Golden State Warriors
The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in Oakland, California. The Warriors compete in the National Basketball Association, as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. Founded in 1946 in Philadelphia, the Warriors relocated to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1962 and took the city's name, before changing its geographic moniker to Golden State in 1971, they play their home games at the Oracle Arena. The Warriors won the inaugural Basketball Association of America championship in 1947, won its second championship in 1956, led by Hall of Fame trio Paul Arizin, Tom Gola, Neil Johnston. However, the Warriors would not return to similar heights in Philadelphia, after a brief rebuilding period following the trade of star Wilt Chamberlain, the team moved to San Francisco. With star players Jamaal Wilkes and Rick Barry, the Warriors returned to title contention, won their third championship in 1975, in what is considered one of the biggest upsets in NBA history.
This would precede another period of struggle in the 1980s, before becoming playoff regulars at the turn of the decade with stars Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond, Chris Mullin, colloquially referred to as "Run TMC". After failing to capture a championship, the team entered another rebuilding phase in the 2000s; the Warriors' fortunes changed in the 2010s. After drafting perennial All-Stars Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, the team returned to championship glory in 2015, before winning another two in 2017 and 2018 with the help of former league MVP Kevin Durant. Nicknamed the Dubs as a shortening of "W's", the Warriors hold several NBA records. With the combined shooting of Curry and Thompson, they are credited as one of the greatest backcourts of all time; the team's six NBA championships are tied for third-most in NBA history with the Chicago Bulls. According to Forbes, the Warriors are the seventh highest valued sports franchise in the United States, joint-tenth in the world, with an estimated value of $3.1 billion.
The Warriors were founded in 1946 as the Philadelphia Warriors, a charter member of the Basketball Association of America. They were owned by Peter A. Tyrrell, who owned the Philadelphia Rockets of the American Hockey League. Tyrrell hired Eddie Gottlieb, a longtime basketball promoter in the Philadelphia area, as coach and general manager; the owners named the team after the Philadelphia Warriors, an old basketball team who played in the American Basketball League in 1925. Led by early scoring sensation Joe Fulks, the team won the championship in the league's inaugural 1946–47 season by defeating the Chicago Stags, four games to one; the NBA, created by a 1949 merger recognizes that as its own first championship. Gottlieb bought the team in 1951; the Warriors won its next championship in Philadelphia in the 1955–56 season, defeating the Fort Wayne Pistons four games to one. The Warrior stars of this era were future Hall of Tom Gola and Neil Johnston. In 1959, the team signed draft pick Wilt Chamberlain.
Known as "Wilt the Stilt", he led the team in scoring six times began shattering NBA scoring records and changed the NBA style of play forever. On March 2, 1962, in a Warrior "home" game played on a neutral court in Hershey, Chamberlain scored 100 points against the New York Knicks, a single-game record the NBA ranks among its finest moments. In 1962, Franklin Mieuli purchased the majority shares of the team and relocated the franchise to the San Francisco Bay Area, renaming them the San Francisco Warriors; the Warriors played most of their home games at the Cow Palace in Daly City from 1962 to 1964 and the San Francisco Civic Auditorium from 1964 to 1966, though playing home games in nearby cities such as Oakland and San Jose. Prior to the 1963–64 NBA season, the Warriors drafted big man Nate Thurmond to go along with Chamberlain; the Warriors won the Western Division crown that season, but lost the 1964 NBA Finals to the Boston Celtics, four games to one. In the 1964–65 season, the Warriors traded Chamberlain to the Philadelphia 76ers for Connie Dierking, Lee Shaffer, Paul Neumann and $150,000 and won only 17 games.
In 1965, they drafted Rick Barry in the first round who went on to become NBA Rookie of the Year that season and led the Warriors to the NBA Finals in the 1966–67 season, losing to Chamberlain's new team that had replaced the Warriors in Philadelphia, the 76ers. Angered by management's failure to pay him certain incentive bonuses he felt were due him, Barry sat out the 1967–68 season and signed with the Oakland Oaks of the rival American Basketball Association for the following year, but after four seasons in the ABA rejoined the Warriors in 1972. During Barry's absence, the Warriors were no longer title contenders, the mantle of leadership fell to Thurmond, Jeff Mullins and Rudy LaRusso, they began scheduling more home games in Oakland with the opening of the Oakland Coliseum Arena in 1966 and the 1970–71 season would be the team's last as the San Francisco Warriors. The franchise adopted its brand name Golden State Warriors prior to the 1971–72 season, in order to suggest that the team represented the entire state of California.
