1976–77 NBA Season
The 1976–77 NBA season was the 31st season of the National Basketball Association. The season ended with the Portland Trail Blazers winning their first NBA Championship in franchise history, beating the Philadelphia 76ers in six games in the NBA Finals. Prior to the season, the NBA merged with its primary rival league, the American Basketball Association (ABA). Four ABA teams joined the NBA, all four of which are still in the league today: the San Antonio Spurs, Indiana Pacers, Denver Nuggets, and New York Nets. The Nets became the New Jersey Nets the following season, and now play as the Brooklyn Nets. With these additions, the NBA expanded from eighteen teams to twenty-two. Notable occurrences *The NBA's rival league, the American Basketball Association, joined with the NBA in the ABA–NBA merger. Four ABA franchises joined the NBA: the New York Nets, the Indiana Pacers, the San Antonio Spurs, and the Denver Nuggets. The other ABA teams had folded prior to the merger, except f ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada. It is the premier men's professional basketball league in the world. The league was founded in New York City on June 6, 1946, as the Basketball Association of America (BAA). It changed its name to the National Basketball Association on August 3, 1949, after merging with the competing National Basketball League (NBL). In 1976, the NBA and the American Basketball Association (ABA) merged, adding four franchises to the NBA. The NBA's regular season runs from October to April, with each team playing 82 games. The league's playoff tournament extends into June. , NBA players are the world's best paid athletes by average annual salary per player. The NBA is an active member of USA Basketball (USAB), which is recognized by t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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History Of The Brooklyn Nets
The Brooklyn Nets, a professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, were founded in 1967 and initially played in Teaneck, New Jersey, as the New Jersey Americans, followed by a period spent in Long Island as the New York Nets and later returning to play as the New Jersey Nets. They are a member of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as well as an original member of the American Basketball Association (ABA). In 2012, the team moved to Brooklyn and were renamed the Brooklyn Nets. 1967–1976: The ABA years The franchise was established in 1967 as a founding member of the American Basketball Association (ABA), with trucking magnate Arthur J. Brown as the owner. Brown had operated several AAU teams in and around New York City, and was viewed as an ideal pick to run the nascent league's New York franchise. The team was named the ''New York Americans'', and Brown intended for it to play at the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Caldwell Jones
Caldwell "Pops" Jones (August 4, 1950 – September 21, 2014) was an American professional basketball player. Jones was drafted out of Albany State College by the Philadelphia 76ers with the 14th pick in the 1973 NBA draft. He played three seasons in the American Basketball Association (ABA) and 14 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), most extensively with the 76ers. Jones led the ABA in blocked shots in the 1973–74 season, and played in the 1975 ABA All-Star Game. He shares (with Julius Keye) the ABA's all-time record for blocked shots in a game with 12. Jones' brothers, Charles, Wil and Major all played at Albany State and in the NBA. The most prominent of the foursome, Caldwell was best known as the least flamboyant member of the high-powered 76ers teams of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Playing alongside Julius Erving and company, Jones did not need to score much with Philadelphia, so he concentrated on rebounding, shotblocking, and defense. A lanky yet s ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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George McGinnis
George F. McGinnis (born August 10, 1950) is an American former professional basketball player who played 11 seasons in the American Basketball Association (ABA) and National Basketball Association (NBA). He was drafted into the ABA from Indiana University in 1971. Early life McGinnis attended Washington High School in Indianapolis. He and teammate Steve Downing led Washington to a 31–0 record and a state championship in 1969. McGinnis set an Indiana state tournament scoring record with 148 points in his final four games. He was also named Mr. Basketball for the state of Indiana that year. College career In the 1970–71 season at Indiana, McGinnis became the first sophomore to lead the Big Ten in scoring and rebounding. He averaged 29.9 points per game in his lone season in Bloomington earning All-American and All-Big Ten Honors in 1971. He played for coach Lou Watson, the year before IU hired Bob Knight. Professional career Indiana Pacers (1971-1975) McGinnis immedi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Julius Erving
Julius Winfield Erving II (born February 22, 1950), commonly known by the nickname Dr. J, is an American former professional basketball player. Erving helped legitimize the American Basketball Association (ABA), and he was the best-known player in that league when it merged into the National Basketball Association (NBA) after the 1975–76 season. Erving won three championships, four Most Valuable Player awards, and three scoring titles with the ABA's Virginia Squires and New York Nets (now the NBA's Brooklyn Nets) and the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers. During his 16 seasons as a player, none of his teams ever missed the postseason. He is the eighth-highest scorer in ABA/NBA history with 30,026 points (NBA and ABA combined). He was well known for slam dunking from the free-throw line in Slam Dunk Contests and was the only player voted Most Valuable Player in both the ABA and the NBA. The basketball slang of being posterized was first coined to describe his moves. In 1993, Erving was i ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Milwaukee
Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is the 31st largest city in the United States, the fifth-largest city in the Midwestern United States, and the second largest city on Lake Michigan's shore behind Chicago. It is the main cultural and economic center of the Milwaukee metropolitan area, the fourth-most densely populated metropolitan area in the Midwest. Milwaukee is considered a global city, categorized as "Gamma minus" by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, with a regional GDP of over $102 billion in 2020. Today, Milwaukee is one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse cities in the U.S. However, it continues to be one of the most racially segregated, largely as a result of early-20th-century redlining. Its history was heavily influenced ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The MECCA
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the most frequently used word in the English language; studies and analyses of texts have found it to account for seven percent of all printed English-language words. It is derived from gendered articles in Old English which combined in Middle English and now has a single form used with pronouns of any gender. The word can be used with both singular and plural nouns, and with a noun that starts with any letter. This is different from many other languages, which have different forms of the definite article for different genders or numbers. Pronunciation In most dialects, "the" is pronounced as (with the voiced dental fricative followed by a schwa) when followed by a consonant sound, and as (homophone of pronoun ''thee'') when followed by a v ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1977 NBA All-Star Game
The 1977 NBA All-Star Game was played on February 13, 1977, at MECCA Arena in Milwaukee, home of the Milwaukee Bucks. This was the 27th edition of the NBA All-Star Game, and the first to be played after the ABA-NBA merger. It was the first time the NBA All-Star Game was played on a Sunday afternoon after the previous 26 games had been played in the evening. The Western Conference defeated the Eastern Conference, 125–124. Julius Erving, in his first NBA All-Star Game, was awarded the Most Valuable Player trophy by league commissioner Larry O'Brien, becoming only the second player to win the award despite losing. All-Star Game Coaches The Eastern Conference team was coached by Gene Shue, head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers who had a 33–20 record on February 13. This was Shue's second time coaching in an all-star game. The Western Conference team was coached by future hall-of-famer Larry Brown, head coach of the Denver Nuggets who had a 34–19 record on February 13. This ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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ABA Dispersal Draft
The 1976 NBA draft was the 30th annual draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on June 8, 1976, before the 1976–77 season. In this draft, 18 NBA teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. college basketball players and other Eligibility for the NBA Draft, eligible players, including international players. The first two picks in the draft belonged to the teams that finished last in each conference, with the order determined by a Coin flipping, coin flip. The Atlanta Hawks won the coin flip and were awarded the List of first overall NBA draft picks, first overall pick, while the Chicago Bulls were awarded the second pick. The Hawks then traded the first pick to the Houston Rockets before the draft. The remaining first-round picks and the subsequent rounds were assigned to teams in reverse order of their win–loss record in the 1975–76 NBA season, previous season. The New York Knicks forfeited their first-round draft pick due to their illegal signing o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Spirits Of St
Spirit or spirits may refer to: Liquor and other volatile liquids * Spirits, a.k.a. liquor, distilled alcoholic drinks * Spirit or tincture, an extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol * Volatile (especially flammable) liquids, such as ** Ethanol, also known as drinking alcohol ** Gasoline (or petrol), a clear petroleum-derived flammable liquid that is used primarily as a fuel ** Petroleum ether, liquid hydrocarbon mixtures used chiefly as non-polar solvents ** White spirit or mineral spirits, a common organic solvent used in painting and decorating Spirituality and mood * Spirituality, pertaining to the soul or spirit *Spirit (vital essence), the non-corporeal essence of a being or entity **Vitalism, a belief in some fundamental, non-physical essence which differentiates organisms from inanimate, material objects **''Pneuma'', an ancient Greek word for 'breath' or 'wind', but also 'spirit' or 'soul' ** Soul, the spiritual part of a living being, often regard ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Kentucky Colonels
The Kentucky Colonels were a member of the American Basketball Association for all of the league's nine years. The name is derived from the historic Kentucky colonels. The Colonels won the most games and had the highest winning percentage of any franchise in the league's history, but the team did not join the NBA in the 1976 ABA–NBA merger. The downtown Louisville Convention Center (now known as The Gardens) was the Colonels' original venue for the first three seasons before moving to Freedom Hall for the remaining seasons, beginning with the 1970–71 schedule. The Kentucky Colonels were only one of two ABA teams, along with the Indiana Pacers, to play for the entire duration of the league without relocating, changing its team name, or folding. The Colonels were also the only major league franchise in Kentucky since the Louisville Breckenridges left the National Football League in 1923. Overview and background The Louisville-based Colonels started their time in the ABA ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |