now. At a shade under two metres and approximately 130kg, Williamson is a powerhouse forward in every possible sense. His rookie season with the New Orleans Pelicans was hampered significantly by injury, but 2020-21 is set to be his year, even though it might not be the Pelicans’ year. New Orleans are priced as long as +650 in FOX Bet’s latest NBA odds for its Southwest Division Winner futures market. The Pelicans are one of the newest NBA franchises, which means people should look beyond their low all-time wins total, which places them beneath the Minnesota Timberwolves who are largely considered the worst performing franchise in NBA history. Under the tutelage of Pelicans coach Stan Van Gundy, who nurtured Dwight Howard at Orlando during a similar time in his fledgling career, Williamson has a unique blend of technical and physical attributes that could see him become the new face of the NBA for years to come.

The more experience a player has in betting, the better results he will get. Strategies in online sports betting are specific steps that a player follows because they have worked for him. They are only achieved in practice. In short, strategies are plans that are organized and executed. It's all about trial and error for gamblers until you get a sports betting strategy to generate good results. Each bettor manages his own strategies, but there are always some that work for everyone. That is why it is exciting and recommended that players follow the right strategy to bet at online casinos.

Why use strategies in sports betting?
Strategies in online sports betting are critical. Players should not bet any of their capital without first having a plan in place. Gambling is not just a game to get some fun and have a good time.

As we gear up for one of the most interesting winters we've had in a while, the changing NBA landscape is going to well. change even more as the fixtures for the 2021 schedule have been released.

To help cater for playing during a global pandemic, reducing exposure and player fatigue (or at least trying to), we can expect to see NBA teams facing a lot more time on the road. But what does that mean for the future season? And how will that affect all the odds on who might join the list of NBA champions?

Despite Corey Maggette only spending one year at Duke University before the 1999 draft, he set a lot a future trends that continue to this day in Durham. Now more than 20 years after he was on campus, Maggette's name once again comes up as the new season gets ready to start.

Why is Maggette's name in the news? There is another talented freshman on campus from the Chicago area this year, and even though they do not have too many similarities in playing style, it shows off the pipeline of players from the Windy City. Maggette started the trend, as he was the first to show that going from the Midwest to North Carolina was a smart move.

Maggette to Steward: 20 years of success with Chicago kids

Why Choosing Your NBA Bookmaker is the Most Important Decision of Your Betting Career

It is logical and common sense to say that anyone who becomes a gambler will improve as they gain more knowledge and be a better gambler after a year or two than they were at the start.

However, it is right at the beginning of your betting career where you have to make the most important decisions at all, a time when you are least experienced. This is to choose which bookmaker, or bookmakers if you are heading down the smart road, you are going to bet with.

This decision will directly impact your profit and loss figures, it could be the difference between winning and losing a bet, you cannot underestimate how important this is.

After months of doldrums in the arena, the NBA has finally sprung back on its two feet. What seemed like a possibility and a matter of chance is now in full swing.

The playoffs have been faring well, and the players are at their topmost form. All our apprehensions regarding the form of the players and the format of the game have been put to rest.

Therefore, it is probably the best time to brush up on our knowledge about the league. It shall bode well for us, the fans, to reflect upon all that transpired so far in this domain.