All home games were played in Oakland that season. Oakland Arena became the team's exclusive home court in 1971; the Warriors made the playoffs from 1971 to 1977 except in 1974, won their first NBA championship on t
Chauncey Billups
Chauncey Ray Billups is an American retired professional basketball player who played 17 seasons in the National Basketball Association. A star at the University of Colorado, he was selected third overall in the 1997 NBA draft by the Boston Celtics. A five-time NBA All-Star and a three-time All-NBA selection, Billups played for the Celtics, Toronto Raptors, Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves, Detroit Pistons, New York Knicks, Los Angeles Clippers during his NBA career, he won the NBA Finals MVP in 2004 after helping the Pistons beat the Los Angeles Lakers in the Finals, was given the nickname "Mr. Big Shot" for making late-game shots with Detroit; the Pistons retired his #1 jersey in 2016. In 2004, Billups was honored by the University of Colorado by being the fifth player to have his jersey retired; the Coors Events Center has a large mural of Billups in the northeast corner of the arena as part of his "Chauncey's Kid Roundup" program. Born in Denver, Billups graduated from George Washington High School of Denver in 1995.
At George Washington, he was a four-time All-State first team pick, Colorado Mr. Basketball three times, Colorado Player of the Year as a sophomore and as a junior, he started on varsity as a freshman. He did not play due to a shoulder injury. For college, Billups chose the University of Colorado over Kansas, Georgia Tech, University of California-Berkeley, Oklahoma State. At Colorado, Billups averaged 18.5 points, 5.1 assists, 5.6 rebounds per game over his two seasons. In the 1996–97 season, he was named to the All-Big 12 Conference First Team, the Basketball Times All-American First Team, Consensus 2nd team All-American; that same season, the Buffaloes finished second in the Big 12 conference with an overall record of 22–10. Billups led the Buffaloes to their first NCAA tournament appearance in 28 years; as a 9-seed and the Buffalos upset the 8-seed Indiana Hoosiers 80–62 but lost to the North Carolina Tar Heels 56–73. Billups averaged 17.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists per game. Consensus second-team All-American All-Big 12 First Team AllBuffs.com All-Time Colorado Buffaloes Men's Basketball Team No. 4 retired by University of Colorado Billups was drafted third overall in the 1997 NBA draft by the Boston Celtics.
He did not mesh with new Celtics head coach Rick Pitino. Years Billups reflected on his stint in Boston, commenting, "That didn't help; that didn't give me a chance to slow down and listen to myself, listen to the game and what's going on. I never had that chance, it was a recipe for disaster there." In addition, the Celtics coaching staff did not know whether to play him as a point guard or shooting guard. Fifty-one games Billups was traded to the Toronto Raptors on the trading deadline. On February 18, 1998, Billups was traded to the Toronto Raptors, along with Roy Rogers, Dee Brown, John Thomas in exchange for All-Star point guard Kenny Anderson, Žan Tabak, Popeye Jones. On January 21, 1999, he was dealt to his hometown Denver Nuggets in a three-way deal involving one of Billups's future teams, the Minnesota Timberwolves. Minnesota received Dean Garrett and Bobby Jackson from Denver, Toronto received Željko Rebrača and Micheal Williams from Minnesota and the 5th pick in the 1999 NBA draft from Denver.
Billups, along with Tyson Wheeler, was sent to Denver from Toronto. Three months into his first tenure with the Nuggets, Billups visited a local Denver hospital in order to comfort and inspire Patrick Ireland, a victim of the 1999 Columbine High School Shooting Massacre. A year on February 1, 2000, Billups was traded to the Orlando Magic along with Ron Mercer and Johnny Taylor in exchange for Chris Gatling, Tariq Abdul-Wahad, a future first-round pick, cash. Billups was on the injured list until season's end due to an injured shoulder and never played a game for the Magic. Despite this, he was included in the season-ending team photo. Among NBA circles, Billups was considered a draft bust. Billups was signed by the Minnesota Timberwolves as a back-up to point guard Terrell Brandon, who would mentor the troubled player alongside Sam Mitchell, Wally Sczerbiak, Kevin Garnett. Billups would work with his more experienced teammates on shooting, decision-making and the other attributes that came with playing point guard in the NBA, such as learning to work more with teammates, deciding which plays would be most beneficial for the team in a specific situation.
During the 2001–02 season, Brandon suffered a serious knee injury. Billups had a breakthrough 2001 -- 02 season; the Timberwolves won 50 games before they were swept by the Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the playoffs, with Billups averaging 22 points per game in the series. After his breakthrough season, Billups became a free agent. Billups wanted to return to the Timberwolves, but the team wanted to see how Brandon would respond to his knee injury. In June 2002, Billups signed a 5-year, $35 million contract with the Detroit Pistons to be the team's new starting point guard; when he signed with the Pistons, he was forced to take the number 1 because number 4 was retired in honor of Joe Dumars. Billups earned respect from Pistons fans and colleagues for his tenacious defense and clutch shooting. In 2002–03, Billups helped Detroit finish first overall in the Eastern Conference with a 50–32 regular season record. Billups earned the nickname "Mr. Big-Shot" during the regular season for two events.
He first made a game winning three on March 9 as time expired to beat the Golden State Warriors 107–105 and Billups scored 31 points. The second event was just over
Boston Celtics
The Boston Celtics are an American professional basketball team based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Atlantic Division. Founded in 1946 as one of the league's original eight teams, the team play their home games at TD Garden, which they share with the National Hockey League's Boston Bruins; the Celtics are one of the most successful teams in NBA history. The Celtics have a notable rivalry with the Los Angeles Lakers, have played the Lakers a record 12 times in the NBA Finals, of which the Celtics have won nine. Four Celtics players have won the NBA Most Valuable Player Award for an NBA record total of 10 MVP awards. Both the nickname "Celtics" and their mascot "Lucky the Leprechaun" are a nod to Boston's large Irish population. After winning 16 championships throughout the 20th century, the Celtics, after struggling through the 1990s, rose again to win a championship in 2008 with the help of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen in what was known as the new "Big Three" era, following the original "Big Three" era that featured Larry Bird, Kevin McHale, Robert Parish, which combined to win the 1981, 1984, 1986 championships.
Following the win in 2008, general manager Danny Ainge began a rebuilding process with the help of head coach Brad Stevens, who led the Celtics to a return to the playoffs from 2015. During the following season, the Celtics clinched the top seed in the Eastern Conference, but were eliminated in the Conference Finals; this prompted an aggressive rebuild in 2017, where the team acquired All-Stars Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward. However, the pair struggled with injuries throughout the 2017–18 season, the team was again defeated in the Eastern Conference Finals; the Boston Celtics were formed on June 6, 1946, by Boston Garden-Arena Corporation president Walter A. Brown as a team in the Basketball Association of America, became part of the National Basketball Association after the absorption of the National Basketball League by the BAA in the fall of 1949. In 1950, the Celtics signed Chuck Cooper; the Celtics struggled until the hiring of coach Red Auerbach. In the franchise's early days, Auerbach had no assistants, ran all the practices, did all the scouting—both of opposing teams and college draft prospects—and scheduled all road trips.
One of the first great players to join the Celtics was Bob Cousy, whom Auerbach refused to draft out of nearby Holy Cross because he was "too flashy." Cousy's contract became the property of the Chicago Stags, but when that franchise went bankrupt, Cousy went to the Celtics in a dispersal draft. After the 1955–56 season, Auerbach made a stunning trade, sending perennial All-Star Ed Macauley to the St. Louis Hawks along with the draft rights to Cliff Hagan for the second overall pick in the draft. After negotiating with the Rochester Royals—a negotiation that included a promise that the Celtics owner would send the sought-after Ice Capades to Rochester if the Royals would let Russell slide to #2—Auerbach used the pick to select University of San Francisco center Bill Russell. Auerbach acquired Holy Cross standout, 1957 NBA Rookie of the Year, Tommy Heinsohn. Russell and Heinsohn worked extraordinarily well with Cousy, they were the players around whom Auerbach would build the champion Celtics for more than a decade.
With Bill Russell, the Celtics advanced to the 1957 NBA Finals and defeated the St. Louis Hawks in seven games, the first of a record 17 championships. Russell went on making him the most decorated player in NBA history. In 1958, the Celtics again advanced to this time losing to the Hawks in 6 games. However, with the acquisition of K. C. Jones that year, the Celtics began a dynasty. In 1959, the Celtics won the NBA Championship after sweeping the Minneapolis Lakers, the first of their record eight consecutive championships. During that time, the Celtics met the Lakers in the Finals five times, starting an intense and bitter rivalry that has spanned generations. In 1964, the Celtics became the first NBA team to have an all African-American starting lineup. On December 26, 1964, Willie Naulls replaced an injured Tommy Heinsohn, joining Tom'Satch' Sanders, K. C. Jones, Sam Jones, Bill Russell in the starting lineup; the Celtics defeated St. Louis 97–84. Boston won its next 11 games with Naulls starting in place of Heinsohn.
