Nuggets Basketball

Rick Grantham asked:


The American Basketball Association is a professional basketball league in the United States in the late 1960s. It joined the National Basketball League in 1976. The league brought four teams in the NBA. They were the Denver Nuggets, New Jersey Nets, Indianan Pacers, and the San Antonio Spurs.

Among the four teams, the Spurs turned out to be the most dominant. Ever since the mergence, they have won fifteen Division titles, four conference titles, and four championship titles. Since their championship crown in 1999, the Spurs have shown tremendous success in the basketball arena. Their winning percentage is among the highest of any team in any sport of any major league in the US.

They have made loyal fans in San Antonio, which became their home since 1973. The attendance during their home games are among the largest. In 1999, the fans poured out their support as they set an attendance record of 39,554.
Before their glorious years in 1999, the Spurs went through difficulties. Their coach changed almost every year. They even had their worst record in franchise history in the 1996-97 season. David Robinson stepped up for the team in several years. He earned the Most Valuable Player award in 1995. However, his team was not able to bring home the championship banner.

They had the chance to make the top pick in the 1997 draft. They used it well and chose the Tim Duncan. Like Robinson, he was also a Naismith College Player of the Year in 1997. When he joined the San Antonio Spurs, he and Robinson gave birth to the Twin Towers. They also began the glorious seasons for the team.

NBA felt the presence of Duncan almost immediately. He won the Rookie of the Year award in 1997-98 season. In 1999, the team won its very first National championship title and Duncan became the NBA finals Most Valuable Player.

The year 1999 is a very memorable year for the franchise. The Spurs became the first former ABA team to appear in the finals, and the first to win the coveted NBA title. The year 2003 marked another memorable year. David Robinson was due to retire after the season. It was also the first year that they will be playing at their new home court, the AT&T center. They completed the celebration, by winning their second NBA title.

Their second NBA title was a team effort of the twin towers and the new rising stars of the team. The new key players include Tony Parker and Manu Ginobli. They earned their third NBA title in 2005 and once again, Tim Duncan brought home the NBA finals MVP.

Their Cinderella story took place in 2007. They started out strong but were not able to stay consistent. Their team standing gradually slide and almost all the players were frustrated. However, this turned around after Coach Gregg Popovic decided to keep the team intact even if he had the option to make a trade. They went on to win the 2007 NBA title and Tony Parker won his very first NBA finals MVP award.



JORDAN

NBAMIXChannel asked:

Charlie Villanueva nails a half-court shot against the Nuggets.

VAUGHN

kubajays asked:

Allen on the court and Ludacris ont the mic

HAROLD

Billy Bonds asked:


During the boom period of the NBA of the 1980s the league sought to expand itself from 23 teams to 26 by the end of the decade. In Florida, a state devoid of any NBA franchises, groups from Orlando, Tampa/St. Petersburg and Miami all vied to land franchises.

The Miami Sports and Exhibition Authority eventually endorsed a group led by NBA Hall of Famer Billy Cunningham and former sports agent (and lifelong friend of Cunningham’s) Lewis Schaffel, who received their financial backing from Carnival Cruise Lines tycoon Ted Arison, who would be the majority shareholder of a potential franchise but defer the day-to-day operations to minority shareholders Cunningham and Schaffel.

In April 1987, the NBA expansion committee endorsed the bids of the cities of Charlotte and Minneapolis. However, the committee was split between awarding the third and final franchise to Miami or Orlando, causing representatives from both cities to toss barbs at the other. Finally, it was decided that the NBA would expand by 4 teams, with the Charlotte Hornets and Miami Heat debuting for the 1988-89 season and the Minnesota Timberwolves and Orlando Magic beginning for the 1989-90 season.

For their first head coach, Miami hired Ron Rothstein, who was a longtime assistant coach under Chuck Daly in Detroit and who was credited with being one of the architects of Detroit’s stifling defense.

The Heat came into the NBA for the 1988-89 season with an unproductive first year, with a roster full of young players and journeymen. Among the players on the inaugural roster were first round picks Rony Seikaly and Kevin Edwards, fellow rookies Grant Long and Sylvester Gray as well as NBA vets Rory Sparrow, Jon Sundvold, Pat Cummings, Scott Hastings, Dwayne “Pearl” Washington and Billy Thompson. The team started out the season by losing its first 17 games, an NBA record. It did not help that the Heat were placed in the Midwest Division of the Western Conference. This forced them on the longest road trips in the NBA; their nearest divisional opponent was the Houston Rockets, over 900 miles from Miami. The team ultimately finished with a league-worst 15-67 win-loss record.

To help address Miami’s league-low point production, the Heat picked Glen Rice from the University of Michigan in the first round of the 1989 NBA Draft, and Sherman Douglas of Syracuse University in the 2nd round. The team also moved to the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference for the 1989-90 season, where they would remain for the next 15 years. However, the Heat continued to struggle and never won more than two consecutive games, en route to an 18-64 record.

The 1989-90 season saw Miami awarded with the 3rd pick overall, only to parlay via two trades (first with the Denver Nuggets and later with the Houston Rockets) into getting the 9th and 12th picks, with which they selected Willie Burton of the University of Minnesota and Alec Kessler of the University of Georgia. Both picks flopped, as the Heat tried to turn Burton, a college small forward, into a shooting guard without much success and Kessler was bogged by injury problems and was not physical enough to be a quality NBA power forward.

While Rice, Seikaly and Douglas all showed improvement from the previous year, Miami still only went 24-58 and remained in the Atlantic Division basement.

Rothstein would resign as head coach at the end of the season, but later would return to the Heat prior to the 2004-05 season as an assistant coach, a role he still fulfills today.

In the wake of Rothstein’s resignation prior to the 1991-92 season, the Heat hired Kevin Loughery, who had 29 years of experience in the NBA both as a coach and a player, to be their new head coach. For the 1991 NBA Draft, the team selected Steve Smith from Michigan State, who provided an agile guard to a more mature Heat team. With the help of rookie Smith, Rony Seikaly, and a more experienced Glen Rice, the Heat finished in fourth place in the Atlantic Division with a 38-44 record and made the playoffs for the first time. Playing the league-best Chicago Bulls, the Heat were swept in three games. Steve Smith made the NBA All-Rookie team and Glen Rice finished 10th in the NBA in scoring.

The 1992-93 NBA season included the additions of draft choice Harold Miner of the University of Southern California as well as trading a 1st round pick (which would turn into the #10 overall pick the following season) for Detroit Pistons forward/center John Salley. While Salley’s addition was first met with optimism because of the role that he played on two championship Detroit Pistons squads, it became apparent quickly that Salley was a quality role player for a good team, but not a quality player for a mediocre team like Miami was at the time. Salley would eventually have his playing time diminish, ultimately resulting in his being taken by the Toronto Raptors in the 1995 expansion draft. As for the season itself, it started off poorly, with Smith missing time with a knee injury and Burton being lost for most of the year with a wrist injury. Upon Smith’s return, Miami posted a winning record in February and March, but it was not enough to dig themselves out of the 13-27-hole they began in. They finished 36-46 and would not return to the playoffs.

A healthier squad fared better in 1993-94, posting the franchise’s first-ever winning record at 42-40 and returning to the playoffs as the #8 seed versus the Atlanta Hawks. After Miami had a 2-1 series lead, Atlanta rallied from the deficit to win the best-of-5 series. After that season, Steve Smith would be selected as a member of the 2nd Dream Team, the collection of NBA All-Stars who were selected to compete in the 1994 World Basketball Championships in Toronto as Team U.S.A.. Dream Team II, also made up of future Heat players Shaquille O’Neal, Alonzo Mourning, Dan Majerle and Tim Hardaway, would go on to win the tournament.

In 1994-95, the team overhauled their roster, trading away Seikaly, Smith, and Grant Long. In return, the Heat obtained Kevin Willis and Billy Owens.

Also, at this time came a power shift in Heat’s front office. On February 13, 1995 Cunningham and Lew Schaffel were bought out by the Arison family of Carnival Cruise Lines fame, who to that point in time had been silent partners in the day-to-day operations of the franchise until the buyout. Micky Arison, son of Carnival founder Ted Arison was named Managing General Partner. He immediately fired Loughery and replaced him with Alvin Gentry on an interim basis to try and shake up the 17-29 Heat. Gentry went 15-21 for the remaining 36 games of the season for a 32-50 record overall, 10 games off the previous year’s mark.



