Kobe Bean Bryant was an American professional basketball player. A shooting guard, he spent his entire 20-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, Bryant won five NBA championships and was an 18-time All-Star, a 15-time member of the All-NBA Team, a 12-time member of the All-Defensive Team, the 2008 NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP), and a two-time NBA Finals MVP. He also led the NBA in scoring twice and ranks fourth in league all-time regular season and postseason scoring. He was posthumously voted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2020 and named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team in 2021.
Joseph Washington Bryant, nicknamed "Jellybean", is an American former professional basketball player and coach. He played for the Philadelphia 76ers, San Diego Clippers, and Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He also played for several teams in Italy and one in France. Bryant was the head coach of the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks from 2005 to 2007 and returned to that position for the remainder of the 2011 WNBA season. Bryant has also coached in Italy, Japan, and Thailand. His son, Kobe Bryant, was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Pallacanestro Olimpia Milano, commonly known as Olimpia Milano or as EA7 Emporio Armani Milan after its title sponsor, is an LBA Italian professional basketball team, based in Milan, Italy. Its colors are white and red, and the team is sometimes referred as "Scarpette Rosse" because team officials imported red Converse All-Star shoes for players from the United States. The tag line stuck, and the nickname is still used by many fans today.
Anadolu Efes Spor Kulübü, commonly referred to as Anadolu Efes or simply Efes, is a Turkish professional basketball team based in Istanbul, Turkey. Founded in 1976, the club was formerly known as Efes Pilsen until 2011. Efes is the 2021–22 Euroleague champion and on the first place of European Club Ranking after the Final Four 2020–21. Efes is also the most successful club in the history of the Turkish Super League (BSL), having won the league's championship 16 times. Efes has won a total of 41 domestic trophies, more than any other Turkish basketball club.
Slam is an American basketball magazine in circulation since 1994.
The bj league was a professional basketball league in Japan that began in November 2005 as a six-team league. The league was operated as a competitor to the established Japan Super League which was run by the Japan Basketball Association, the official governing body of basketball in Japan. Over the next ten years the league saw continual expansion, with at least one new team joining every season, reaching 24 teams divided into two conferences in its final season in 2015–16. Turkish Airlines was the major sponsor of the 2014–15 and 2015–16 seasons.
Levanga Hokkaido is a Japanese professional basketball team based in the city of Sapporo on the island of Hokkaido. The club was founded in 2006 as Rera Kamuy Hokkaido, this name comes from the language of the Ainu, an ethnic group indigenous to Hokkaido, and means "god of the winds". The franchise changed its name twice in 2011; the first when the club's parent company was kicked out of the league due to financial woes in the season. The team ended the season with a league-backed management group and a new moniker, calling itself Basketball Club Hokkaido. And finally, took its current name Levanga Hokkaido, in August 2011.
Darüşşafaka Basketbol, commonly also known as Daçka Basketbol or simply Daçka, also known as Darüşşafaka Lassa for sponsorship reasons, is a professional basketball club that is based in Istanbul, Turkey. Darüşşafaka's basketball section, which was founded in 1914, is a part of Darüşşafaka Spor Kulübü multi-sport club, which was founded in 1914. The club's basketball department is their most successful section. The club plays in the Turkish Basketball Super League. Its home arena for national domestic Turkish Super League games is the Darüşşafaka Ayhan Şahenk Sports Hall, with a seating capacity of 3,500, while its home arena for European-wide games is the Volkswagen Arena Istanbul, with a seating capacity of 5,240.
Seahorses Mikawa is a Japanese professional basketball team located in Kariya and sponsored by Aisin. The team was founded in 1947. The team played in the National Basketball League. The current head coach is Ryan Richman. In July 2015 it was announced that the team will compete in the first division of the new Japan Professional Basketball League, which commenced in October 2016.
The Kagawa Five Arrows (香川ファイブアローズ） are a Japanese basketball team, playing in the Western Conference of the B.League. They are based in Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture. In July 2015 it was announced that the team will compete in the second division of the new Japan Professional Basketball League, which will commence from October 2016.
FC Bayern München Basketball GmbH, commonly referred to as Bayern Munich, is a professional basketball club, a part of the FC Bayern Munich sports club, based in Munich, Germany. The club competes domestically in the Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) and internationally in the EuroLeague.
The Akita Northern Happinets are a Japanese professional basketball team based in Akita that competes in the Eastern Conference of the First Division of the B.League. The team was formed as an expansion team of the bj league in 2010 and found success for the first time in 2013–14, finishing their fourth season as league runners-up. They went on to finish as runners-up for the second year in a row in 2014–15 and in third place in 2015–16, the final season of the bj league.
Gregory William Slaughter is a Filipino-American professional basketball player for the Rizing Zephyr Fukuoka of the B2 League. He was selected first overall by the Barangay Ginebra in the 2013 PBA draft. Sports commentators and scribes call him GregZilla because of his apparent heft and height. Listed at 7 ft 0 in and 245 pounds, he plays the center position in B.League, the Japanese professional basketball league
Josep "Pep" Clarós Canals is a Spanish professional basketball coach with experience in Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America.
AEK Basketball Club, also known as AEK B.C. or AEK, and more commonly known in European competitions as AEK Athens, is a Greek professional basketball club based in Athens, Greece, part of the major multi-sport club AEK. The club was established in Athens in 1924 by Greek refugees from Constantinople in the wake of the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922).
The Yokohama B-Corsairs are a Japanese professional basketball team that compete in the first division of the B.League. Following the team's establishment in 2010, they participated in the Eastern Conference of the bj league for five seasons and in 2013 became the first team based in the Kanto region of Japan to win the league's championship.
Kumamoto Volters is a Japanese professional basketball team in Kumamoto, Kumamoto. The team competes in the B.League. Volters hosted the B.League All-star Game in 2018.
Fukuoka Citizens Gymnasium is an arena in Fukuoka, Fukuoka, Japan. It is the home arena of the Rizing Zephyr Fukuoka of the B.League, Japan's professional basketball league.
Benjamin Ethan Lawson is a British professional basketball player who plays for the Fukui Blowinds of the B.League in Japan. He played college basketball for Western Kentucky. Standing at 7 ft 1 in, Lawson plays the power forward / center positions.
Bryce Washington is an American professional basketball player for Rizing Zephyr Fukuoka of the B.League. He played college basketball for the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, where he earned a spot in the First-team All-Sun Belt Conference in 2018.
