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 [...]
The Los Angeles Lakers are one of the National Basketball Association’s highest-profile teams. Like the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League, the Lakers are synonymous with glamour. The purple-and-gold uniforms, the hordes of celebrity spectators regularly found in the stands, the “Showtime” teams of the 1980s – all add to the glamorous mystique of [...]
Due in large part to the stellar play of point guard Chris Paul, the New Orleans Hornets are considered one of the fastest-rising teams in the NBA. Paul (considered by many to be the NBA’s best point guard) anchors a young, energetic nucleus that turned a lot of heads before losing to the San Antonio [...]
Like many NBA teams, the Golden State Warriors are currently in a state of flux. The team, which is based in Oakland and plays its home games at Oracle Arena, was hailed as an up-and-comer in the Western Conference two seasons ago. Since then, they have been up and down, a talented young team capable [...]