The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams. It is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada and is considered the premier professional basketball league in the world.
The Philadelphia 76ers, also known colloquially as the Sixers, are an American professional basketball team based in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The 76ers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home games at the Wells Fargo Center located in the South Philadelphia Sports Complex.
The United States Basketball League (USBL) was a professional men's spring basketball league. The league was formed in 1985 and ceased operations in 2008. The USBL started in 1985 as one of the first basketball leagues to play a late-spring to early-summer schedule. The league quickly became known as a development league for players, with many players moving up to the National Basketball Association (NBA) and many more playing in Europe after stints here. In 1996, the league made a stock offering, a rarity among sports leagues. However, in later years, the league declined as rival leagues appeared and USBL had a tougher time replacing teams that folded. In the last two seasons, the league was mainly a midwestern league, with teams mainly in Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma. After speculation that the USBL might fold after the 2007 season, the league announced that it would sit out the 2008 season and consider its options for the future. In January 2010, the league expressed hopes to resume play in April 2010. However, no further news has surfaced from the league. The final champions are the Kansas Cagerz, who won the title game on July 1, 2007.
Allen Ezail Iverson is an American former professional basketball player. Nicknamed "the Answer", he played 14 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) at both the shooting guard and point guard positions. Iverson won NBA Rookie of the Year Award in 1997 and was an 11-time NBA All-Star, won the All-Star Game MVP Award in 2001 and 2005, and was the NBA's Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 2001. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016. In October 2021, he was named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team. Iverson is regarded as one of the game's greatest scorers, ball handlers, guards, and one of the most influential athletes in American sports.
Mayce Edward Christopher Webber III is an American former professional basketball player. Webber played 15 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), with the largest portion of his career spent with the Sacramento Kings. Drafted number one overall in the 1993 NBA draft, Webber became a 5-time NBA All-Star, a 5-time All-NBA Team member, and the NBA Rookie of the Year. He also played for the Golden State Warriors, Washington Bullets, Philadelphia 76ers, and Detroit Pistons during his NBA career.
In organized sports, point shaving is a type of match fixing where the perpetrators try to change the final score of a game without changing who wins. This is typically done by players colluding with gamblers to prevent a team from covering a published point spread, where gamblers bet on the margin of victory. The practice of shaving points is illegal in some countries, and stiff penalties are imposed for those caught and convicted, including jail time.
Bobby Jackson is an American professional basketball coach who is an assistant coach for the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for Western Nebraska Community College and the University of Minnesota. In the NBA, he played for several teams over twelve seasons, from 1997 to 2009.
Ervin Johnson Jr. is an American former professional basketball player who is a community ambassador for the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played in the NBA for the Seattle SuperSonics, Denver Nuggets, Milwaukee Bucks and Minnesota Timberwolves as a center from 1993 to 2006.
The 2001–02 NBA season was the 56th season of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The season ended with the Los Angeles Lakers winning their third straight championship, beating the New Jersey Nets 4–0 in the 2002 NBA Finals.
Richard W. Bavetta is an American retired professional basketball referee for the National Basketball Association (NBA). He debuted in the league in 1975 and never missed an assigned game, and he holds the league record for most officiated games with 2,635.
The 2002 NBA playoffs were the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association's 2001–02 season. This was the final postseason that held a best-of-5 first-round series; the 2003 NBA playoffs saw those series expand to a best-of-7 format. The tournament concluded with the Western Conference champion Los Angeles Lakers defeating the Eastern Conference champion New Jersey Nets 4 games to 0 in the 2002 NBA Finals. Shaquille O'Neal was named NBA Finals MVP for the third straight year.
The National Basketball Association (NBA) has faced a multitude of criticisms from sports publications, fans, and its own players.
The Spurs–Suns rivalry is a National Basketball Association (NBA) rivalry between the San Antonio Spurs and Phoenix Suns. It began in the 1990s, when the Spurs were led by David Robinson, and the Phoenix Suns were propelled by a number of players, including Dan Majerle, Kevin Johnson, and Tom Chambers. The rivalry continued into the 2000s with Tim Duncan and Steve Nash leading the Spurs and the Suns respectively. The rivalry has also allegedly prevented Spurs coach Gregg Popovich from coaching the USA Basketball team in the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Timothy Francis Donaghy is a disgraced former professional basketball referee who worked in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 13 seasons from 1994 to 2007 until he was caught in a gambling scandal. During his career in the NBA, Donaghy officiated in 772 regular season games and 26 playoff games.
The 2001–02 NBA season was the Lakers' 54th season in the National Basketball Association, and 42nd in the city of Los Angeles. The Lakers entered the season as the two-time defending NBA champions, having defeated the Philadelphia 76ers in five games in the 2001 NBA Finals, winning their thirteenth NBA championship.
The 2007 NBA betting scandal was a scandal involving the National Basketball Association (NBA) and accusations that an NBA referee used his knowledge of relationships between referees, coaches, players and owners to bet on professional basketball games. In July 2007, reports of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were made public, which alleged that during the 2005–06 and 2006–07 NBA seasons, referee Tim Donaghy bet on games in which he officiated. Donaghy later admitted to betting on games he officiated in each of the 2003–04, 2004–05, 2005–06, and 2006–07 seasons.
Hue Spencer Hollins, Sr. was an American professional basketball referee for the National Basketball Association (NBA). During his 27-year career in the NBA, Hollins officiated 19 NBA Finals games and five NBA All-Star Games. He is notable for working the Finals every year during the 1990s and for a notorious call during a 1994 NBA Playoffs game between the Chicago Bulls and New York Knicks. Hollins was probed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) over the 2007 NBA betting scandal involving former referee Tim Donaghy.
Personal Foul: A First-Person Account of the Scandal That Rocked the NBA is an autobiography written by former National Basketball Association (NBA) referee Tim Donaghy and published by Florida-based VTi-Group, Inc. in December 2009. Donaghy, who had resigned from the league as a central figure in the 2007 NBA betting scandal, describes his involvement in and inner workings of the scandal, as well as his gambling addiction.
Sherman White was an American basketball player at Long Island University (LIU) who is best remembered for being indicted in a point shaving scandal that resulted in him being stripped of numerous honors and awards, having to serve an 8-month jail sentence, and being prohibited from ever playing in the National Basketball Association (NBA). As a college senior in 1950–51, White was the nation's leading scorer at 27.7 points per game and was only 77 total points shy of becoming the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) all-time single season leading scorer when he was caught, thus forcing him to prematurely quit and never getting to finish his college basketball career.
Scott Foster is an American professional basketball referee for the National Basketball Association (NBA). He began officiating games for the NBA in the 1994–95 season and wears number 48.