DOUGLAS

zzlvnz asked:

NBA Draft 2005

ERWIN

bjdtwothousandten asked:

Discussing my absence and talking about my favorite NBA basketball team the Denver Nuggets and showing everyone my golf equipment

HARRY

Stephen Lars asked:


Kobe Bryant scored 38 points taking the Lakers to the first victory in the West Conference semifinals (109-98) against the Jazz of Utah. Additional help came from Pau Gasol with 18 points and 10 rebounds, while the Jazz players also did their part with Mehmet Okur with 21 points and 19 rebounds and Carlos Boozer with 15 points and 14 rebounds.

The Lakers certainly came back to life after their fall in the previous qualifying round against the Denver Nuggets. While at play with the Jazz the Lakers were down but were able to recover for a final victory.

Another clash was also taking place between coaches Phil Jackson and Jerry Sloan who had not been face to face since the 1998 NBA final between the Bulls and the Jazz. The Lakers took advantage of the low Jazz shot percentage 36/95, 37.9 a definite turn-around which aim the team.

From the beginning, Gasol knew to take advantage of the gaps left by the rival defense to catch the assistance and be led directly to the hoop. Two Jazz players tried to block him but Gasol knew how to prevent that blocking and scored his best points.

On the other hand, Utah Jazz Deron Williams had a very positive control of the ball as he handled it with intelligence a plan, which was working against his rivals during the first quarter, as they were faster than the Lakers.

It is very possible Bryant will be named the best player of the season; he has been very steady and has not fail his team when needed most. During the first quarter of the game against Utah he scored 15 points leaving the Californians with one point of advantage (25-24). .

The Lakers also had extra resources with Vujacic whose triples triggered the team’s take off. Gasol on this end kept approaching the hoop and led the team to a (41-28). The team’s true winning formula was a combination of speed in the attack and an intense defense.

Throughout the game the Lakers led with a small difference while the Utah players distributed amongst themselves the points in the same way as in the game carried out in the series against the Rockets last Friday.

During the second half, the Lakers spectacular game continued despite the constant attack from the Utah players Boozer and Okur who tried to turn the situation around but did not find the way to it. Then in the last quarter with the scoreboard at 79-72 the Staples Center trembled as both teams continue their fight for the night triumph.

The Jazz suffered an unexpected removal of one of the players; when Boozer walked out of the court; then Gasol awoke and began to score (101-90) and only 44 second before the end of the game; Utah just did not how to solve the equation and the Lakers imposed their superiority quickly to grasp the win.



LESTER

Stephen Lars asked:


With Ginóbili’s return, the Spurs will certainly lit up their NBA champions’ goal. The Argentinean scored 23 points including 12 in the last quarter while Tim Duncan added 17 points and the French Tony Parker scored 26 points on Sunday’s victory over Los Angeles Clippers 88-82.

Ginóbili was not present in five games due to a left-hand finger twist. For this past game, he played with his hand bandaged to protect his injury.

“I felt well during all the game. Simply I did not do the shots that I’m used to do, but I should be patient and let this happen by itself”, said the Argentinean who got five of 12 shots from the perimeter and 12 of 13 from the punishment line.

The Spurs begun the season with a 17-3 record and they had a record of 6-6 in their last 12 games; due to this figures Coach Duncan was happy to have Ginóbili return.

“He is our specialist in finishing the games, and a great assistant and gives another dimension to the team, especially in the last minutes”, said Duncan. “When the plays don’t turn out well, someone has to penetrate the contrary defensive”.

Ginóbili’s two free shots gave the Spurs an advantage of 64-62 before the last quarter; the Argentinean only played 29 minutes.

Other Spurs’ Argentinean Fabricio Oberto played 13 minutes in which contributed with two points. The scoreboard was kept tight almost the entire game. The Spurs’ great advantage is that they are the current NBA champions and the players feel the need to continue leading the team two a second championship.

In other games, the Denver Nuggets defeated 109-96 the Philadelphia 76ers, with a total of 38 points from Allen Iverson who played against his old team.

The Washington Wizards crushed Seattle 108-86 and the Dallas Mavericks won 101-78 over Minnesota Timberwolves with a total of 30 points from the German Dirk Nowitzki.



ALVIN

RockyMountainNews asked:

Nuggets’ coach George Karl “discusses” the UNC-Duke rivalry with Nugget Dahntay Jones

ERNIE