The Celtics of the late 1950s–1960s are considered as one of the most dominant teams of all time. Auerbach retired as coach after the 1965–66 season and Russell took over as player-coach, Auerbach's ploy to keep Russell interested. With his appointment Russell became the first African-American coach in any U. S. pro sport. Auerbach would remain a position he would hold well into the 1980s. However, the Celtics' string of NBA titles ended when they lost to the Philadelphia 76ers in the 1966 Eastern Conference Finals; the aging team managed two more championships in 1968 and 1969, defeating the Los Angeles Lakers each time. Russell retired after the 1969 season ending a Celtics dynasty that had garnered an unrivaled 11 NBA titles in 13 seasons; the team's run of 8 consecutive is the longest championship streak in U. S. professional sports history. The 1970 season was a rebuilding year, as the Celtics had their first losing record since the 1949–50 season
David Robinson (basketball)
David Maurice Robinson is an American former professional basketball player, who played center for the San Antonio Spurs in the National Basketball Association for his entire career. Based on his prior service as an officer in the United States Navy, Robinson earned the nickname "The Admiral". Robinson is a 10-time NBA All-Star, the 1995 NBA MVP, a two-time NBA Champion, a two-time Olympic Gold Medal winner, a two-time Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, a two-time U. S. Olympic Hall of Fame inductee, he is considered one of the greatest centers in both college basketball and NBA history. To date, Robinson is the only player from the Naval Academy to play in the NBA. David Robinson was born in Key West, the second child of Ambrose and Freda Robinson. Since Robinson's father was in the Navy, the family moved many times. After his father retired from the Navy, the family settled in Woodbridge, where Robinson excelled in school and in most sports, except basketball, he was 9 inches tall in junior high school.
Robinson attended Osbourn Park High School in Manassas, just outside Washington, D. C. where Robinson's father was working as an engineer. By his senior year in high school he was 6 feet, 6 inches tall, weighed 175 pounds, had not played organized basketball or attended any basketball camps; when the coach added the tall senior to the basketball team, Robinson earned all-area and all-district honors but generated little interest among college basketball coaches. Robinson scored 1320 on the SAT, chose to go to the United States Naval Academy, where he majored in mathematics. David Robinson is considered to be the best basketball player in Naval Academy history, he chose the jersey number 50 after his idol Ralph Sampson. By the time he took the court in his first basketball game for the Navy Midshipmen men's basketball team, he had grown to 6 ft 9 in, over the course of his college basketball career he grew to 7 ft 0 in, he began college with no expectations of playing in the NBA, but in Robinson's final two years he was a consensus All-American and won college basketball's two most prestigious player awards, the Naismith and Wooden Awards, as a Naval Academy first classman.
In 1986, Robinson led Navy, a number seven seed, within a game of the Final Four before falling to Duke in the East Regional Final. Robinson played his first three years for the Midshipmen under Paul Evans and his senior season under former University of Georgia interim Head Coach Pete Herrmann. Upon graduation, he became eligible for the 1987 NBA draft and was selected by the San Antonio Spurs with the first overall pick. Robinson was 6 ft. 8 in. When he was admitted to the Naval Academy, two inches above the height limit, but received a waiver from the Superintendent of the Academy. Robinson considered leaving the academy after his second year, before incurring an obligation to serve on active duty, he decided to stay after discussing with the Superintendent the likelihood that his height would prevent him from serving at sea as an unrestricted line officer, which would be detrimental to his naval career, might make it impossible for him to receive a commission at all. As a compromise, Secretary of the Navy John Lehman allowed Robinson to train for and receive a commission as a staff officer in the Civil Engineer Corps.
As a result, Robinson was commissioned in the Naval Reserve and was only required to serve an initial active-duty obligation of two years. After graduating from the Naval Academy, Robinson became a civil engineering officer at the Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in Georgia, he was featured in recruiting materials for the service. Despite the nickname "Admiral", Robinson's actual rank upon fulfilling his service commitment was Lieutenant. Since he had not signed a contract, NBA regulations stated that Robinson could have reentered the draft after his naval service. Although there was speculation that he might choose not to sign with the Spurs, Robinson agreed to move to San Antonio for the 1989–90 season, but the Spurs agreed to pay him as much as the average of the salaries of the two highest-paid players in the league each year, or release him to free agency; the Spurs had spent the second half of the 1980s as an also-ran, bottoming out in 1988–89 with a 21–61 record, the worst in franchise history at the time.
While it was thought that the Spurs would become respectable again once Robinson arrived, no one expected what happened in his rookie season. Robinson led the Spurs to the greatest single season turnaround in NBA history at the time; the Spurs leaped to a record of 56–26 for a remarkable 35 game improvement. They advanced to the second round of the Western Conference playoffs where they lost in seven games to the eventual conference champion Portland Trail Blazers. Following the 1989–90 season, he was unanimously named the NBA rookie of the year, subsequently Sega produced a game featuring him entitled David Robinson's Supreme Court; the Spurs made the playoffs seven more seasons in a row. Robinson made the 1992 US Olympic Dream Team that won the gold medal in Barcelona. During the 1993–94 season, he became locked in a duel for the NBA scoring title with Shaquille O'Neal, scoring 71 point
Vancouver Grizzlies
The Vancouver Grizzlies were a Canadian professional basketball team based in Vancouver, British Columbia. They were part of the Midwest Division of the Western Conference of the National Basketball Association; the team was established in 1995, along with the Toronto Raptors, as part of the NBA's expansion into Canada. Following the 2000–01 season, the team relocated to Memphis, United States, are known as the Memphis Grizzlies; the Grizzlies played their home games at General Motors Place for the entirety of their six seasons in Vancouver. Like most expansion teams, the Grizzlies struggled in their early years; the team finished last in the division in five of its seasons, never won more than 30% of its games in any of the team's seasons in Vancouver. In total, the team won 101 games, lost 359, never qualified for the NBA playoffs; the two expansion teams were denied early draft picks in the first season, but the Grizzlies secured Shareef Abdur-Rahim in 1996. The team continued to lose games despite high draft picks.
After they selected Steve Francis as second pick in 1999, he refused to play in Vancouver and was traded away. After the 1998–99 lockout, lower attendance and a weak Canadian dollar caused the owner Orca Bay Sports and Entertainment to start losing money on the franchise. After a failed attempt to sell the team to Bill Laurie, it was instead sold to Michael Heisley and subsequently moved to Memphis, Tennessee for the 2001–02 season; the only former professional basketball team to play in Canada was the Toronto Huskies, who played a single season in 1946–47 before folding. Attempts had been made by Nelson Skalbania, a local entrepreneur, to get an NBA franchise to Vancouver in the 1980s, but had failed. Arthur Griffiths, owner of the Vancouver Canucks of the National Hockey League through Northwest Sports Enterprises, announced in February 1993 that he hoped to bring an NBA franchise to Vancouver. Griffiths was developing a owned 20,000-seat arena for the Canucks in downtown Vancouver, scheduled for completion for the 1995–96 season.
The Toronto Raptors were awarded an expansion franchise for that season on September 30, 1993. On February 14, 1994, the NBA's Expansion Committee gave a preliminary approval for Vancouver, with full approval being granted by the Board of Governors on 27 April. Both franchises paid a fee of US$125 million, up from $32.5 million paid during the 1988–89 expansion. The Grizzlies became the NBA's 29th franchise. One hindrance for the expansion was that the NBA wanted the Province of British Columbia to abolish wagering on Grizzlies games by removing the games from the Sports Actions betting. NBA betting accounted for CA$1.56 million with the profits going to provincial health care. Similar demands were laid forward in Ontario. There was large public opposition against the league's demands; this issue was resolved on February 9, 1994 after the franchise company agreed to donate $500,000 per year to health care. The company hired Stu Jackson as general manager on 22 July, at the time head coach of the University of Wisconsin Badgers and head coach for the New York Knicks.
Jackson started by hiring a scouting department headed by Larry Riley. Original proposals were for the team to be called the Vancouver Mounties, but objections from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police forced the team to find a new name, announced on 11 August, named for the bear indigenous to British Columbia; the team colors were announced to be turquoise and red. The Grizzlies were the first NBA team to have a website, created in 1995 by Bob Kerstein, Chief Information Officer of the Grizzlies at the time. Josh Davis was credited with designing the Vancouver Grizzlies logo in 1995. To start playing, the team needed to have sold 12,500 season tickets with 50 percent payment prior to January 1, 1995; this was a number higher than that of the Canucks, both Orlando Magic and Minnesota Timberwolves had seen problems reaching 10,000 during the 1989 expansion. On December 21, 1994, only about 10,000 tickets had been sold when Shoppers Drug Mart purchased the necessary 2,500 tickets to push the team over the limit, in a deal similar to what was necessary in Toronto.
On March 7, 1995, the majority of the holding company was sold from Griffiths to Seattle-based John McCaw, Jr.. Griffiths and McCaw, Jr. proceeded to create a parent company for the Canucks and the General Motors Place, which at first was baptized Northwest Entertainment Group, but got renamed in August as Orca Bay Sports and Entertainment. Brian Winters was announced as head coach on 19 June. Winters had spent the past nine seasons as an assistant under Lenny Wilkens with the Atlanta Hawks and Cleveland Cavaliers. Prior to the draft, the team signed the team's first player. Five days the Grizzlies and Raptors attended the 1995 NBA Expansion Draft; each of the 27 NBA teams could protect eight of their players, the two expansion teams could select one unprotected player from each team. Vancouver won the coin flip, opted for a better position in the upcoming draft, allowing the Raptors the first pick. Vancouver's first pick was Knicks' point guard Greg Anthony; the team selected forward Kenny Gattison, center Benoit Benjamin, forward Larry Stewart, Rodney Dent, Antonio Harvey, Reggie Slater, Trevor Ruffin, Derrick Phelps and Doug Edwards.
Both the Canadian teams were hampered by the NBA's decision to deny them one of the top five picks in the draft. The teams would not be allowed a top draft pick in the following three seasons if they should win the lottery; the teams were hindered from using their full salary cap the first two seasons. In the first d
1996 NBA draft
The 1996 NBA draft was the 50th draft in the National Basketball Association. It was held on June 1996 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. In this draft, NBA teams took turns selecting college basketball players and other first-time eligible players, such as players from high schools and non-North American leagues; the Vancouver Grizzlies had the highest probability to win the NBA draft lottery, but since they were an expansion team along with the Toronto Raptors, they were not allowed to select first in this draft. The team with the second highest probability, the Philadelphia 76ers, won the lottery and obtained the first selection; the Toronto Raptors and the Vancouver Grizzlies were third respectively. Allen Iverson, a sophomore from Georgetown was selected first overall by the Philadelphia 76ers, it is considered to be one of the deepest and most talented NBA drafts in history, with one-third of the first round picks becoming NBA All-Stars. The draft class produced three players who won NBA MVP awards, seven other drafted players who became All-Stars, one undrafted All-Star, for a grand total of 11 All-Stars.
Moreover, eight players from this draft class have been named to at least one All-NBA Team, the most among any draft. The draft class produced three players who have been named to the NBA's all-defensive first team: Bryant, Marcus Camby, Wallace. Camby won the Defensive Player of the Year Award in 2007, while Wallace earned the same award in 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006. Eventual 5-time NBA champion Derek Fisher was included in the draft. On April 13, 2016, Bryant played his final NBA game, making him the last player from this draft to play in the NBA, he scored sixty points in the last game as the final player of this draft. Most experts rate it along with the 1984 NBA draft and 2003 NBA draft as one of the best drafts in history. Sports Illustrated named it the second-best, behind the 1984 draft, which included a draft class of Hakeem Olajuwon, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, John Stockton; the following are undrafted players of the 1996 NBA Draft but played in the NBA. "Official site". Archived from the original on October 26, 1996.
Retrieved 2013-12-13. CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown 1996 NBA Draft at Basketball-reference.com
Senior (education)
In United States education, a senior is a student in the fourth year of study. In the United States, the twelfth grade is the fourth and final year of a student's high school period and is referred to as his/her senior year. In England and Wales, students in their tenth year and above in Secondary School are seniors. In the province of Ontario, high school students in their third year and above are considered to be seniors, while in the province of Alberta, only grade twelves are counted as seniors though both provinces are Canadian. In the states of Queensland and New South Wales in Australia, senior refers to the final two years of high school. In the United States, the fourth year that a student has been at a higher institution, is known as the senior year. In college athletics, a student in their final year of eligibility is known as a senior; the term super senior is used in the United States to refer to a fifth-year student who has not completed the graduation requirements by the end of the fourth year, thus is required to stay an additional year to complete said requirements.
Freshman Sophomore Junior Senioritis
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