Dallas Mavericks
The Dallas Mavericks are an American professional basketball team based in Dallas, Texas. The Mavericks compete in the National Basketball Association as a member club of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division; the team plays its home games at the American Airlines Center, which it shares with the National Hockey League's Dallas Stars. As of the 2017 season, the Mavericks have sold out 704 consecutive games since December 15, 2001, the longest running sellout streak in North American major league sports. Since their inaugural 1980–81 season, the Mavericks have won three division titles, two conference championships, one NBA championship. In 1978, Californian businessman Garn Eckardt met Dallas lawyer Doug Adkins, mentioned he was trying to raise capital to move an NBA team to the city. Asking for a possible partner, Adkins recommended him one of his clients, Home Interiors and Gifts owner Don Carter. Negotiations with Eckardt fell through, but Carter remained interested in the enterprise as a gift to his wife Linda, who played basketball while at Duncanville High School.
At the same time, Buffalo Braves president and general manager Norm Sonju developed an interest in bringing the NBA to Dallas as he studied possible new locations for the ailing franchise. While the Braves went to California as the San Diego Clippers, Sonju returned to Texas, was introduced to Carter by mayor Robert Folsom, one of the owners and team president of the last professional basketball team in the city, the Dallas Chaparrals of the American Basketball Association, which moved to San Antonio in 1973 to become the San Antonio Spurs. Sonju and Carter tried purchasing both the Milwaukee Bucks and the Kansas City Kings, but disagreement on relocation stalled the negotiations, leading them to instead aim for an expansion team; the league was reluctant to expand to Dallas, given Texas had both the Spurs and Houston Rockets, the 1978–79 NBA season was proving unprofitable and unpopular. Still, during the 1979 NBA All-Star Game weekend, NBA commissioner Larry O'Brien announced the league would add two new teams in the 1980–81 season, with teams in Dallas and Minneapolis.
Once the Minnesota team backed out, only Dallas remained, through negotiations with general counselor and future commissioner David Stern, the expansion fee was settled on the $12.5 million. Carter would provide half the amount. At the 1980 NBA All-Star Game, league owners voted to admit the new team, with the team's name coming from the 1957–1962 TV western Maverick. James Garner, who played the namesake character, was a member of the ownership group; the University of Texas at Arlington, who uses the Mavericks nickname, had objections about a shared name, but did not attempt any legal action. They joined the Midwest Division of the Western Conference, where they would stay until the league went to six divisions for the 2004–05 season. Dick Motta, who had guided the Washington Bullets to the NBA Championship in 1977–78, was hired as the team's first head coach, he had a well-earned reputation of being a stern disciplinarian, but was a great teacher of the game. Kiki Vandeweghe of UCLA was drafted by the Mavs with the 11th pick of the 1980 NBA draft, but Vandeweghe refused to play for the expansion Mavericks and staged a holdout that lasted a month into the team's inaugural season.
Vandeweghe was traded to the Denver Nuggets, along with a first-round pick, in 1981, in exchange for two future first-round picks that materialized into Rolando Blackman in 1981 and Sam Perkins in 1984. In the Mavericks' debut game, taking place in the brand-new Reunion Arena, the Mavericks defeated the Spurs, 103–92, but the Mavs started the season with a 6–40 record on their way to finishing 15–67. However, the Mavericks did make a player acquisition that, while it seemed minor at the time, turned out to play a important role in the early years of their franchise. Journeyman 6 ft 3 in guard Brad Davis, who played for the Anchorage Northern Knights of the Continental Basketball Association, was tracked down and signed by the Mavs in December. At the time, there was no reason to expect that Davis would be any better than the expansion-level talent the Mavs had, but he started the Mavs' final 26 games, led the team in assists, his career soared. He spent the next twelve years with the Mavericks, his number 15 jersey was retired.
The Mavericks marked the first NBA team to have a profitable debut season, with an average of 7,789 spectators. The 1981 NBA Draft brought three players; the Mavs selected 6'6" forward Mark Aguirre with the first pick, 6'6" guard Rolando Blackman 9th, 6'7" forward Jay Vincent 24th. By the end of his seven-year Mavs career, Aguirre would average 24.6 points per game. Blackman contributed 19.2 points over his 11-year career in Dallas. But it was Jay Vincent who made the biggest difference for the Mavs in their second season, leading the team in scoring with 21.4 points per game and earning NBA All-Rookie Team honors. The Mavericks improved to 28–54, getting out of the Midwest Division cellar as they finished above the Utah Jazz. In 1982–83, the Mavericks were serious contenders for the first time. At the All-Star break, they had won 12 of their last 15 games, they could not sustain that momentum and finished seven games behind the Denver Nuggets for the sixth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
But the Mavs' 38–44 re
2010 NBA draft
The 2010 NBA draft was held on June 24, 2010, at the Theatre at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. The draft, which started at 7:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time, was broadcast in the United States on ESPN. In this draft, National Basketball Association teams took turns selecting amateur U. S. college basketball players and other eligible players, including international players. This draft set a record with five players being drafted from the same school in the first round; the players were John Wall, DeMarcus Cousins, Patrick Patterson, Eric Bledsoe, Daniel Orton, all from the University of Kentucky. This draft marked the second time that an NBA D-League player was drafted, with the first case coming in 2008; the Washington Wizards, who won the draft lottery on May 18, 2010, used their first overall draft pick to draft John Wall from the University of Kentucky. The Philadelphia 76ers, who beat the odds in the draft lottery to obtain the second pick, selected Evan Turner from Ohio State University.
The New Jersey Nets, who had the worst win-loss record in the previous season, used the third pick to select Derrick Favors from Georgia Tech. The 2010 NBA draft is the last draft conducted at Madison Square Garden; the 2011 and 2012 NBA drafts were temporarily moved to Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, while the 2013 NBA draft would be held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York as the Garden underwent renovations during those summers of 2011–2013. After 2014, the draft would continue being hosted at the Barclays Center despite the renovations being done by the 2014 deadline. Interestingly, this draft class had no Rookie of the Year because Blake Griffin, drafted first overall in the previous year's draft, missed his first season with an injury, but played in the 2010-2011 season and won Rookie of the Year; these players have played in at least one NBA game. The basic eligibility rules for the draft are: All drafted players must be at least 19 years old during the calendar year of the draft.
In terms of dates, players eligible for the 2010 draft must be born on or before December 31, 1991. Any player, not an "international player", as defined in the collective bargaining agreement between the league and its players union, must be at least one year removed from the graduation of his high school class; the CBA defines "international players" as players who permanently resided outside the U. S. for three years prior to the draft, did not complete high school in the U. S. and have never enrolled at a U. S. college or university. The basic requirement for automatic eligibility for a U. S. player is the completion of his college eligibility. Players who meet the CBA definition of "international players" are automatically eligible if their 22nd birthday falls during or before the calendar year of the draft. U. S. players who were at least one year removed from their high school graduation and have played professionally with a team outside the NBA were automatically eligible. Former high school player Latavious Williams meets these criteria, having graduated high school in 2009, skipped college basketball and played professional basketball in NBA D-League.
A player, not automatically eligible must declare his eligibility for the draft by notifying the NBA offices in writing no than 60 days before the draft. For the 2010 draft, this date fell on April 25. Under NCAA rules that take effect with this draft, they only had until May 8 to withdraw from the draft and maintain their college eligibility. Players who declared for the draft could withdraw as late as 10 days before the draft and still maintain college eligibility; this year, a total of 80 collegiate players and 23 international players declared as early entry candidates. At the withdrawal deadline, 48 early entry candidates withdrew from the draft, leaving 50 collegiate players and five international players as the early entry candidates for the draft. A player who has hired an agent will forfeit his remaining college eligibility, regardless of whether he is drafted. While the CBA allows a player to withdraw from the draft twice, the NCAA mandates that a player who has declared twice loses his college eligibility.
This second provision affected Mac Koshwal, Gani Lawal, Patrick Patterson, all of whom declared for and withdrew from the 2009 draft. This draft was expected to see an unusual influx of underclassmen compared with recent years, for reasons explained by ESPN.com columnist Eamonn Brennan in an April 2010 piece: The first 14 picks in the draft belonged to teams that had missed the playoffs. The lottery determined the three teams; the remaining first-round picks and the second-round picks were assigned to teams in reverse order of their win-loss record in the previous season. As it is commonplace in the event of identical win-loss records, the NBA performed a random drawing to break the ties on April 16, 2010; the lottery was held on May 2010 in Secaucus, New Jersey. The Washington Wizards and Philadelphia 76ers beat the statistical odds by winning the first and second overall picks respectively; the New Jersey Nets won the third overall pick. Below were the chances for each team to get specific picks in the 2010 draft lottery, rounded to three decimal places: ^ 1: New York Knicks' pick was conveyed to the Utah Jazz via the Phoenix Suns.
Prior to the day of the draft, the following trades were made and resulted in exchanges of draft picks between the tea
Perth Wildcats
The Perth Wildcats are an Australian professional basketball team based in Perth, Western Australia. The Wildcats compete in the National Basketball League and play their home games at RAC Arena, known colloquially as "The Jungle", their sister team, the Perth Lynx, play in the Women's National Basketball League. After three years of strong lobbying to the NBL, the creation of a national basketball team in Perth occurred in 1982; the Westate Wildcats were played out of the 800-seat Perry Lakes Basketball Stadium. Interest in basketball grew throughout the community and in 1984 the Westate Wildcats became the Perth Wildcats; the Wildcats have gone on to become the highest-drawing and most successful team in the league, having won NBL championships in 1990, 1991, 1995, 2000, 2010, 2014, 2016, 2017 and 2019, placing the team four ahead of Melbourne United, who has five championships. Since 1987, the Wildcats have made 33-straight post-season appearances, an accomplishment matched by no other professional sports team in Australia.
The Wildcats are the city's only major professional basketball team and are one of Western Australia's major summer sport teams, along with the Perth Scorchers, the Western Warriors and Perth Glory. Wildcats players are active members of the Perth community, with the off-court structures aimed at making the players better people so that they could become better players cited as the biggest key to success. There are personal qualities demanded from owner Jack Bendat down through every rank of the organisation, being a proactive part of community work through its InspiRED program, is pivotal; the public support for the Wildcats has been deemed remarkable the way fans have bought into the brand to create the "Red Army". The Wildcats' sturdy culture has long been built on a history of winning. In 2009, after being on the brink of bankruptcy, Jack Bendat and then-chief executive officer Nick Marvin transformed the franchise, focusing on being family-friendly and engaging with children in Western Australia.
From a zero-tolerance swearing policy to always making eye contact and acknowledging supporters, players have a 350-hour community engagement obligation, 200 hours above what the collective bargaining agreement requires. In 2009, instead of doing 20 school visits per year, the Wildcats started doing 100; this increased to 200 school visits in 2010, the year after it rose again to 220. Under Marvin, the philosophy was: the more engaged the Wildcats were with the West Australian community, the more fans they accumulated; as a result, they are the most successful franchise in NBL history and one of the most competitive professional sporting teams in the world, with crowds at Perth Arena the best and unmatched in the NBL. The Wildcats have enjoyed large home crowds since moving into Perth Arena in 2012, resulting in arguably the greatest home-court advantage in the NBL. In January 2017, the Wildcats became the first NBL franchise to break the 10,000-member barrier; as a result of their large fan base, known as the "Red Army", the Wildcats have set numerous record sell-out crowds at Perth Arena.
A record crowd of 13,559 watched the Adelaide 36ers knock off the Wildcats 106–102 on 16 January 2015. A capacity crowd of 13,611 attended Game 3 of the 2017 Grand Final series on 5 March 2017, matching the Wildcats' highest-attendance record. A capacity crowd of 13,611 attended the Wildcats vs Melbourne United match on 12 January 2018, marking the seventh time topping 13,000 at Perth Arena in 2017–18; the Wildcats went on to record the highest attendance for a team during an NBL season with 183,689 fans attending their home games during the 2017–18 regular season. Since 2012, the team has been forced on an extended road trip for much of December due to Perth's annual hosting of the Hopman Cup at Perth Arena in early January; when the Wildcats have won the NBL title, the team's victory celebration and ceremony has been held in the City of Perth at Forrest Place. In 1979, the National Basketball League in Australia was formed, it took another three years of lobbying by the Perth basketball community, led by personalities like Gordon Ellis, before a team in Western Australia became a reality.
Formed in 1982 as the Westate Wildcats, the Wildcats became the first, so far only, Western Australian team to compete in the NBL. The team was coached by Henry Daigle and captained by Mike Ellis, they played out of Perry Lakes Basketball Stadium, they struggled finishing 10th with a 10 -- 16 win/loss record. Gordon Ellis took over as coach in 1983, but a 6–16 record ensued, with the Wildcats finishing well out of the finals race in 13th position. In 1984, the team was renamed the Perth Wildcats, but with coach Lynn Massey at the helm, the Wildcats finished on the bottom of the ladder with only three wins—an all-time low for the team. A fourth coach in Jay Brehmer came into the team for the 1985 season. Brehmer and imports Dan Clausen and Roland Brooks looked to lead the Wildcats to a finals berth for the first time, but they narrowly missed out on the post-season with a 13–13 record and an eighth-place finish; the Wildcats suffered a major setback in 1986 with the loss of the high-scoring Roland Brooks, after he suffered a season-ending injury just 10 games into the season.
Without their star import, the Wildcats struggled to be competitive as they finished the season in 12th place with an 8–18 record. Many changes occurred in 1987. Most the team moved from the small confines of Perry Lakes Stadium to what
Cairns Taipans
The Cairns Taipans are an Australian professional basketball team based in Cairns, Queensland. The Taipans compete in the National Basketball League and play their home games at the Cairns Convention Centre, known colloquially as "The Snakepit"; the Taipans are the only not-for-profit club left in the league. The Taipans were founded in 1999, entering the National Basketball League in place of the outgoing Newcastle Falcons for the 1999/2000 season. Led by head coach Rod Popp, the Taipans made their debut with a dismal 2–26 season record; the Taipans failed to qualify for the post-season in their first four seasons. In 2003/04, the Taipans played finals basketball for the first time. On 3 March 2004, the Taipans defeated the Perth Wildcats 103–96 in an elimination final at the Cairns Convention Centre. In winning their first final, the Taipans moved on to the quarter-finals, where they were defeated 110–88 by the West Sydney Razorbacks. After missing the finals in 2004/05, the Taipans made three straight finals appearances between 2005/06 and 2007/08.
In December 2008, the Taipans were placed into voluntary administration. As a result, coach Alan Black was sacked and imports Larry Abney and Dave Thomas were let go; the rest of the team had to agree to a blanket 45 per cent pay cut for the rest of the season. Less than 12 months the Taipans were again in financial trouble – at the time, the club was $350,000 over budget and had only recorded a profit in one of the previous four months. In response, Basketball Australia and Cairns Regional Council vowed to continue supporting the cash-strapped Taipans; the 2010/11 season saw the Cairns Taipans create history as they finished the regular season in third place with a 16–12 record and advanced through to the 2011 NBL Grand Final series, reaching the championship deciding round for the first time behind star trio Ron Dorsey, Ayinde Ubaka and Daniel Dillon. There they faced the New Zealand Breakers, after being thrashed in the series opener in Auckland, going down 85–67, the Taipans responded in Game 2 at home.
They notched up a nail-biting 85–81 double-overtime win against the Breakers to send the series into a decider. It marked the first time in NBL history a play-off match was decided in double overtime. Cairns had looked set for a three-point win in normal time before a three-pointer from Breakers guard C. J. Bruton in the dying seconds sent the match into overtime. However, revenge came five minutes when Dorsey wiped out the Breakers' three-point lead with no time to spare to force the match into double overtime. With momentum on their side, the Taipans were able to finish out the match on top. Dorsey's miraculous long three-pointer to send the game into double overtime has a special place in the club's history; the Breakers went on to win the 2010/11 NBL Championship with a 71–53 win in the decisive Game 3 in Auckland. The Taipans lacked the same spark in Game 3, with import pair Ubaka and Dorsey shooting 4-of-26 between them. Despite losing the series, Dorsey's heroics in Game 2 went down in Taipans folklore.
During the 2011 off-season, the star trio of Dorsey and Dillon all left Cairns to play for the Melbourne Tigers, each departing the Taipans after just one season. As a result, over the ensuing three seasons, the Taipans failed to return to the finals. In February 2015, the Taipans clinched their first NBL minor premiership, they finished the 2014/15 regular season in first place with a 21–7 record, marking the first time since the now defunct Geelong Supercats in 1984, that a regional team has topped the regular season log. The Taipans made history by using the same starting five of Scottie Wilbekin, Cameron Gliddon, Stephen Weigh, Alex Loughton and Matt Burston all season, they went on to reach the 2015 NBL Grand Final series, where they once again faced the New Zealand Breakers. Despite having home court advantage, the Taipans were defeated by the Breakers in Game 1, losing 86–71, they went on to lose at the buzzer in Game 2 in Auckland after a game-winning fade-away shot by Ekene Ibekwe lifted the Breakers to an 83–81 win.
Source: Taipans History Official website
TranSouth Athletic Conference
The TranSouth Athletic Conference was a college athletic conference for smaller colleges and universities located in the Southern United States. It is affiliated with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and competes in that organization's Region XI. On August 9, 2012 it was announced that Mid-Continent University had accepted an invitation to join the American Midwest Conference, starting with the 2013-14 season. Bethel, Blue Mountain, Martin Methodist were announced to be moving to the Southern States Athletic Conference starting with the 2013-14 season. 1 - Bethel left the TSAC after the 1998-99 season and re-joined back in the 2006-07 season.* - Joined the American Midwest Conference starting the 2013-14 season.** - Joined the Southern States Athletic Conference starting the 2013-14 season.*** - Became an NAIA Independent Men's sponsored sports are baseball, cross country, golf and tennis. Women's sports sponsored are basketball, cross country, soccer, softball and volleyball.
Official website
National Basketball League (New Zealand)
The National Basketball League is the pre-eminent semi-professional men's basketball league in New Zealand. Nine teams will compete in the 2019 season, with teams based in Auckland, Invercargill, Nelson, New Plymouth, Palmerston North and Wellington, as well as for the first time in league history, an Australian team based in Tasmania. Despite financial woes forcing a number of teams over the past decade to fold, the quality of play in the league continues to improve, evidenced by more New Zealand players going on to play in the Australian National Basketball League and college basketball in the United States; some have gone on further to make the NBA, such as Kirk Penney and Steven Adams. The league has a limit of three imports per team with many of the imports coming from the United States; the league only allows one naturalised New Zealand player per team. In the league's early days, Auckland and Canterbury dominated the competition. By the mid-1990s, Auckland and Nelson were the teams to beat, with New Zealand basketball legends Pero Cameron and Phill Jones dominating during this era for Auckland and Nelson, respectively.
Auckland and Waikato dominated during the 2000s, but with Auckland's departure following the 2012 season, the door was left open for Wellington and Southland to fill the void of the league's premier teams. Through the 1970s, basketball games in New Zealand were organised between neighbouring representative teams, or in annual tournaments organised as club or provincial national tournaments. Other competitions were held during Easter tournaments or in small regional leagues; the Countrywide Basketball League began in 1982 in response to a need for consistent and quality competition on a semi-professional basis, to match the structure and improvements occurring in Australia. Tall Blacks such as Stan Hill, Dave Edmonds, Glen Denham, Byron Vaetoe, Peter Pokai and Tony Smith were important cogs during the early years of the competition. However, Americans dominated the league during the 1980s. Imported players like Clyde Huntley, Angelo Hill, Frank Smith, Kerry Boagni, Willie Burton, Ronnie Joyner, Benny Anthony and Tony Brown, Kenny McFadden added a level of sophistication and style to the Kiwi basketball scene.
The big city teams such as Auckland and Wellington dominated in the early years, but when the Hutt Valley Lakers won 1991 and 1993, the star players began to spread out. The Nelson Giants won their first championship in 1994 and Auckland became the first team to win three titles in a row from 1995–97. After the Waitakere Rangers, Hutt Valley Lakers and Northland Suns left in the late 1990s, the league's level of competitiveness took a hit; the mid-1990s saw a shift in the skill level of the New Zealand players. Star players like Pero Cameron and Phill Jones began to lead their respective squads to success, as teams began to rely more on New Zealanders than before. By the early 2000s, the league implemented the one-import rule so as to limit the American domination on the league, with the formation of the New Zealand Breakers in 2003, Kiwi players found an incentive to continue playing in the NZNBL in hopes of being rewarded with an ANBL contract. Players like Pero Cameron, Phill Jones, Dillon Boucher, Lindsay Tait, Mika Vukona, Pāora Winitana and Paul Henare became household names in New Zealand and Australian basketball circles.
Auckland Pirates Auckland Stars Centrals Christchurch Cougars Harbour Heat Hutt Valley Lakers Northland Suns Otago Nuggets Ponsonby Porirua Waikato Pistons Waitemata There are two categories of players in the NZNBL: Non-Restricted Player – players eligible to play for New Zealand in FIBA competitions Restricted Player – a player, not eligible to play for New ZealandBasketball New Zealand believes that the NZNBL is much a part of the player pathway for New Zealand players, where Tall Blacks and potential Tall Blacks can play and develop as players. For that reason, it is intended that NZNBL teams have a majority of players that are able to represent New Zealand. In March 2016, Basketball New Zealand, the NZNBL, New Zealand Media and Entertainment announced that two weekly NBL games will be livestreamed free of charge on NZHerald.co.nz throughout the 2016 season. In December 2016, NZME joined forces with Basketball New Zealand and Maori Television in a new media partnership for the 2017 season.
NZME announced they would continue to build on the success of the 2016 live streaming in 2017 with at least two games a week to be livestreamed on NZHerald.co.nz, as well as all games during the Final Four weekend. In addition, Maori Television will televise free to air live coverage of a NBL game every Sunday afternoon at 3pm, for the duration of the competition, live coverage of the Final Four weekend consisting of the Semi Finals and Final. Maori Television will show delayed coverage of a second game every week on a Saturday afternoon during the season. During their time in the competition, the Auckland Stars were the benchmark of the NBL, their 9 titles was a league record until Wellington won their 10th title in 2017. Next best is Canterbury and Waikato with 4 Nelson and Southland, Hutt Valley, Hawke's Bay, Auckland Pirates. Most Valuable Player NZ Most Valuable Player Finals MVP Most Outstanding Guard Most Outstanding NZ Guard Most Outstanding Forward Most Outstanding NZ Forward/Centre Scoring Champion Rebounding Champion Assist Champion Rookie of the Year Coach of the Year All-Star Five Best Team Free Throws Australian National Basketball League Conference Basketball League – defunct se
Kirk Penney
Kirk Samuel Penney is a New Zealand former professional basketball player. During an outstanding college career with the University of Wisconsin, Penney helped the Badgers to an NCAA Final Four his freshman year and a Sweet Sixteen in his senior year along with two Big 10 conference titles, was twice named first team all-conference and an all-American, he is in the University of Wisconsin Hall of Fame. He represented New Zealand at the Sydney and Athens Olympics and averaged 16.9 points at the World Championships at Indianapolis in 2002 and 24.7 points at the World Championships at Turkey in 2010. He became the second Kiwi in the NBA when he appeared for the Miami Heat in 2003 and the Los Angeles Clippers in 2005, went on to play professionally in Spain, the NBA Development League, Lithuania and Turkey. In 2007, he joined the New Zealand Breakers of the Australian National Basketball League. In 2009, he was named the NBL MVP, in 2011, he won his first championship with the Breakers. Born in the Auckland suburb of Milford, Penney attended Westlake Boys High School and played junior basketball for the North Harbour Basketball Association, joining their New Zealand NBL team, the North Harbour Kings, in 1998 as a 17-year-old.
He helped the Kings reach the grand final. He played a further season for the Kings in 1999 before leaving for the United States to begin his college career with the University of Wisconsin; as a freshman playing for the Wisconsin Badgers during the 1999–2000 season, Penney had a minimal role under coach Dick Bennett, but still helped his team reach the NCAA Final Four while averaging 3.7 points and 1.4 rebounds in 34 games. He returned to New Zealand following his freshman season and re-joined the North Harbour Kings, he played just six games for the Kings before returning to Wisconsin to prepare for his sophomore season. As a sophomore in 2000–01, he averaged 11.2 points per game and was the second-leading scorer on the team. As a junior in 2001–02 playing for coach Bo Ryan, Penney was the team's leading scorer, he averaged 15.1 points and 4.9 rebounds per game while shooting 45.4 percent from the field and teamed with point guard Devin Harris to guide the Badgers to a share of the Big Ten title.
Penney subsequently earned first-team All-Big Ten honours in 2001–02. As a senior in 2002–03, Penney was again the teams leading scorer, he averaged 16.2 points and was second on the team with 6.0 rebounds per game, as Wisconsin won the Big Ten regular-season title outright. For his senior-year efforts, Penney earned first-team All-Big Ten honours again and was named an honorable mention All-American, his 217 career three-point field goals made ranks third in program history. Penney was not drafted in the star-studded 2003 NBA draft but joined the Minnesota Timberwolves in July that year for the Orlando Pro Summer League where he led the league in three-point shooting. On 1 September 2003, he signed with the Timberwolves, but did not make the team's final roster as he was waived on 23 October prior to the start of the 2003–04 NBA season. On 3 November, he signed with the Miami Heat and made his NBA debut that same day, scoring three points in 14 minutes of action against the Dallas Mavericks.
Penney became the second New Zealander to play in the NBA. The following day, he made his second appearance for the Heat, but record no stats in just four minutes of action against the San Antonio Spurs. On 7 November, he was waived by the Heat. Following his release from the Heat, Penney moved to Spain and signed with Gran Canaria for the rest of the 2003–04 season. In 24 Liga ACB games for Canaria, he averaged 2.1 rebounds per game. In July 2004, Penney joined the Minnesota Timberwolves for the Minnesota Summer League in Minneapolis, the Chicago Bulls for the Rocky Mountain Revenue in Salt Lake City. On 4 November 2004, he was selected with the sixth overall pick in the 2004 NBA Development League Draft by the Asheville Altitude, he earned himself an NBA call-up. On 26 December 2004, he signed with the Los Angeles Clippers, he scored just two points. He was waived by the Clippers on 3 January 2005 and returned to the Asheville Altitude to play out the season and help the team win the 2005 NBA D-League championship.
On 5 August 2005, Penney signed a two-year deal with Maccabi Tel Aviv of the Israeli Basketball Premier League. He was used sparingly as a shooter off the bench and helped Maccabi qualify for the Euroleague Final Four losing to CSKA Moscow in the final. Maccabi did, win the 2006 Premier League championship. In 19 Euroleague games for Maccabi in 2005–06, Penney averaged 3.3 points per game. In October 2006, Penney signed with Žalgiris Kaunas as an injury replacement for Marcelinho Machado. After Žalgiris won the Lithuanian Basketball League Cup, Penney parted ways with Žalgiris. On 16 February 2007, he signed with ALBA Berlin of Germany for the rest of the 2006–07 season. In June 2007, Penney signed with the New Zealand Breakers of the Australian National Basketball League. Penney's addition to the unsuccessful Breakers proved to be the tonic for the Breakers success, with the team qualifying for their first finals series, before finishing in sixth position overall in 2007–08. Individually, Penney was the league's third leading scorer, averaging 24.2 points, 4.8 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.3 steals over 31 games, was a starter for the World All-Stars team, was named to the All-NBL first team.
In the 2008–09 season, Penney led the league in scoring and was the first Kiwi player to be named in the All-NBL first team for consecutive seas
