2001 NBA Finals
The 2001 NBA Finals was the championship round of the National Basketball Association (NBA)'s 2000–01 season. The defending NBA champion and Western Conference champion Los Angeles Lakers took on the Eastern Conference champion Philadelphia 76ers for the championship, with the Lakers holding home-court advantage in a best-of-seven format. The Lakers won the series 4 games to 1. Lakers center Shaquille O'Neal was named the Most Valuable Player of the series. NBA MVP Allen Iverson scored 48 points in his only NBA Finals victory, as the 76ers took Game 1 107–101 in overtime, handing the Lakers their only loss of the playoffs. However, the Lakers went on to win the next four games. In Game 3 Robert Horry hit a three-point shot in the last minute, and in the next two games the Lakers used hot 3-point shooting to build big leads and hold off late 76ers comeback attempts in games 4 and 5, pulling away for double-digit wins to win the title. Background The Los Angeles Lakers en ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2000–01 Philadelphia 76ers Season
The 2000–01 NBA season was the 76ers 52nd season in the National Basketball Association, and 38th season in Philadelphia. All-Star guard Allen Iverson had his best season in 2001; he led the 76ers to win their first ten games, and started for the Eastern Conference at the 2001 NBA All-Star Game in Washington D.C., and won All-Star MVP honors. The Sixers also posted a 56–26 record, which was the best in the Eastern Conference that season, and the team's first 50-win season since 1989–90. It was also the 76ers' best regular season record since 1984–85. Iverson averaged a then-career high of 31.1 points per game, winning his second NBA scoring title in the process. He also won the NBA steals title at 2.5 per game, and contributed 4.6 assists per game. Iverson was selected to the All-NBA First Team, and named NBA Most Valuable Player for his accomplishments, beating Tim Duncan and Shaquille O'Neal by a wide margin. In addition, head coach Larry Brown was named NBA Coach o ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Playoff Format
There are a number of formats used in various levels of competition in sports and games to determine an overall champion. Some of the most common are the ''single elimination'', the ''best-of-'' series, the ''total points series'' more commonly known as ''on aggregate'', and the ''round-robin tournament''. Single elimination A single-elimination ("knockout") playoff pits the participants in one-game matches, with the loser being dropped from the competition. Single-elimination tournaments are often used in individual sports like tennis. In most tennis tournaments, the players are seeded against each other, and the winner of each match continues to the next round, all the way to the final. When a playoff of this type involves the top four teams, it is sometimes known as the Shaughnessy playoff system, after Frank Shaughnessy, who first developed it for the International League of minor league baseball. Variations of the Shaughnessy system also exist, such as in the promotion pl ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sacramento Kings
The Sacramento Kings are an American professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. The Kings compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Conference Pacific Division. The Kings are the oldest team in the NBA, and the first and only team in the major professional North American sports leagues located in Sacramento. The team plays its home games at the Golden 1 Center. Their best seasons to date in the city were in the early 2000s, including a very successful 2001–02 season when they had the best record in the NBA at 61–21 (a winning percentage of ). The franchise began with the Rochester Seagrams (a semi-professional team) from Rochester, New York, that formed in 1923 and hosted a number of teams there over the next 20 years. They joined the National Basketball League in 1945 as the renamed Rochester Royals, winning that league's championship in their first season, 1945–46. They later jumped with three other NBL teams ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Portland Trail Blazers
The Portland Trail Blazers (colloquially known as the Blazers) are an American professional basketball team based in Portland, Oregon. The Trail Blazers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. The team played its home games in the Memorial Coliseum before moving to the Moda Center in 1995 (called the Rose Garden until 2013). The franchise entered the league as an expansion team in 1970, and has enjoyed a strong following: from 1977 through 1995, the team sold out 814 consecutive home games, the longest such streak in American major professional sports at the time, and only since surpassed by the Boston Red Sox. The Trail Blazers are the only NBA team based in the Pacific Northwest, after the Vancouver Grizzlies relocated to Memphis and became the Memphis Grizzlies in 2001 and the Seattle SuperSonics relocated to Oklahoma City and became the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2008. The team has advanced to ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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San Antonio Spurs
The San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio. The Spurs compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference (NBA), Western Conference Southwest Division (NBA), Southwest Division. The team plays its home games at AT&T Center in San Antonio. The Spurs are one of four former American Basketball Association (ABA) teams to remain intact in the NBA after the 1976 American Basketball Association–National Basketball Association merger, ABA–NBA merger and are the only former ABA team to have won an NBA Finals, NBA championship. The franchise has won NBA championships in 1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, and 2014. As of the 2019–20 season, the Spurs had the highest winning percentage among active NBA franchises. As of May 2017, the Spurs had the best winning percentage of any franchise in the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada over the previous three decades. From 1999–2 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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New York Knicks
The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks 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 Madison Square Garden, an arena they share with the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League (NHL). They are one of two NBA teams located in New York City; the other team is the Brooklyn Nets. Alongside the Boston Celtics, the Knicks are one of two original NBA teams still located in its original city. The team, established by Ned Irish in 1946, was one of the founding members of the Basketball Association of America (BAA), which became the NBA after merging with the rival National Basketball League (NBL) in 1949. The Knicks were successful during their early years and were constant playoff contenders under the franchise's f ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Shaq–Kobe Feud
The Shaq–Kobe feud was the conflict between National Basketball Association (NBA) players Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, who played together for the Los Angeles Lakers from 1996 to 2004. O'Neal and Bryant won 3 consecutive NBA championships (2000, 2001, 2002), and made an additional NBA Finals appearance in 2004. O'Neal was the NBA Finals MVP in each of their victories. Personal differences and arguments over their respective roles on the Lakers were followed by a trade that sent O'Neal to the Miami Heat while Bryant was re-signed as a free agent by the Lakers. Lakers head coach Phil Jackson wrote a 2004 book, '' The Last Season: A Team in Search of Its Soul'', reflecting on the troubles Bryant and O'Neal had during their last season together. Origins: 1996–1999 1996–1997 In 1996, the Los Angeles Lakers acquired the draft rights to high school player Kobe Bryant from the Charlotte Hornets by trading established center Vlade Divac. No NBA team had previously drafted a g ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Horace Grant
Horace Junior Grant Sr. (born July 4, 1965) is an American former professional basketball player who is a special advisor for Michael Reinsdorf, the president and chief operating officer of the Chicago Bulls. He attended and played college basketball at Clemson University before playing professionally in the National Basketball Association (NBA), where he became a four-time champion with the Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers. Horace is the twin brother of former NBA player Harvey Grant. Early life and college Grant was born in Augusta, Georgia. He and his twin brother, Harvey, grew up in Mitchell, Georgia and attended school in Sparta, Georgia. After he graduated from high school, he attended Clemson University, where he was a member of Pi Kappa Alpha. With the Clemson Tigers men's basketball, Clemson Tigers, he became the first player in ACC history to lead the league in scoring (21.0 average), rebounding (9.6) and field goal shooting (70.8 percent). In 1987, Grant helped ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Isaiah Rider
Isaiah Rider Jr., nicknamed J.R. (born March 12, 1971), is an American former professional basketball player who played 9 seasons in the NBA. Rider was born in Oakland, California, and was raised in nearby Alameda. He starred in both baseball and basketball at Encinal High School before going on to a college career with the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), and a professional career in the National Basketball Association. Early life and college career The 6'5" (1.96 m) Rider was a prep star at Encinal High School in Alameda, California (just outside Oakland) and was one of the top rated players in the state. Rider attended two junior colleges, Allen County Community College in Iola, Kansas, where he averaged just over 30 points per game; and Antelope Valley College in Lancaster, California (33 points per game), before finding a home at UNLV. During the 1991–1992 season, Rider led the Runnin' Rebels to a 26-2 record (18-0 in conference) and a number 7 ranking in the final ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Los Angeles Lakers
The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. The Lakers play their home games at Crypto.com Arena, an arena shared with the NBA's Los Angeles Clippers, the Los Angeles Sparks of the Women's National Basketball Association, and the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League. The Lakers are one of the most successful teams in the history of the NBA, and have won 17 NBA championships, tied with the Boston Celtics for the most in NBA history. The franchise began with the 1947 purchase of a disbanded team, the Detroit Gems of the National Basketball League (NBL). The new team began playing in Minneapolis, Minnesota, calling themselves the Minneapolis Lakers.Reavis, Tracey in Sacchare (ed) (2000). p. 95 Initially a member of the NBL, the Lakers won the 1948 NBL championship before joining the rival Bask ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Robert Horry
Robert Keith Horry (; born August 25, 1970) is an American former professional basketball player and current sports commentator. He played 16 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), winning seven championships, the most of any player not to have played for the Boston Celtics. He is one of only four players to have won NBA championships with three teams; he won two with the Houston Rockets, three with the Los Angeles Lakers and two with the San Antonio Spurs with no defeats in NBA Finals. He earned the nickname "Big Shot Rob", because of his clutch shooting in important games; he is widely considered to be one of the greatest clutch performers and winners in NBA history. Horry now works as a commentator on Spectrum SportsNet for the Lakers. Early life, high school and college basketball Robert Horry was born in Harford County, Maryland; soon afterwards his father, Staff Sergeant Robert Horry Sr., divorced his mother, Leila, and moved to South Carolina. Horry grew up ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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2001 NBA Playoffs
The 2001 NBA playoffs was the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association's 2000-01 season. The tournament concluded with the Western Conference champion Los Angeles Lakers defeating the Eastern Conference champion Philadelphia 76ers 4 games to 1. Shaquille O'Neal was named NBA Finals MVP for the second straight year. Since 2001, the 76ers have not returned to the NBA Finals. This was the 76ers' first Finals appearance since Moses Malone and Julius Erving led the 1983 team to the NBA title (coincidentally, last defeating the Lakers) in the famous "fo', fo', fo'" year (it ended up being "fo', fi', fo'", as Philadelphia lost one second-round game to the Milwaukee Bucks that year). However, it was the Lakers' turn to put together the most dominant postseason in NBA history, going 15–1 with their only loss coming in OT to the Sixers in Game 1 of the Finals. They set many records, including going undefeated in regulation and on the road (finishing 8–0 in the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |