1.
EA Canada
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EA Canada is a video game developer located in Burnaby, British Columbia. The development studio opened as Distinctive Software in January 1983 and is Electronic Artss largest and oldest studio, EA Canada employs approximately 1,300 people and houses the worlds largest video game test operation. There are also such as fitness rooms, two theatres, a cafeteria called EAt, coffee bars, a soccer field, and several arcades. The building is situated next to Discovery Park, EA Canada is a major studio of the American gaming software giant Electronic Arts, which has several studios around the globe. EA, based in Redwood City, California, acquired Distinctive Software in 1991 for $11 million, at the time of the business acquisition, Distinctive Software was noted for developing a number of racing and sporting games published under the Accolade brand. Since becoming EA Canada, it has developed many EA Games, EA Sports, EA acquired Black Box Games in 2002 and it became part of EA Canada under name EA Black Box. It later became an independent EA studio in 2005, since its acquisition, EA Black Box has been home to the Need for Speed franchise, among others. Below is a list of games EA Canada have developed, items with an asterisk indicate that they are known to be currently working on that project. Games developed/being developed for publishing by Electronic Arts EA Graphics Library or EAGL is an engine which was created and developed by EA Canada. It is the engine used in some of EAs games, notably the Need for Speed series. Need for Speed, World uses a modified EAGL3 engine with the physics of the games with an external GUI programmed in Adobe Flash
2.
Video game programmer
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A game programmer is a software engineer, programmer, or computer scientist who primarily develops codebases for video games or related software, such as game development tools. Game programming has many specialized disciplines, all of which fall under the term of game programmer. A game programmer should not be confused with a game designer, in the early days of video games, a game programmer also took on the job of a designer and artist. This was generally because the abilities of computers were so limited that having specialized personnel for each function was unnecessary. Technology has advanced to such a degree that contemporary games usually boast 3D graphics. Nowadays, the term programmer art has come to imply the kind of bright colors. The desire for adding depth and assets to games necessitated a division of labor. Initially, art production was relegated to full-time artists, next game programming became a separate discipline from game design. Now, only games, such as the puzzle game Bejeweled, are simple enough to require just one full-time programmer. Despite this division, however, most game developers have some say in the design of contemporary games. Each aspect of the game can consume all of one time and, in many cases. Some programmers may specialize in one area of programming. The number of programmers needed for each feature depends somewhat on programmers skills, Game engine programmers create the base engine of the game, including the simulated physics and graphics disciplines. Increasingly, video games use existing game engines, either commercial and they are often customized for a particular game, and these programmers handle these modifications. A games physics programmer is dedicated to developing the physics a game will employ, typically, a game will only simulate a few aspects of real-world physics. For example, a game may need simulated gravity. Since processing cycles are always at a premium, physics programmers may employ shortcuts that are computationally inexpensive, in other cases, unrealistic physics are employed to allow easier gameplay or for dramatic effect. Sometimes, a subset of situations is specified and the physical outcome of such situations are stored in a record of some sort and are never computed at runtime at all
3.
Video game music
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Video game music is the soundtrack that accompanies video games. Early video game music was limited to simple melodies of early sound synthesizer technology. With advances in technology, video game music has now grown to include the same breadth and complexity associated with television and film scores, while simple synthesizer pieces are still common, game music now includes full orchestral pieces and popular music. Music in video games can be heard over a title screen, options menu. Today’s soundtracks can also change depending on a player’s actions or situation, Video game music can be one of two options, original or licensed. In order to create or collect this music, teams of composers, music directors, today, original composition has included the work of film composers Harry Gregson-Williams, Trent Reznor, Hans Zimmer, Josh Mancell, Steve Jablonsky, and Michael Giacchino. The popularity of game music has expanded education and job opportunities, generated awards. At the time video games had emerged as a form of entertainment in the late 1970s, music was stored on physical medium in analog waveforms such as compact cassettes. Such components were expensive and prone to breakage under heavy use making them less ideal for use in an arcade cabinet, though in rare cases. Sound effects for the games were also generated in this fashion, an early example of such an approach to video game music was the opening chiptune in Tomohiro Nishikados Gun Fight. The first game to use a background soundtrack was Tomohiro Nishikados Space Invaders. It had four descending chromatic bass notes repeating in a loop, though it was dynamic and interacted with the player, the first video game to feature continuous, melodic background music was Rally-X, released by Namco in 1980, featuring a simple tune that repeats continuously during gameplay. The decision to any music into a video game meant that at some point it would have to be transcribed into computer code by a programmer, whether or not the programmer had musical experience. Some music was original, some was public domain music such as folk songs, Sound capabilities were limited, the popular Atari 2600 home system, for example, was capable of generating only two tones, or notes, at a time. As advances were made in technology and costs fell, a definitively new generation of arcade machines. This was further improved upon by Namcos 1982 arcade game Dig Dug, Dig Dug was composed by Yuriko Keino, who also composed the music for other Namco games such as Xevious and Phozon. Home console systems also had an upgrade in sound ability beginning with the ColecoVision in 1982 capable of four channels. However, more notable was the Japanese release of the Famicom in 1983 which was released in the US as the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1985
4.
Computing platform
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Computing platform means in general sense, where any piece of software is executed. It may be the hardware or the system, even a web browser or other application. The term computing platform can refer to different abstraction levels, including a hardware architecture, an operating system. In total it can be said to be the stage on which programs can run. For example, an OS may be a platform that abstracts the underlying differences in hardware, platforms may also include, Hardware alone, in the case of small embedded systems. Embedded systems can access hardware directly, without an OS, this is referred to as running on bare metal, a browser in the case of web-based software. The browser itself runs on a platform, but this is not relevant to software running within the browser. An application, such as a spreadsheet or word processor, which hosts software written in a scripting language. This can be extended to writing fully-fledged applications with the Microsoft Office suite as a platform, software frameworks that provide ready-made functionality. Cloud computing and Platform as a Service, the social networking sites Twitter and facebook are also considered development platforms. A virtual machine such as the Java virtual machine, applications are compiled into a format similar to machine code, known as bytecode, which is then executed by the VM. A virtualized version of a system, including virtualized hardware, OS, software. These allow, for instance, a typical Windows program to run on what is physically a Mac, some architectures have multiple layers, with each layer acting as a platform to the one above it. In general, a component only has to be adapted to the layer immediately beneath it, however, the JVM, the layer beneath the application, does have to be built separately for each OS
5.
