2006–07 Miami Heat Season
The 2006–07 Miami Heat season was the 19th season for the franchise in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Heat, for the first time in franchise history, entered the season as the defending NBA champions, having defeated the Dallas Mavericks in the 2006 NBA Finals in six games. On January 3, 2007, head coach Pat Riley took a leave of absence citing hip and knee problems and was replaced by Ron Rothstein. Despite injuries to several players, including Shaquille O'Neal and Dwyane Wade, the Heat repeated as Southeast division champions. With a record of 44–38, it was clear that the Heat was not the same team of years past. The Heat ended the season with a four-game playoff loss in a sweep to the Chicago Bulls in the first round and the Heat became the first defending NBA champions since the Philadelphia Warriors back in 1957 to be swept in the first round. Following the season, Gary Payton retired. Key dates * June 28 – The 2006 NBA draft took place in New York Cit ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Pat Riley
Patrick James Riley (born March 20, 1945) is an American professional basketball executive, former coach, and former player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has been the team president of the Miami Heat since 1995, and he also served as the team's head coach from 1995 to 2003 and again from 2005 to 2008. Regarded as one of the greatest NBA coaches of all time, Riley has won five NBA championships as a head coach, four with the Los Angeles Lakers during their Showtime era in the 1980s and one with the Heat in 2006. Riley is a nine-time NBA champion across his tenures as a player ( 1972), assistant coach (1980), head coach (1982, 1985, 1987, 1988, 2006), and executive (2012, 2013). Riley was named NBA Coach of the Year three times ( 1989–90, 1992–93 and 1996–97, as head coach of the Lakers, New York Knicks and Heat, respectively). He was head coach of an NBA All-Star Game team nine times: eight times with the Western Conference team (1982, 1983, 1985†... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Brian Grant
Brian Wade Grant (born March 5, 1972) is an American former professional basketball player. He played the power forward and center positions for five teams during 12 seasons in the National Basketball Association. He was known for his tenacious rebounding and blue-collar defense. During his career, he played with the Sacramento Kings (where he made First Team All-Rookie in the 1994–95 season), Portland Trail Blazers, Miami Heat, Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns. Early life Grant grew up in the small, rural community of Georgetown, Ohio, near the Ohio River about 40 miles southeast of Cincinnati. During summers, he spent most of his time working at area farms, cutting, housing, and stripping tobacco, digging potatoes and baling hay. He played basketball at Georgetown High School, mostly in anonymity until Xavier University's basketball office began receiving anonymous calls stating that they should take a look at Grant. Xavier assistant coach Dino Gaudio finally scouted ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Caron Butler
James Caron Butler (born March 13, 1980) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is an assistant coach for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association (NBA). During a 14-year career he played for the Miami Heat, Los Angeles Lakers, Washington Wizards, Dallas Mavericks, Los Angeles Clippers, Milwaukee Bucks, Oklahoma City Thunder, Detroit Pistons, and Sacramento Kings of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Butler is a two-time NBA All-Star and was the 2002 Big East Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Year, while playing for the Connecticut Huskies. Early life Butler was born and raised in Racine, Wisconsin, where he suffered through a rough childhood; he was a drug dealer at age 12 and arrested 15 times before the age of 15. Butler discovered his love for basketball while at a youth detention center. Butler played in Amateur Athletic Union basketball in 1998 and 1999. After a brief career at Racine Park High School, he enrolled ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Lamar Odom
Lamar Joseph Odom (born November 6, 1979) is an American former professional basketball player. As a member of the Los Angeles Lakers in the National Basketball Association (NBA), he won championships in 2009 and 2010 and was named the NBA Sixth Man of the Year in 2011. In high school, Odom received national player of the year honors from ''Parade'' in 1997. He played college basketball for the University of Rhode Island, earning all-conference honors during his only season in the Atlantic 10 Conference before turning professional. The Los Angeles Clippers selected Odom with the fourth overall pick in the first round of the 1999 NBA draft. He was named to the NBA All-Rookie Team in the following year; it was during his four seasons with the Clippers, however, that he was twice suspended for violating the league's anti-drug policy. As a restricted free agent, he then signed with the Miami Heat, where he played the 2003–04 season before being traded to the Lakers. Odom spent se ... [...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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2005–06 Miami Heat Season
The 2005–06 Miami Heat season was the 18th National Basketball Association season for the Miami Heat basketball franchise. During the offseason, the Heat acquired Jason Williams and James Posey from the Memphis Grizzlies, and All-Star forward Antoine Walker from the Boston Celtics, while signing free agent All-Star point guard Gary Payton. Early into the season, after a 15–12 start to the year, head coach Stan Van Gundy resigned, citing the desire to spend more time with his family, and Pat Riley resumed coaching the Heat. The Heat went 39–23 the rest of the way, finishing with a 52–30 record, good enough for first place in the Southeast Division and second place in the Eastern Conference overall. Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O'Neal were both selected for the 2006 NBA All-Star Game. In the first round of the playoffs, the Heat defeated the Chicago Bulls in six games, and the New Jersey Nets in five games in the semi-finals to advance to the Eastern Conference Finals against ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Chicago Bulls
The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded on January 16, 1966, and played its first game during the 1966–67 NBA season. The Bulls play their home games at the United Center, an arena on Chicago's West Side. The Bulls saw their greatest success during the 1990s when they played a major part in popularizing the NBA worldwide. They are known for having one of the NBA's greatest dynasties, winning six NBA championships between 1991 and 1998 with two three-peats. All six of their championship teams were led by Hall of Famers Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and coach Phil Jackson. The Bulls are the only NBA franchise to win multiple championships while never losing an NBA Finals series in their history. The Bulls won 72 games during the 1995–96 season, setting an NBA record that stood un ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the jurisdiction of the United States, with a population of 342,259. San Juan was founded by Spanish colonists in 1521, who called it Ciudad de Puerto Rico ("City of Puerto Rico", Spanish for ''rich port city''). Puerto Rico's capital is the third oldest European-established capital city in the Americas, after Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic, founded in 1496, and Panama City, in Panama, founded in 1521, and is the oldest European-established city under United States sovereignty. Several historical buildings are located in San Juan; among the most notable are the city's former defensive forts, Fort San Felipe del Morro and Fort San Cristóbal, and La Fortaleza, the oldest executive mansion in continuous use in the Americas. Today, Sa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Detroit Pistons
The Detroit Pistons are an American professional basketball team based in Detroit. The Pistons compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division and play their home games at Little Caesars Arena, located in Midtown. Founded in Fort Wayne, Indiana as a semi-professional company basketball team called the Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons in 1937, they would turn pro in 1941 as a member of the National Basketball League (NBL), where they won two NBL championships: in 1944 and 1945. The Pistons later joined the Basketball Association of America (BAA) in 1948. The NBL and BAA merged to become the NBA in 1949, and the Pistons became part of the merged league. In 1957, the franchise moved to Detroit. The Pistons have won three NBA championships: in 1989, 1990 and 2004. Franchise history 1937–1957: Fort Wayne (Zollner) Pistons Fred Zollner owned the Zollner Corporation, a foundry that manufactured pistons, primarily ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Free Agent
In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is allowed to solicit offers from other teams. In some circumstances, the free agent's options are limited by league rules. Types Terms Unrestricted free agent Unrestricted free agents are players without a team. They have either been released from their club, had the term of their contract expire without a renewal, or were not chosen in a league's draft of amateur players. These people, generally speaking, are free to entertain offers from all other teams in the player's most recent league and elsewhere and to decide with whom to sign a contract. Players who have been bought out of league standard contracts may have restrictions within that league, such as not being able to sign with the buy-out club for a period of time in the NHL, b ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |