The Orlando Magic is one of the fastest rising teams in the NBA’s Eastern Conference. They boast one of the league’s best big men in Slam Dunk champion Dwight Howard, and they are coming fresh off a 52-win season. The Magic play their home games at the Amway Arena. Their head coach is Stan Van [...]
Given the Miami Heat’s recent struggles, it’s difficult to believe the team won an NBA championship just two seasons ago. Since then, a shoulder injury to star guard Dwayne Wade and the Shaquille O’Neal trade have helped turn a champion into a lottery team. The Miami Heat play their home games at the American Airlines [...]
Technically speaking, the Oklahoma City Thunder are the newest team in the NBA. Until 2008, they were known as the Seattle SuperSonics. In a hotly contested move, owner Clay Bennett bought out the SuperSonics’ lease with Seattle’s Key Arena, and moved the team to Oklahoma City. The Thunder will play their home games at the [...]
The Portland Trail Blazers joined the National Basketball Association in 1970. They play their home games at the Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon, and are the state’s only major professional sports franchise. Their head coach is former NBA player Nate McMillan, and their owner is Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Early Years The early years of [...]
The Denver Nuggets first existed in the American Basketball Association, as the Denver Rockets. The ABA went under in 1976, and Denver was one of the four teams assimilated into the NBA. The Denver team name was changed to the Nuggets because Houston already had the Rockets. The team now plays its home games at [...]
For a team that always seems to be around at playoff time, the Phoenix Suns have precious little to show for it. Despite being one of the NBA’s most successful regular-season teams (and one of the most entertaining to watch), the Suns have yet to win an NBA title. The Suns, who play their home [...]
The Memphis Grizzlies were born in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1995. They, along with the Toronto Raptors, were part of both a National Basketball Association (NBA) expansion effort and an endeavor to spread professional hoops past its U.S. borders. While basketball seems to have taken hold in Toronto, it did not succeed in Vancover, and [...]
The Houston Rockets got their start in 1967, when they joined the NBA as an expansion team. The club was originally based in San Diego, Calif., but moved to Houston in 1971. The team’s first coach was Jack McMahon, and the team’s first draft pick, in 1967, was Pat Riley (who went on to play [...]
Longtime fans of the NBA may still think of the Dallas Mavericks as an expansion franchise, but in fact, they have been a part of the league for nearly 30 years now. Donald Carter petitioned the NBA for a new basketball team in 1979, and the other league owners approved the move over the 1980 [...]
When James Naismith invented the game of basketball at the Springfield, Mass. YMCA in 1891, he was simply looking for a distraction for his rowdy young charges, who were often stuck indoors due to the harshly cold Massachusetts winters. Little did he know that his creation would one day evolve into a globalized, multi-billion-dollar sensation [...]