PlayStation 2
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The PlayStation 2 is a home video game console that was developed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It is the successor to the PlayStation, and is the installment in the PlayStation lineup of consoles. It was released on March 4,2000 in Japan, October 26,2000 in North America, November 24,2000 in Europe and it competed with Segas Dreamcast, Microsofts Xbox, and Nintendos GameCube in the sixth generation of video game consoles. Announced in 1999, the PlayStation 2 was the first PlayStation console to offer backwards compatibility for its predecessors DualShock controller, the PlayStation 2 is the best-selling video game console of all time, selling over 155 million units, with 150 million confirmed by Sony in 2011. More than 3,874 game titles have been released for the PS2 since launch, Sony later manufactured several smaller, lighter revisions of the console known as Slimline models in 2004 and well on, and in 2006, announced and launched its successor, the PlayStation 3. Sony unveiled the PlayStation 4 console the following month on February 20,2013, Sony announced the PlayStation 2 on March 1,1999. The Dreamcast itself launched very successfully in North America later that year, soon after the Dreamcasts North American launch, Sony unveiled the PlayStation 2 at the Tokyo Game Show on September 20,1999. Sony showed fully playable demos of upcoming PlayStation 2 games including Gran Turismo 2000 and Tekken Tag Tournament – which showed the consoles graphic abilities, the PS2 was launched in March 2000 in Japan, October in North America and November in Europe. Sales of the console, games and accessories pulled in $250 million on the first day, directly after its release, it was difficult to find PS2 units on retailer shelves due to manufacturing delays. Another option was purchasing the console online through websites such as eBay. This allowed the PS2 to tap the large install base established by the PlayStation – another major selling point over the competition, later, Sony added new development kits for game developers and more PS2 units for consumers. The PS2s built-in functionality also expanded its audience beyond the gamer and this made the console a low cost entry into the home theater market. The PS2 remained as the only active sixth generation console for over 6 months, before it would face competition from rivals, Nintendos GameCube and Microsofts Xbox. While the PlayStation 2 theoretically had the weakest specification of the three, it had a start due to its installed base plus strong developer commitment. Sony also countered the Xbox by temporarily securing PlayStation 2 exclusives for highly anticipated games such as the Grand Theft Auto series and Metal Gear Solid 2, Sons of Liberty. Sony cut the price of the console in May 2002 from US$299 to $199 in North America, making it the price as the GameCube. It also planned to cut the price in Japan around that time and it cut the price twice in Japan in 2003. In 2006, Sony cut the cost of the console in anticipation of the release of the PlayStation 3, Sony, unlike Sega with its Dreamcast, originally placed little emphasis on online gaming during its first few years, although that changed upon the launch of the online-capable Xbox
6.
GameCube
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The GameCube is a home video game console released by Nintendo in Japan on September 14,2001, in North America on November 18,2001, in Europe on May 3,2002, and in Australia on May 17,2002. The sixth-generation console is the successor to the Nintendo 64 and competed with Sony Computer Entertainments PlayStation 2, the GameCube is the first Nintendo console to use optical discs as its primary storage medium. The discs are similar to the format, as a result of their smaller size and the consoles small disc compartment. Contemporary reception of the GameCube was generally positive, the console was praised for its controller, extensive software library and high-quality games, but was criticized for its exterior design and lack of features. Nintendo sold 21.74 million GameCube units worldwide before it was discontinued in 2007 and its successor, the Wii, which is backwards-compatible with most GameCube software, was released in November 2006. In 1997, a hardware design company called ArtX was launched, staffed by twenty engineers who had previously worked at SGI on the design of the Nintendo 64s graphics hardware. The team was led by Dr. Wei Yen, who had been SGIs head of Nintendo Operations, at Nintendos press conference in May 1999, the console was first publicly announced as Project Dolphin, the successor to the Nintendo 64. At the conference, Nintendos Howard Lincoln said of ArtX, This company is headed up by Dr. Wei Yen, Dr. Yen has assembled at ArtX one of the best teams of 3D graphics engineers on the planet. Subsequently, Nintendo began providing development kits to game developers, Nintendo also formed a strategic partnership with IBM for the production of Dolphins CPU, code-named Gekko. ArtX was acquired by ATI in April 2000, whereupon the Flipper graphics processor design had already mostly completed by ArtX and was not overtly influenced by ATI. In total, ArtX team cofounder Greg Buchner recalled that their portion of the hardware design timeline had arced from inception in 1998 to completion in 2000. Of ATIs acquisition of ArtX, an ATI spokesperson said, ATI now becomes a major supplier to the console market via Nintendo. The Dolphin platform is reputed to be king of the hill in terms of graphics, the console was announced as the Nintendo GameCube at a press conference in Japan on August 24,2000, abbreviated as NGC in Japan and GCN in North America. Nintendo unveiled its software lineup for the console at E32001, focusing on fifteen launch titles, including Luigis Mansion and Star Wars Rogue Squadron II. Several titles that were scheduled to launch with the console were delayed. It is also the first console in the history not to accompany a Mario platform title at launch. Long prior to the launch, Nintendo had developed and patented an early prototype of motion controls for the GameCube. These motion control concepts would not be deployed to consumers for several years, prior to the Nintendo GameCubes release, Nintendo focused resources on the launch of the Game Boy Advance, a handheld game console and successor to the original Game Boy and Game Boy Color
7.
North America
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North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea. North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers, about 16. 5% of the land area. North America is the third largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa, and the fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 565 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7. 5% of the worlds population, North America was reached by its first human populations during the last glacial period, via crossing the Bering land bridge. The so-called Paleo-Indian period is taken to have lasted until about 10,000 years ago, the Classic stage spans roughly the 6th to 13th centuries. The Pre-Columbian era ended with the migrations and the arrival of European settlers during the Age of Discovery. Present-day cultural and ethnic patterns reflect different kind of interactions between European colonists, indigenous peoples, African slaves and their descendants, European influences are strongest in the northern parts of the continent while indigenous and African influences are relatively stronger in the south. Because of the history of colonialism, most North Americans speak English, Spanish or French, the Americas are usually accepted as having been named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by the German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann. Vespucci, who explored South America between 1497 and 1502, was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a different landmass previously unknown by Europeans. In 1507, Waldseemüller produced a map, in which he placed the word America on the continent of South America. He explained the rationale for the name in the accompanying book Cosmographiae Introductio, for Waldseemüller, no one should object to the naming of the land after its discoverer. He used the Latinized version of Vespuccis name, but in its feminine form America, following the examples of Europa, Asia and Africa. Later, other mapmakers extended the name America to the continent, In 1538. Some argue that the convention is to use the surname for naming discoveries except in the case of royalty, a minutely explored belief that has been advanced is that America was named for a Spanish sailor bearing the ancient Visigothic name of Amairick. Another is that the name is rooted in a Native American language, the term North America maintains various definitions in accordance with location and context. In Canadian English, North America may be used to refer to the United States, alternatively, usage sometimes includes Greenland and Mexico, as well as offshore islands
8.
Europe
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Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
9.
Japan
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Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭. It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon
10.
Sports game
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A sports game is a video game that simulates the practice of sports. Most sports have been recreated with a game, including sports, track and field, extreme sports. Some games emphasize playing the sport, whilst others emphasize strategy. Some, such as Need for Speed, Arch Rivals and Punch-Out, satirize the sport for comic effect. This genre has been throughout the history of video games and is competitive. A number of game series feature the names and characteristics of real teams and players, Sports games involve physical and tactical challenges, and test the players precision and accuracy. Most sports games attempt to model the athletic characteristics required by that sport, including speed, strength, acceleration, accuracy, as with their respective sports, these games take place in a stadium or arena with clear boundaries. Sports games often provide play-by-play and color commentary through the use of recorded audio, Sports games sometimes make use of different modes for different parts of the game. This is especially true in games about American football such as the Madden NFL series, sometimes, other sports games offer a menu where players may select a strategy while play is temporarily suspended. Some sports games also require players to shift roles between the athletes and the coach or manager and these mode switches are more intuitive than other game genres because they reflect actual sports. Older 2D sports games sometimes used a graphical scale, where athletes appeared to be quite large in order to be visible to the player. As sports games have evolved, players have come to expect a realistic graphical scale with a degree of verisimilitude. Sports games often simplify the game physics for ease of play, Games typically take place with a highly accurate time-scale, although they usually allow players to play quick sessions with shorter game quarters or periods. Sports games sometimes treat button-pushes as continuous signals rather than discrete moves, in order to initiate, for example, football games may distinguish between short and the long passes based on how long the player holds a button. Golf games often initiate the backswing with one button-push, and the swing itself is initiated by a subsequent push. ″also can customize person and can make own team″ In 1958, William Higinbotham created a game called Tennis for Two, the players would select the angle at which to put their racket, and pressed a button to return it. Although this game was simple, it demonstrated how an action game could be played on a computer. Video games prior to the late 1970s were primarily played on university mainframe computers under timesharing systems that supported multiple computer terminals on school campuses, the two dominant systems in this era were Digital Equipment Corporations PDP-10 and Control Data Corporations PLATO
11.
Basketball
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Basketball is a non-contact team sport played on a rectangular court by two teams of five players each. The objective is to shoot a ball through a hoop 18 inches in diameter and 10 feet high that is mounted to a backboard at each end of the court. The game was invented in 1891 by Dr. James Naismith, a team can score a field goal by shooting the ball through the basket being defended by the opposition team during regular play. A field goal scores three points for the team if the player shoots from behind the three-point line. A team can also score via free throws, which are worth one point, the team with the most points at the end of the game wins, but additional time is mandated when the score is tied at the end of regulation. The ball can be advanced on the court by passing it to a teammate and it is a violation to lift, or drag, ones pivot foot without dribbling the ball, to carry it, or to hold the ball with both hands then resume dribbling. The game has many techniques for displaying skill—ball-handling, shooting, passing, dribbling, dunking, shot-blocking. The point guard directs the on court action of the team, implementing the coachs game plan, Basketball is one of the worlds most popular and widely viewed sports. Outside North America, the top clubs from national leagues qualify to continental championships such as the Euroleague, the FIBA Basketball World Cup attracts the top national teams from around the world. Each continent hosts regional competitions for teams, like EuroBasket. The FIBA Womens Basketball World Cup features the top womens basketball teams from continental championships. The main North American league is the WNBA, whereas the EuroLeague Women has been dominated by teams from the Russian Womens Basketball Premier League, in early December 1891, Canadian Dr. He sought a vigorous indoor game to keep his students occupied, after rejecting other ideas as either too rough or poorly suited to walled-in gymnasiums, he wrote the basic rules and nailed a peach basket onto a 10-foot elevated track. Basketball was originally played with a soccer ball and these laces could cause bounce passes and dribbling to be unpredictable. Eventually a lace-free ball construction method was invented, and this change to the game was endorsed by Naismith, dribbling was not part of the original game except for the bounce pass to teammates. Passing the ball was the means of ball movement. Dribbling was eventually introduced but limited by the shape of early balls. Dribbling only became a part of the game around the 1950s
12.
Video game
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A video game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface to generate visual feedback on a video device such as a TV screen or computer monitor. The word video in video game referred to a raster display device. Some theorists categorize video games as an art form, but this designation is controversial, the electronic systems used to play video games are known as platforms, examples of these are personal computers and video game consoles. These platforms range from large mainframe computers to small handheld computing devices, the input device used for games, the game controller, varies across platforms. Common controllers include gamepads, joysticks, mouse devices, keyboards, the touchscreens of mobile devices, and buttons, or even, with the Kinect sensor, a persons hands and body. Players typically view the game on a screen or television or computer monitor, or sometimes on virtual reality head-mounted display goggles. There are often game sound effects, music and, in the 2010s, some games in the 2000s include haptic, vibration-creating effects, force feedback peripherals and virtual reality headsets. In the 2010s, the game industry is of increasing commercial importance, with growth driven particularly by the emerging Asian markets and mobile games. As of 2015, video games generated sales of USD74 billion annually worldwide, early games used interactive electronic devices with various display formats. The earliest example is from 1947—a Cathode ray tube Amusement Device was filed for a patent on 25 January 1947, by Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann, and issued on 14 December 1948, as U. S. Written by MIT students Martin Graetz, Steve Russell, and Wayne Wiitanens on a DEC PDP-1 computer in 1961, and the hit ping pong-style Pong, used the DEC PDP-1s vector display to have two spaceships battle each other. In 1971, Computer Space, created by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, was the first commercially sold and it used a black-and-white television for its display, and the computer system was made of 74 series TTL chips. The game was featured in the 1973 science fiction film Soylent Green, Computer Space was followed in 1972 by the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home console. Modeled after a late 1960s prototype console developed by Ralph H. Baer called the Brown Box and these were followed by two versions of Ataris Pong, an arcade version in 1972 and a home version in 1975 that dramatically increased video game popularity. The commercial success of Pong led numerous other companies to develop Pong clones and their own systems, the game inspired arcade machines to become prevalent in mainstream locations such as shopping malls, traditional storefronts, restaurants, and convenience stores. The game also became the subject of articles and stories on television and in newspapers and magazines. Space Invaders was soon licensed for the Atari VCS, becoming the first killer app, the term platform refers to the specific combination of electronic components or computer hardware which, in conjunction with software, allows a video game to operate. The term system is commonly used
13.
National Basketball Association
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The National Basketball Association is the major mens professional basketball league in North America, and is widely considered to be the premier mens professional basketball league in the world. It has 30 teams, and is a member of USA Basketball. The NBA is one of the four professional sports leagues in the United States. NBA players are the worlds best paid athletes by average annual salary per player, the league was founded in New York City on June 6,1946, as the Basketball Association of America. The league adopted the name National Basketball Association on August 3,1949, the leagues several international as well as individual team offices are directed out of its head offices located in the Olympic Tower at 645 Fifth Avenue in New York City. NBA Entertainment and NBA TV studios are directed out of offices located in Secaucus, the Basketball Association of America was founded in 1946 by owners of the major ice hockey arenas in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and Canada. On November 1,1946, in Toronto, Canada, the Toronto Huskies hosted the New York Knickerbockers at Maple Leaf Gardens, the first basket was made by Ossie Schectman of the Knickerbockers. During its early years, the quality of play in the BAA was not significantly better than in competing leagues or among leading independent clubs such as the Harlem Globetrotters. For instance, the 1948 ABL finalist Baltimore Bullets moved to the BAA and won that leagues 1948 title, Following the 1948–49 season, the BAA took in the remainder of the NBL, Syracuse, Anderson, Tri-Cities, Sheboygan, Denver, and Waterloo. The new league had seventeen franchises located in a mix of large and small cities, as well as arenas and smaller gymnasiums. The process of contraction saw the leagues smaller-city franchises move to larger cities, the Hawks shifted from the Tri-Cities to Milwaukee in 1951, and then to St. Louis in 1955. The Rochester Royals moved from Rochester, New York, to Cincinnati in 1957, japanese-American Wataru Misaka broke the NBA color barrier in the 1947–48 season when he played for the New York Knicks. He remained the only player in league history prior to the first African-American, Harold Hunter. During this period, the Minneapolis Lakers, led by center George Mikan, won five NBA Championships, to encourage shooting and discourage stalling, the league introduced the 24-second shot clock in 1954. If a team does not attempt to score a goal within 24 seconds of obtaining the ball, play is stopped. In 1957, rookie center Bill Russell joined the Boston Celtics, who already featured guard Bob Cousy and coach Red Auerbach, and went on to lead the club to eleven NBA titles in thirteen seasons. Center Wilt Chamberlain entered the league with the Warriors in 1959 and became a dominant individual star of the 1960s, russells rivalry with Chamberlain became one of the greatest rivalries in the history of American team sports. The 1960s were dominated by the Celtics, led by Russell, Bob Cousy and coach Red Auerbach, Boston won eight straight championships in the NBA from 1959 to 1966
14.
Streetball
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Streetball or street basketball is a variation of basketball typically played on outdoor courts, featuring significantly less formal structure and enforcement of the games rules. As such, its format is more conducive to allowing players to showcase their own individual skills. Streetball is often regarded as another element of the Hip Hop culture, Streetball may also refer to other urban sports played on asphalt. It is particularly big in New York City, some places and cities in the United States have organized streetball programs, operated similarly to midnight basketball programs. Many cities also host their own weekend-long streetball tournaments, with Hoop-It-Up, Streetball rules vary widely from court to court. Players typically divide into teams by alternating choices, typically when a player calls ball that means that you have current possession of the ball and they can stop grabbing for it. Then they continue the game from the spot where ball was called, a common misconception is that saying And 1 is synonymous with calling foul. The phrase is commonly employed as a form of trash talk, in reality, and as the rules that follow indicate, there is no such thing as a traditional And 1 in Streetball. Because the duration of the game is dictated by score and players cannot foul-out in streetball and it goes without saying that calling fouls in streetball is disfavored. A common feature of streetball is the pick up game, generally, the team captains alternate their choices, but different courts have differing rules in regards to player selection. Many games play up to 7,11,13,15, players often play win by 2 which, as in tennis, means that the team has to win by a margin of at least 2 points. The most common game is 3 on 3 played half court. Another common variation to the rules is the skunk rule and this merely means that if a player reaches a certain point without the other player scoring, the game is over. The skunk rule limit can vary, but is used at the score 7 to 0. Sometimes in a game, a winners ball or make it. This means that if a team scores, it gets the ball again on offense, full court basketball is not played with these rules, but, in most instances, the winning team gets to choose which basketball and usually which direction they get to use. Also, if the ball out of bounds players must check up. Another possible streetball feature is having an MC call the game, the MC is on the court during the game and is often very close to the players and uses a microphone to provide game commentary for the fans
15.
NBA Street Vol. 2
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NBA Street Vol.2 is a basketball video game, published by EA Sports BIG and developed by EA Canada. It is the sequel to NBA Street and the game in the NBA Street series. It was released on April 28,2003 for the PlayStation 2, GameCube, japan was only able to see a PlayStation 2 release of this game. The GameCube version was planned to be released in that region. Like the previous game, NBA Street Vol.2 consists of 3-on-3 basketball games, in the game, there are 29 fully playable NBA teams in all modes once unlocked. The game also features four different modes to choose from including a Pick Up Game, NBA Challenge, Be a Legend, the game also features several new trick moves and dunks, as well as introducing a level two gamebreaker. Players will also reward points after every game that they win, which can be used to purchase many rewards such as players, jerseys. If players win an amount of games, some rewards will be automatically unlocked. It is possible to play as a made up of the three different Jordans. It also features instrumental beats from producer Just Blaze, a feature called Gamebreaker is included. When players fill up their meter, they have the option to either use a Gamebreaker One or save it for a Gamebreaker Two. Either way, once they use it, their team will earn more points, however, if players or the opposing team takes too long, they will lose their gamebreaker. If the opposing team saves their Gamebreaker, players they can use their Gamebreaker to cancel theirs, there are four modes in the game. Pick Up Game - The first gameplay option, in this mode, players are able to play against the computer, or a user wanting to play the game. They can also choose to turn the clock off. NBA Challenge - The second gameplay option, but in this mode players have to play at a certain court, in NBA Challenge, players are able to unlock NBA Legends as well as courts, and reward points. Be a Legend - The third and last gameplay option and this is the main mode in the game. In this mode, players create a baller, create a team, in order to do that, they have to gain a reputation by playing pick up games that are assigned on the map, which will lead to tournaments against street legends
16.
NBA Street V3
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NBA Street V3 is the third game in the NBA Street series. It is the sequel of NBA Street Vol.2 and it was released for PlayStation 2, GameCube and Xbox, along with a PlayStation Portable port of V3 called NBA Street Showdown. Contributing rappers to the Golden Age of Hip Hop, the Beastie Boys, the GameCube version contains Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach as playable characters. This was part of a deal Nintendo had with EA Sports to have Nintendos intellectual properties appear in EA franchises, gameplay consists of standard three-on-three streetball games as well as alternates such as a competition to be the first to a certain score or other objective. Players can try to collect points, which are scored through the use of excellent ballhandling. In NBA Street V3, Gamebreakers return to their format from NBA Street. This time, while in the air just before landing a dunk, in an NBA game, the score changes become three to five points for the offense and a loss of two for the defense, amounting to a five-to-seven point swing. The same controls for the Gamebreaker apply in the new Dunk Contest feature, the trick stick is also used on the ground for specific tricks, while the trick button now performs a random trick. Aside from customization of National Basketball Association players, it includes detailed character creators and it is also possible for a player to customize his own court, starting with a street court and eventually obtaining the top priced NBA courts. NBA Street V3 was developed by EA Canada, and was released under the EA Sports BIG franchise and its developing team largely consisted of the same people who developed SSX3 and NBA Street Vol.2. The game was first unveiled in July 2004 and was intended to be, according to the executive producer William Mozell, celebration of the culture. The game was met very positive reception upon release. GameRankings and Metacritic gave it a score of 88% and 89 out of 100 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions, and 88% and 88 out of 100 for the GameCube version. Detroit Free Press gave the PS2 version all four stars and called it deep, graphically sharp. USA Today gave the game three-and-a-half stars out of four, saying, Style, style, the courts look authentic and D. J. Bobbito Garcia returns with more colorful play-by-play, the music is mostly classic hip-hop and rap artists like House of Pain and the Beastie Boys that fit nicely within the action. The Sydney Morning Herald gave it four out of five, saying, The game has never looked better with easily recognisable pro players. But where this latest installment excels is in enhanced options and customisation for serious fans, while still offering pick-up-and-play access for those after a quick sporting fix
17.
NBA Street Homecourt
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NBA Street Homecourt is the fourth game in the NBA Street series. It was released for the Xbox 360 on February 19,2007, carmelo Anthony, pictured during his tenure with the Denver Nuggets, is featured on the cover. A demo of the game was released on February 2,2007 on the Xbox Live Marketplace, NBA Street Homecourt was the first Xbox 360 game to be natively rendered in the 1080p resolution. The game features basketball courts that are based on ones that NBA superstars grew up on. 3 RJD2 - NBA Street pt.2 RJD2 - NBA Street pt.1 RJD2 - Act -2 RJD2 - Solomon Jones Pharoahe Monch - Push Montalbon - Melos Promise The game was met with positive reception. GameRankings and Metacritic gave it a score of 82% and 80 out of 100 for the Xbox 360 version, club gave the game an A, saying, A dazzling array of showmanship, visual glitz, and a hefty dose of fun make this an absolute must-play. Detroit Free Press gave it three out of four and stated that the high-flying super dunks, crazy-killer crossovers and behind-the-back, no-look. And here lies one of the games biggest pluses
18.
Slam dunk
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This is considered a normal field goal attempt, if successful it is worth two points. Such a shot was known as a shot until the term slam dunk was coined by former Los Angeles Lakers announcer Chick Hearn. The slam dunk is the most efficient basketball shot, thus, the maneuver is often extracted from the basketball game and showcased in slam dunk contests. Perhaps the most popular is the NBA Slam Dunk Contest held during the annual NBA All-Star Weekend, the first incarnation of the NBA Slam Dunk Contest was held during the half-time of the 1976 American Basketball Association All-Star Game. Dunking was banned in the NCAA from 1967 to 1976, many people have attributed this to the dominance of the then-college phenomenon Lew Alcindor, the no-dunking rule is sometimes referred to as the Lew Alcindor rule. The phrase slam dunk has since entered popular usage in American English, meaning a sure thing, during the 1940s and 50s, 7-foot center and Olympic Gold Medalist Bob Kurland was dunking regularly during games. Yet defenders viewed the execution of a slam dunk as an affront that deserved retribution, thus defenders often intimidated offensive players. Satch Sanders, a career Boston Celtic from 1960 to 1973, said. in the old days, still, by the late 1950s and early 60s players such as Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain had incorporated the move into their offensive arsenal. The dunk became a fan-favorite, as players began to aggressively intimidate defenders with the threat of vicious slams. Through the 1970s, the dunk was standard fare, David Thompson, Julius Erving, Darryl Dawkins. Dunk types reflect the various motions performed on the way to the basket and they start with the basic one- or two-hand forward-facing dunk and go on through various levels of athleticism and intricacy. At the onset of the jump, the ball is controlled by one or both hands and once in the air is typically brought to chest level. The player will then quickly thrust the ball downwards and fully extend their arms, finally the ball is brought above the head and dunked with one or both hands, and the double pump appears as one fluid motion. As a demonstration of athletic prowess, the ball may be held in the below-the-waist position for milliseconds longer, whether the result of a 180° spin or body angle at takeoff, the double pump is generally performed with the players back toward the rim. While this orientation is rather conducive to the double pump motion, additionally, Kenny Sky Walker, Tracy McGrady—in the 1989 and 2000 NBA Contests, respectively—and others, have performed 360° variation of the double pump. Circa 2007, independent slam dunker T-Dub performed the double pump with a 540° spin which he concluded by hanging on the rim, due to the undemanding body mechanics involved in execution, the tomahawk is employed by players of all sizes and jumping abilities. Because of the ball-security provided by the use of hands, the tomahawk is a staple of game situations—frequently employed in alley-oops and in offense-rebound put-back dunks. Additionally, the finish can exert tremendous force on the basket—Darryl Dawkins twice shattered NBA backboards with tomahawk dunks
19.
