2014–15 NBA Season
The 2014–15 NBA season was the 69th season of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The NBA draft took place on June 26, 2014, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, where Andrew Wiggins was selected first overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers. The regular season began on October 28, 2014, when the defending NBA champion San Antonio Spurs hosted the first game against the Dallas Mavericks at AT&T Center in San Antonio. The 2015 NBA All-Star Game was played on February 15, 2015, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, with the West defeating the East 163–158. Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook won the NBA All-Star Game Most Valuable Player Award. The regular season ended on April 15, 2015 and the playoffs began on April 18, 2015 and ended with the 2015 NBA Finals on June 16, 2015, after the Golden State Warriors defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers in six games to win their fourth NBA title and first since 1975. The Charlotte Bobcats played their first official game as the Charlotte Hor ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
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]   |
|
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]   |
|
2014 NBA Finals
The 2014 NBA Finals was the championship series of the National Basketball Association's (NBA) 2013–14 season and the conclusion of the season's playoffs. The Western Conference champion San Antonio Spurs defeated the two-time defending NBA champion and Eastern Conference champion Miami Heat in five games (4–1) for the Spurs' fifth NBA championship in franchise history. The Spurs outscored the Heat in the series by an average of 14.0 points per game, a then-record for average point differential in Finals history. San Antonio's Kawhi Leonard was named the Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP). Leonard received 10 of the 11 Finals MVP votes. This was a Finals rematch from the previous NBA season, which Miami had won in seven games, handing the Spurs the franchise's first-ever Finals defeat. This marked the 12th Finals rematch, but only the fifth since the ABA–NBA merger in 1976. The Spurs had home-court advantage, since the team finished the regular season with a better reco ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Miami Heat
The Miami Heat are an American professional basketball team based in Miami. The Heat compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern Conference Southeast Division (NBA), Southeast Division. The club plays its home games at FTX Arena, and has won three List of NBA champions, NBA championships. The franchise began play in the 1988–89 NBA season, 1988–89 season as an expansion team. After a period of mediocrity, the Heat gained relevance in the mid-1990s when Pat Riley became team president and head coach. Riley constructed the trades of Alonzo Mourning and Tim Hardaway, which propelled the team into NBA playoffs, playoff contention. Mourning and Hardaway led the Heat to four consecutive division titles prior to their departures in 2001 and 2002, respectively. The team also experienced success after drafting Dwyane Wade in 2003. Led by Wade and, following a trade for former NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) Shaqu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Shane Battier
Shane Courtney Battier (born September 9, 1978) is an American former professional basketball player. He's also worked for ESPN and recently joined the board of Yext. Battier is best known for his four years playing basketball at Duke, his 13 years playing in the National Basketball Association (NBA), and his participation on the U.S. national team. His teams won championships at the college, professional, and international levels. Early life Battier was born and raised in Birmingham, Michigan, and attended Detroit Country Day School in nearby Beverly Hills, where he won many awards including the 1997 Mr. Basketball award. Battier was an outlier from his childhood; by the time he entered Country Day as a seventh-grader, he was already , and was a year later. He was also the only child in the school with a black father and a white mother. As Michael Lewis put it in a 2009 article, the young Battier "was shuttling between a black world that treated him as white and a white world ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
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]   |
|
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]   |
|
Derek Fisher
Derek Lamar Fisher (born August 9, 1974) is an American professional basketball coach and former player. Fisher played professionally in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 18 seasons, spending the majority of his career with the Los Angeles Lakers, with whom he won five NBA championships. He also played for the Golden State Warriors, Utah Jazz, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Dallas Mavericks. He has also served as president of the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA). Fisher played college basketball for the Arkansas–Little Rock Trojans, earning the Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year in 1996. Selected by the Lakers with the 24th pick in the 1996 NBA draft, he spent his first eight seasons with the franchise, winning three consecutive league championships (2000–2002) with teammates Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal and coach Phil Jackson. After the 2003–04 NBA season, he signed as a free agent with the Golden State Warriors, later being traded to t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
1974–75 Golden State Warriors Season
The 1974–75 Golden State Warriors season was the 29th season in the franchise's history, its 13th in California and the fourth playing in Oakland. After four seasons of second-place division finishes, the Warriors made various changes. Nate Thurmond was traded to the Chicago Bulls for Clifford Ray, a young defensive center. The club drafted Keith Wilkes (later known as Jamaal Wilkes), whose nickname was "Silk". Cazzie Russell had played out his option and joined the Los Angeles Lakers, leaving Rick Barry as the team's leader. Coach Al Attles implemented a team-oriented system that drew on the contributions of as many as ten players during a game. Barry scored 30.6 points per game, led the NBA in free throw percentage and steals per game, and was sixth in the league in assists per game. The Warriors captured the Pacific Division title with a 48–34 record. In the playoffs, the Warriors got to the Western Conference Finals by beating the Seattle SuperSonics in six games. In th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
2015 NBA Finals
The 2015 NBA Finals was the championship series of the National Basketball Association's (NBA) 2014–15 season and the conclusion of the season's playoffs. The Western Conference champion Golden State Warriors defeated the Eastern Conference champion Cleveland Cavaliers in six games (4–2) for the Warriors' first title in 40 years and their fourth in franchise history, becoming the first team since the 1990–91 Chicago Bulls to win a championship without any prior Finals experience from any player on their roster. 2015 also marked the first Finals since 1998 without either the Los Angeles Lakers, the San Antonio Spurs, or the Miami Heat (the latter two teams are in the previous Finals). Golden State's Andre Iguodala was named the Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP). The Warriors were led by 2014–15 NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) Stephen Curry, while the Cavaliers featured four-time league MVP LeBron James. Both teams entered the series with title droughts of f ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
NBA All-Star Game Most Valuable Player Award
The NBA All-Star Game Kobe Bryant Most Valuable Player (MVP) is an annual National Basketball Association (NBA) award given to the player(s) voted best of the annual All-Star Game. The award was established in 1953 when NBA officials decided to designate an MVP for each year's game. The league also re-honored players from the previous two All-Star Games. Ed Macauley and Paul Arizin were selected as the 1951 and 1952 MVP winners respectively. The winner is voted upon by a panel of media members, who cast their vote after the conclusion of the game. The fan voting accounts for 25% of the voting. The player(s) with the most votes or ties for the most votes wins the award. In February 2020, Commissioner Adam Silver renamed the NBA All-Star Game Most Valuable Player in honor of four-time winner Kobe Bryant, who died in a helicopter crash a few weeks earlier. , the most recent recipient is Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry. Bryant and Bob Pettit are the only two play ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Madison Square Garden
Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylvania Station. It is the fourth venue to bear the name "Madison Square Garden"; the first two ( 1879 and 1890) were located on Madison Square, on East 26th Street and Madison Avenue, with the third Madison Square Garden (1925) farther uptown at Eighth Avenue and 50th Street. The Garden is used for professional ice hockey and basketball, as well as boxing, mixed martial arts, concerts, ice shows, circuses, professional wrestling and other forms of sports and entertainment. It is close to other midtown Manhattan landmarks, including the Empire State Building, Koreatown, and Macy's at Herald Square. It is home to the New York Rangers of the National Hockey League (NHL), the New York Knicks of the National Basketball Association (NBA), and wa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |