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Contents
- 1 June 4, 2007 to June 17, 2007; June 20, 2007 to June 24, 2007
- 2 April 21, 2007 to April 30, 2007; May 28, 2007 to June 3, 2007
- 3 August 15, 2006 to April 21, 2007
- 4 July 22 to August 15, 2006
- 5 July 4 to July 22, 2006
- 6 June 17 to July 4, 2006
- 7 May 28 to June 17, 2006
- 8 March 7 to May 28, 2006
- 9 February 22 to March 7, 2006
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- ...that although no male National Collegiate Athletic Association player has won consecutive Naismith College Player of the Year Awards since 1983, four women, most recently shooting guard Seimone Augustus of the Louisiana State University Lady Tigers, have done so?
- ...that centers Wilt Chamberlain (pictured) and Bill Russell, respectively first and second on the ranking of National Basketball Association players by career rebounds, combined to post 26 of the 28 40-plus rebound games in league history?
- ...that between 1945 and 1953, the Uruguay national team lost just one of its twenty-one South American Basketball Championship games, outscoring opponents by a combined 228 points and capturing three continental titles?
- ...that although the color barrier in the National Basketball Association was not broken until 1950, Bill Brown, John Isaacs, and Zack Clayton became the first African-Americans to play basketball in a professional North American league in 1946 when they contested the 1946 Eastern Professional Basketball League season with the Hazleton Mountaineers?
- ...that Los Angeles Sparks point guard Penny Toler, one of two players allocated to the team in the initial WNBA draft, scored both the first field goal and the first free throw recorded in the Women's National Basketball Association?
- ...that American Lenny Wilkens is the only individual to have been named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History and Top 10 Coaches in NBA History and one of just three people to have been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player and as a coach?
- ...that the National Basketball League rivalry between the Adelaide 36ers and Brisbane Bullets reached its zenith in 1985 and 1986, when the teams met in consecutive NBL Finals?
- ...that, although she was selected to All-Decade Team of the Women's National Basketball Association, shooting guard Katie Smith was not once between 2000 and 2006 selected to be a starter in the WNBA All-Star Game?
- ...that in the 1982 Atlantic Coast Conference championship game, the University of North Carolina Tar Heels, under the direction of head coach Dean Smith (pictured), maintained possession of the basketball for nearly twelve minutes by employing the four corners offense to protect the side's lead?
- ...that between 1990 and 1997, FC Barcelona captured the Asociación de Clubs de Baloncesto championship four times but failed to win a Euroleague title, losing four championship games, including two in Zaragoza, by a combined total of 26 points?
- ...that, subject to the resolution of litigation, Slovenian player Miha Zupan will become the first deaf player to compete in Europe's principal club competition, the Euroleague?
- ...that the Criollos de Caguas, having, in view of pecuniary concerns, elected not to contest the 2005 National Superior Basketball season, returned to the league in 2006 and, after winning by one point the final game of a best-of-three-game series over 2004 champion Leones de Ponce, overcame the Cangrejeros de Santurce and point guard Jose Juan Barea in a best-of-seven-game series to win the 2006 league title?
- ...that Congolese center Dikembe Mutombo, who over his National Basketball Association career tallied more blocked shots than any player save center Hakeem Olajuwon and who also ranks eleventh in league history in career defensive rebounds recorded, is, alongside center Ben Wallace, one of just two players to have won four Defensive Player of the Year Awards and the only one to have done so with three different teams—the Denver Nuggets in 1994-95, the Atlanta Hawks in 1996-97 and 1997-98, and the Philadelphia 76ers in 2000-01?
Image:Becky Hammon.jpg
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- ...that, in view of his having won the 1975-76 and 1979-80 National Basketball Association Coach of the Year Awards, of his having led the Boston Celtics to the 1981 NBA championship and the Houston Rockets to the 1986 NBA Finals, and of his having coached five franchises over 25 seasons, Bill Fitch was named to the Top Ten Coaches in NBA History squad despite having achieved a regular season winning percentage of just .460?
- ...that Košarkaški Klub Bosna, a Sarajevo side who compete in the Premier League of Basketball of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Goodyear Adriatic League, are the only club ever to have won the national championships and national cups of the Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and, in 1979, became the first Yugoslav side to win the Euroleague championship?
- ...that, after the North Dakota State University Bison, coached by Women's Basketball Hall of Famer Amy Ruley, appeared in six consecutive National Collegiate Athletic Association Women's Division II Basketball Championship finals between 1991 and 1996, winning four, including one over three-time champion Delta State University, the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux captured three straight championships between 1997 and 1999?
- ...that of the five individual honors awarded during the National Basketball Association's All-Star Weekend—the Slam Dunk Contest title, the Rookie Challenge Most Valuable Player Award, the Skills Challenge championship, the Three-point Shootout title, and the All-Star Game Most Valuable Player Award—at least two have been won by one player in the same season just twice, by Chicago Bulls shooting guard Michael Jordan, the 1998 game most valuable player and Slam Dunk Contest titlist, and Golden State Warriors shooting guard Jason Richardson, the 2002 Slam Dunk Contest titlist and Rookie Challenge most valuable player?
- ...that Lithuanian center Arvydas Sabonis is the only player in the Spanish professional league Asociación de Clubs de Baloncesto to have won the league's regular season and championship finals most valuable player awards, having, during the 1993-1994 season, claimed each with Real Madrid Baloncesto, which team he led over [[FC Barcelona (basketball)|FC Barcelona] to the league championship and over Joventut Badalona to the Copa del Rey de Baloncesto title subsequent to that season, and to the 1994-1995 Euroleague club championship?
- ...that the Rome, Georgia-based Rome Gladiators, who won 21 of 24 regular season games in the American league World Basketball Association en route to capturing the league's championship, are owned by center Theo Ratliff of the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association and coached by former Los Angeles Clippers and Denver Nuggets shooting guard Harold Ellis?
- ...that Portland Trail Blazers center Bill Walton outpolled San Antonio Spurs small forward George Gervin and Denver Nuggets shooting guard David Thompson to win the 1977-78 National Basketball Association Most Valuable Player Award despite having played, due to injury, only 58 regular season games?
- ...that the Sacramento Kings franchise, having played professional basketball in two different leagues—the Basketball Association of America and the National Basketball Association—in four different cities and under five different names—Rochester Royals (1948-49–1956-57), Cincinnati Royals (1957-58–1971-72), Kansas City-Omaha Kings (1972-73–1974-75), Kansas City Kings (1975-76–1984-85), and Sacramento Kings (1985-86–present)—have qualified 29 times for the NBA playoffs but have participated just once in the NBA Finals, having captured the league title in 1951 over the New York Knickerbockers?
- ...that three players—small forward Rebecca Lobo and point guards Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi—representing the University of Connecticut Huskies have won the Naismith College Player of the Year award, given to the player adjudged to be the best in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I, more than from any other university?
- ...that Utah Jazz point guard John Stockton, first on the National Basketball Association's list of players by career assist made and by career steals committed, ranks second in NBA history in career turnovers surrendered, behind only teammate power forward Karl Malone?
- ...that teams coached by Phil Jackson—the 1991-92, 1995-96, and 1996-97 Chicago Bulls and the 1999-2000 Los Angeles Lakers—hold four places on the list of top ten NBA teams by single-regular season wins?
- ...that the Australian Boomers and Opals, flag pictured, and the New Zealand Tall Blacks claimed the gold and silver medals, respectively, in both the men's and women's tournaments in Australia at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, the first iteration of the Games at which the sport was contested?
Image:Flag of Australia.svg
- ...that Boston Celtics power forward Kevin McHale (1984 and 1985) and Indiana Pacers power forward Detlef Schrempf (1990 and 1992) are the only two National Basketball Association players ever to have twice won the NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award, given to the bench player (after the five starters, a team's sixth man) whom a panel of basketball journalists deem as the most valuable to his team?
- ...that Uljana Semjonova, who led the Soviet Union to a gold medal at the Games of the XXI (held in Montréal, Quebec, Canada, in 1976) and XXII Olympiads (held in Moscow in 1980, and to the 1971, 1975 and 1981 FIBA World Championship for Women titles, and also captained TTT Riga to fifteen Soviet national and eleven continental club championships, became, in 1993, the first woman to be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame?
- ...that Golden State Warriors power forward/center Adonal Foyle, who, out of Colgate University, was selected eighth overaell in the 1997 NBA Draft, is the only Vincentian ever to play in the National or American Basketball Associations?
- ...that Carol Blazejowski, the general manager of the New York Liberty, who was the highest-paid Women's Pro Basketball League player during that division's one-year existence, scored 3,199 points at Montclair State College, where she was a three-time All-America and the 1978 Wade Trophy winner, is behind only Louisiana State University's Pete Maravich on the list of National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I career scoring leaders?
- ...that Cercle Saint-Pierre de Limoges, who became the first French side to win a major European club title in a team sport when they captured the Euroleague championship in 1993 over Pallacanestro Treviso, 59-55, won, led by Richard Dacoury, the first four Ligue Nationale de Basketball Pro A championships but were relegated to Pro B in 2004 in view of pecuniary troubles?
- ...that Percy Miller, best known as Master P, played for one season for the San Diego Stingrays of the International Basketball League before the league folded in 2001?
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- ...that centers Wilt Chamberlain (with the Philadelphia Warriors in the 1959-60 NBA season) and Wes Unseld (with the Baltimore Bullets in the 1968-69 NBA season are the only two National Basketball Association players to have won the Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player awards in the same season?
- ...that Boston Celtics center Bill Russell, who won eleven National Basketball Association championships in thirteen seasons (between the 1957-58 and 1969-70 seasons), including eight consecutively, shares the record for most titles won in a North American professional league with center Henri Richard of the Montréal Canadiens of the National Hockey League?
- ...that twelve players comprised by the United States side that played in the 1992 Summer Olympics, held in Barcelona, Spain, commonly known as the Dream Team, of whom ten were named to the NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team in 1997, won a combined 23 National Basketball Association championships?
- ...that between 1951 and 1985, Eastern bloc nations won every Eurowomen and Eurobasket championship, save the 1983 men's title, captured by Italy, who were coached by 2006 Basketball Hall of Fame inductee Sandro Gamba?
- ...that the four of the past seven championships in the Australian Women's National Basketball League have been won by the Canberra Capitals, for whom power forward Lauren Jackson, who played for the Seattle Storm of the Women's National Basketball Association during the WNBL offseason, was captain?
- ...that the Houston Comets of the Women's National Basketball Association, have, with Sheryl Swoopes (three) and Cynthia Cooper (two), claimed five of the Most Valuable Player awards to have been given by the league?
- ...that Luther Gulick, an American physical education instructor, directed James Naismith to create a winter sport to be played indoors at the Springfield, Massachusetts YMCA, spurring the creation of basketball?
- ...that Minnesota Timberwolves power forward Kevin Garnett, drafted out of high school in 1995, is the longest-active National Basketball Association player (11 seasons) to have spent his entire career with one team?
- ...that Loyola Marymount (181) and Alliant International (then U.S. International) (150) combined to score 351 points in a 40-minute game at the Gersten Pavilion on January 31, 1989, setting a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I-A record for points scored by two teams combined (and that Kevin Bradshaw would set an NCAA record in scoring 72 points for Loyola against U.S. International two years later)?
