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, colloquially known 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 league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division and play at the Wells Fargo Center located in the South Philadelphia Sports Complex. Founded in 1946 and originally known as the Syracuse Nationals, they are one of the oldest franchises in the NBA and one of only eight to survive the league's first decade. The team is owned and managed by Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment (HBSE), with founders Josh Harris and David Blitzer having owned the team since 2011.
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 often regarded as one of the greatest scorers and one of the most influential players in NBA history.
Mayce Edward Christopher Webber III is an American former professional basketball player. Webber played most of 15 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with the Sacramento Kings. Drafted number one overall by the Orlando Magic 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.
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.
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. 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.
Eric Scott Montross is an American former professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for eight seasons with the Boston Celtics, Dallas Mavericks, New Jersey Nets, Philadelphia 76ers, Detroit Pistons, and Toronto Raptors. Born in Indianapolis, he played for Lawrence North High School before enrolling at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to play for the Tar Heels.
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. 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.
Ronnie Nunn is a former professional basketball referee in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for nineteen seasons and served for five years as the league's Director of Officials, until being reassigned in 2008 in the wake of the Tim Donaghy scandal. More recently he was host of Making the Call With Ronnie Nunn for seven seasons on NBA TV. He officiated 1,134 regular season, 73 playoff, four NBA Finals games, and the 1996 NBA All-Star Game.
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 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 20 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. Donaghy's self-serving claims that instead of altering game outcomes as an on-court referee to advance his bets he exploited "inside information" to wager on NBA games were assailed by his co-conspirators and researchers. Pro gamblers, some of whom cooperated with the government, explained the only reason they got involved in the scandal was the betting win rate on games officiated by Donaghy, and each of Donaghy's co-conspirators stated the bets were originally exclusively on games Donaghy officiated with a few "non-Donaghy" games toward the end of the 4-year scandal. Researchers with unique access to offshore betting accounts and electronic betting records in addition to betting line data illustrated the betting activity was on games officiated by Donaghy.
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.
Just Wright is a 2010 American romantic comedy film directed by Sanaa Hamri, starring Queen Latifah and Common. The film tells the story of a physical therapist, Leslie Wright, who falls in love with a professional basketball player, Scott McKnight. It received mixed reviews from critics.
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.