NBA Jam
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NBA Jam is a basketball arcade game published and developed by Midway in 1993. It is the first entry in the NBA Jam series, the main designer and programmer for this game was Mark Turmell. Midway had previously released such sports games as Arch Rivals in 1989, High Impact in 1990, the gameplay of NBA Jam is based on Arch Rivals, another 2-on-2 basketball video game. However, it was the release of NBA Jam that brought success to the genre. The game became popular, and generated a significant amount of money for arcades after its release. In early 1994, the Amusement & Music Operators Association reported that NBA Jam had become the highest-earning arcade game of all time. A key feature of NBA Jam is the nature of the play – players jump many times their own height. There are no fouls, free throws, or violations except goaltending and this means the player is able to freely shove or elbow his opponent out of the way. Additionally, if a player makes three baskets in a row, he becomes on fire and has unlimited turbo and increased shooting precision. The on fire mode continues until the team scores, or until the player who is on fire scores 4 additional consecutive baskets while on fire. The game is filled with eggs, special features and players activated by initials or button/joystick combinations. For example, pressing A five times and right five times on any Genesis controller would activate Super Clean Floors and this feature would cause characters to fall if they ran too fast or changed direction too quickly. And players can enter special codes to unlock players, ranging from US President Bill Clinton to Hugo the Charlotte Hornets mascot. On the arcade machine, there is also a tank game that allows the player to run around a 3D wireframe field. In order to access this mode, however, the player must be able to toggle the on/off switch located behind the machine, while the game was powering back on, the player holds Up and all buttons on player 1 and Down and all buttons on player 2. The original arcade version of NBA Jam features team rosters from the 1992–93 NBA season, more up-to-date rosters were available in subsequent ports released for the Sega CD, Game Boy, and Game Gear in 1994. Midway did not secure the license to use Michael Jordans name or likeness, another notable absence from the home versions is Shaquille ONeal, who was in the arcade version as a member of the Orlando Magic. New Jersey Nets guard Dražen Petrović and Boston Celtics forward Reggie Lewis, a limited edition version of the game with an additional team composed of Gary Payton and Michael Jordan was developed primarily for Jordan and Paytons personal use
20.
Michael Jordan
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Michael Jeffrey Jordan, also known by his initials, MJ, is an American retired professional basketball player, businessman, and principal owner and chairman of the Charlotte Hornets. Jordan played 15 seasons in the National Basketball Association for the Chicago Bulls and his biography on the NBA website states, By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time. Jordan was one of the most effectively marketed athletes of his generation and was considered instrumental in popularizing the NBA around the world in the 1980s and 1990s, Jordan played three seasons for coach Dean Smith at the University of North Carolina. As a freshman, he was a member of the Tar Heels national championship team in 1982, Jordan joined the Bulls in 1984 as the third overall draft pick. He quickly emerged as a star, entertaining crowds with his prolific scoring. His leaping ability, demonstrated by performing slam dunks from the throw line in slam dunk contests, earned him the nicknames Air Jordan. He also gained a reputation for being one of the best defensive players in basketball, in 1991, he won his first NBA championship with the Bulls, and followed that achievement with titles in 1992 and 1993, securing a three-peat. Jordan retired for a time in January 1999, but returned for two more NBA seasons from 2001 to 2003 as a member of the Wizards. Among his numerous accomplishments, Jordan holds the NBA records for highest career regular season scoring average and highest career playoff scoring average. In 1999, he was named the greatest North American athlete of the 20th century by ESPN and he became a member of the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2015. Jordan is also known for his product endorsements and he fueled the success of Nikes Air Jordan sneakers, which were introduced in 1985 and remain popular today. Jordan also starred in the 1996 feature film Space Jam as himself, in 2006, he became part-owner and head of basketball operations for the then-Charlotte Bobcats, buying a controlling interest in 2010. In 2015, Jordan became the first billionaire NBA player in history as a result of the increase in value of NBA franchises and he is the third richest African American, behind Oprah Winfrey and Robert F. Smith. Jordan was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Deloris, who worked in banking and his family moved to Wilmington, North Carolina, when he was a toddler. Jordan is the fourth of five children and he has two older brothers, Larry Jordan and James R. Jordan, Jr. one older sister, Deloris, and a younger sister, Roslyn. Jordans brother James retired in 2006 as the Command Sergeant Major of the 35th Signal Brigade of the XVIII Airborne Corps in the U. S. Army. Jordan attended Emsley A. Laney High School in Wilmington, where he highlighted his athletic career by playing basketball, baseball and he tried out for the varsity basketball team during his sophomore year, but at 511, he was deemed too short to play at that level. His taller friend, Harvest Leroy Smith, was the only sophomore to make the team, motivated to prove his worth, Jordan became the star of Laneys junior varsity squad, and tallied several 40-point games
21.
Washington Wizards
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The Washington Wizards are an American professional basketball team based in Washington, D. C. The Wizards compete in the National Basketball Association, as a club of the leagues Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The team plays its games at the Verizon Center, in the Chinatown neighborhood of Washington. The team now known as the Wizards began playing as the Chicago Packers in 1961, as the first modern expansion team in NBA history, an expansion prompted by Abe Sapersteins American Basketball League. Rookie Walt Bellamy was the star, averaging 31.6 points per game,19.0 rebounds per game. During the All-Star game, Bellamy represented the team while scoring 23 points, Bellamy was named the league Rookie of the Year, but was the team finished with the NBAs worst record at 18-62. The teams original nickname was a nod to Chicagos meatpacking industry, their home arena, however, it was extremely unpopular since it was the same nickname used by the NFLs Green Bay Packers, bitter rivals of the Chicago Bears. After only one year, the changed its name to the Chicago Zephyrs. Their only season as the Zephyrs boasted former Purdue star Terry Dischinger, in their first year in Baltimore, the Bullets finished fourth in a five–team Western Division. Prior to the 1964–65 NBA season the Bullets pulled off a trade, sending Dischinger, Rod Thorn and Don Kojis to the Detroit Pistons for Bailey Howell, Don Ohl, Bob Ferry. The trade worked out well, Howell proved to be a hustling, in the 1965 NBA Playoffs, the Bullets stunned the St. Louis Hawks 3–1, and advanced to the Western Conference finals. In the finals, Baltimore managed to split the first four games with the Los Angeles Lakers before losing the series 4–2. In the late 1960s, the Bullets drafted two future Hall of Fame members, Earl Monroe, in the 1967 draft, number two overall, and Wes Unseld, in the 1968 draft, also number two overall. The team improved dramatically, from 36 wins the season to 57 in the 1968–69 season. The Bullets reached the playoffs with high expectations to go far, the next season the two teams met again in the first round, and although this one went to seven games, the Knicks emerged victorious again. In the 1970–71 season, the 42–40 Bullets again met the 1970–71 Knicks and they were swept in four games by the powerful Milwaukee Bucks led by future Hall of Fame members Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Oscar Robertson. Even after the trades of Earl Monroe and Gus Johnson, the Bullets remained a playoff contender throughout the 1970s. Following a less than spectacular 1971–72 season, Baltimore acquired Elvin Hayes from the Houston Rockets and drafted Kevin Porter in the third round, out of St. Francis in Pennsylvania
22.
Boss (video gaming)
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In video gaming, a boss is a significant computer-controlled enemy. A fight with a character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight. A boss enemy is quite larger in size than other enemies. Most commonly, bosses are very hard or impossible to defeat without knowing the correct fighting approach, Bosses take strategy and special knowledge to defeat, such as how to attack weak points or avoiding specific attacks. The first interactive game to feature a boss was dnd, a 1975 role-playing video game for the PLATO system, one of the earliest dungeon crawls, dnd implemented many of the core concepts behind Dungeons & Dragons. The objective of the game is to retrieve an Orb from the bottommost dungeon, the orb is kept in a treasure room guarded by a high-level enemy named the Gold Dragon. Only by defeating the Dragon can the player claim the orb, complete the game, a 1980 example is the fixed shooter Phoenix, where the player ship must fight a giant mothership in the fifth and final level. Bosses are usually more difficult than regular enemies, can sustain a lot more damage, while most games include a mixture of boss opponents and regular opponents, some games have only regular opponents and some games have only bosses. Some bosses require the player to them in a certain way that may be unusual to normal attacks, such as using a certain weapon. Story-centered bosses sometimes require certain prerequisites to be performed during the fight for the player to succeed, some bosses are encountered several times through a single game, typically with alternate attacks and a different strategy required to defeat it each time. Boss battles are seen as dramatic events. As such, they are characterized with unique music and cutscenes before. Recurring bosses and final bosses may have their own theme music to distinguish them from other boss battles. A miniboss, also known as a boss, mid-boss, half-boss, sub-boss. Some minibosses are simply stronger versions of enemies, like in the Kirby games. Some well known video game characters who take the role of a miniboss are Dark Link, Vile. A superboss is a type of boss most commonly found in role-playing video games and they are considered optional enemies, though optional bosses are not all superbosses, and do not have to be defeated to complete the game. For example, in Final Fantasy VII, the player may choose to out and fight the Ruby
23.
Julius Erving
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Erving helped legitimize the American Basketball Association and was the best-known player in that league when it merged with the National Basketball Association after the 1975–76 season. Erving won three championships, four Most Valuable Player Awards, and three scoring titles with the ABAs Virginia Squires and New York Nets and the NBAs Philadelphia 76ers and he is the sixth-highest scorer in ABA/NBA history with 30,026 points. He was well known for slam dunking from the throw line in slam dunk contests and was the only player voted Most Valuable Player in both the ABA and the NBA. Erving was inducted in 1993 into the Basketball Hall of Fame and was named to the NBAs 50th Anniversary All-Time team. In 1994, Erving was named by Sports Illustrated as one of the 40 most important athletes of all time, in 2004, he was inducted into the Nassau County Sports Hall of Fame. Many consider him one of the most talented players in the history of the NBA, while Connie Hawkins, Jumping Johnny Green, Elgin Baylor, Jim Pollard and Gus Johnson performed spectacular dunks before Ervings time, Dr. J brought the practice into the mainstream. His signature dunk was the slam dunk, since incorporated into the vernacular and basic set of the game in the same manner as the crossover dribble. Before Julius Erving, dunking was a practice most commonly used by the big men to show their brutal strength which was seen as style over substance, even unsportsmanlike, by many purists of the game. Erving was born in East Meadow, New York, and raised from the age of 13 in Roosevelt and he played for Roosevelt High School and received the nickname Doctor or Dr. J from a high school friend named Leon Saunders. He explains, I have a name is Leon Saunders—and he lives in Atlanta, and I started calling him the professor. So it was just between us. we were buddies, we had our nicknames and we would roll with the nicknames. Lo and behold we graduate from school together, we both go to U-Mass, and we separated for many years cause he went over to Africa and did some stuff. But now hes my golf buddy in Atlanta. and I love him, hes just like a little brother to me even though, you know, theres only months between us. But hes the professor and he was the first one to me the doctor. And thats where it came from, Julius, and finally Dr. J. Erving enrolled at the University of Massachusetts in 1968. At that time, professional basketball was in flux, split between two leagues whose players rapidly switched clubs and leagues, Erving joined the ABA in 1971 as an undrafted free agent with the Squires. Erving also holds a doctorate from the University of Massachusetts Amherst Erving quickly established himself as a force and gained a reputation for hard. He led the Squires into the Eastern Division Finals, where they lost to the Rick Barry-led New York Nets in seven games, the Nets would eventually go to the finals, losing to the star-studded Indiana Pacers team
24.
Theo Ratliff
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Theophalus Curtis Theo Ratliff is an American retired professional basketball player who last played with the NBAs Los Angeles Lakers. Primarily a center, he was an excellent shot-blocker who had led the three times in blocks per game. As of 2011, he is ranked 18th all-time in career blocks, at Wyoming, Ratliff had a successful career, finishing as the career leader in blocked shots. He accumulated 425 blocked shots in his career as a Cowboy, Ratliff was inducted into the University of Wyoming Athletics Hall of Fame in 2005. Ratliff was selected with the 18th pick of the 1995 NBA draft by the Detroit Pistons, during the 1997–98 season he was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers. He played in Philadelphia for three seasons, and was voted Eastern Conference reserve center of the 2001 All-Star Game, but was unable to due to injury. He was a key fixture on the 2000–01 Sixers team that made it to the NBA finals and he missed most of the next season due to injury, but rebounded to post 262 blocks the next year with the Hawks. His best year as a pro was 2003–04, when he recorded a league-leading 307 blocked shots, during that season he was dealt to the Portland Trail Blazers, along with Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Dan Dickau, for Rasheed Wallace and Wesley Person. After the 2004 season, he signed a contract extension with the Blazers but was not as effective in 2004–05. In July 2007, he was traded along with Gerald Green, Ryan Gomes, Al Jefferson, Sebastian Telfair, in February 2008 Ratliff was waived by the Timberwolves, and he rejoined the Detroit Pistons in March. Ratliff returned to the Philadelphia 76ers for 2008–09 season, in the offseason he was signed by the San Antonio Spurs. In February 2010, he was traded to the Charlotte Bobcats for a projected 2nd round draft pick in 2016, Ratliff was signed by the Los Angeles Lakers on July 22,2010 to a 1-year deal. In December 2011, Ratliff retired from basketball, Ratliff won numerous awards during his career. He is also the owner of the Rome Gladiators. com profile Basketball-Reference profile
25.
Jason Terry
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Jason Eugene Terry is an American professional basketball player for the Milwaukee Bucks of the National Basketball Association. He plays at both positions and is nicknamed The Jet. Terry won the NBA Sixth Man of the Year award in 2009, Terry has made the third-most three-point field goals in NBA history. Terry attended Franklin High School in Seattle, Washington where he won back to state championships in 1994 and 1995. On February 2,2007, Terrys number 31 was retired by Franklin High School, Terry played college basketball for Arizona from 1995 to 1999. In 1997, Terry won an NCAA championship with the University of Arizona and his teammates included Mike Bibby, Michael Dickerson and Miles Simon. In his senior season in 1998–99, he played 29 games, Terry was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks in the 1999 NBA draft with the 10th overall pick. In the 2000–01 season, Terry emerged as the teams best player, averaging 19.7 points and leading the club in steals, assists and free throws made. After spending his first five seasons with the Hawks, Terry was traded to the Mavericks just prior to the start of the 2004–05 season. Terry had a mediocre first few months with the Mavericks but eventually came into his own, putting up solid numbers, in the 2004–05 NBA Playoffs, Terry averaged 17.5 points on 51% shooting while hitting 49% from three-point range in his first playoff run. Despite Terrys performances, his failed to advance to the conference finals. In the final seconds of Game 5 of the 2005–06 NBA Western Conference playoff semi-finals against the San Antonio Spurs, Terry punched opposing guard, on May 18,2006, Terry was suspended without pay from Game 6. Despite losing that game, the Mavericks were able to out the series in Game 7 to advance to the Western Conference Finals. On July 1,2006, after spending only 12 hours on the free-agent market, on May 8,2011, in a playoff game against the Los Angeles Lakers, Terry tied an NBA playoff record with nine made three-pointers. He joined Rex Chapman, Vince Carter and Ray Allen in achieving this record, Terry missed only one of the three-point field goals he attempted. He finished the game 10 of 14 with 32 points, the Mavericks went on to advance to the NBA Finals for just the second time in franchise history. They subsequently went on to win the series, defeating the Miami Heat 4 games to 2, on July 18,2012, Terry signed a multi-year deal with the Boston Celtics. The Celtics finished 41–40, with one game against the Indiana Pacers not played because of the Boston Marathon bombings and they met up the New York Knicks in the opening round of the playoffs
26.
Brevin Knight
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Brevin Adon Knight is an American retired professional basketball point guard who played with nine teams in the NBA from 1997 to 2009. Knight played college basketball at Stanford University and was drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1997 and he is the brother of Brandin Knight. He is currently a commentator for the Memphis Grizzlies on Fox Sports Tennessee. Knight attended Seton Hall Preparatory School in West Orange, New Jersey, leading its basketball team to New Jersey state championships his sophomore, junior and he was named to the Newark Star-Ledgers All-State First Team. Lightly recruited out of school, Knight was a late signee for Stanford University. Knight had a college career at Stanford, where he is the all-time leader in assists and steals. He was chosen by the Cleveland Cavaliers with the 16th pick in the 1997 NBA draft, Knight was drafted with the 16th pick of the first round in the 1997 NBA draft. In his rookie season, Knight led the NBA in steals per game and was named to the NBA All-Rookie First Team, the Bobcats received Knight through their 2004 expansion draft. He was one of the best players on the team during the 2004–05 NBA season, averaging 10.1 points,9 assists, Knight finished second in assists per game in the league, behind MVP Steve Nash. He was waived by the Bobcats on June 29,2007 after spending the last three seasons with them, on August 13,2007, he signed a two-year contract with the Los Angeles Clippers. He was traded to the Utah Jazz on July 23,2008 for Jason Hart, Knight joined the Memphis Grizzlies broadcast team as a color commentator on Fox Sports Tennessee in 2010. Knight and his wife Deena have two daughters and a son
27.
Paul Pierce
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Paul Anthony Pierce is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association. Pierce was a high school McDonalds All-American and earned All-America first team honors in his year at Kansas. Pierce spent the first fifteen years of his career with the Boston Celtics, in July 2013, Pierce was included in a deal that sent him to the Brooklyn Nets, along with teammates Kevin Garnett and Jason Terry. During his time with the Celtics, Pierce had been a starter on the team for every season and he is a ten-time All-Star and four-time All-NBA team selection, and also led Boston to the NBA Finals in 2008 and 2010, winning the 2008 NBA Finals. He was named the 2008 NBA Finals MVP in his first trip to the NBA Finals, Pierce is also one of only three players, alongside Larry Bird and John Havlicek, who have scored over 20,000 points in their career with the Celtics alone. He has also made the fourth most three-point field goals in NBA history, behind only Jason Terry, Reggie Miller and his nickname, The Truth, was given to him by Shaquille ONeal. Pierce was born and raised in Oakland, California and his family later moved to Inglewood, California, where he attended Inglewood High School. He grew up a Los Angeles Lakers fan and dreamed of playing with the Lakers, on January 31,2012, Pierce was honored as one of the 35 Greatest McDonalds All-Americans. Pierce averaged 16.4 points and 6, Pierce played for Hall of Fame coach Roy Williams at Kansas. One of his teammates was future Orlando Magic coach Jacque Vaughn and he entered the NBA draft after his junior year and was selected with the 10th overall pick in the first round of the 1998 NBA draft by the Boston Celtics. After his NBA debut, Pierces ability to score, rebound and play defense, along with forward Antoine Walker, Pierce led the Celtics to the playoffs in 2002 for the first time in seven years and on to the Eastern Conference Finals. In the historic Game 3 of that series, he led the Celtics to one of the biggest fourth-quarter comebacks in NBA playoff history, Pierce scored 19 of his 28 points during the fourth quarter as the Celtics recovered from a 21-point fourth-quarter deficit to defeat the New Jersey Nets. Trade rumors involving Pierce swirled when Danny Ainge returned as the Executive Director of Basketball Operations in May 2003, Ainge laid most of these rumors to rest in the 2006 off-season by signing Pierce to a three-year, $59 million contract extension. During the 2005–06 NBA season, Pierce had the highest points-per-shot average among the top 30 scorers in the league, on March 8,2006, Pierce extended his franchise-record streak of 30-point games to eight. He scored at least 30 points for the 13th time in 14 games and he followed up this stellar season with an injury-riddled 2006–07 campaign that saw him miss the first significant stretch of games in his career, due to a stress reaction in his foot. In spite of this injury, he managed to put up his usual numbers in the 47 games in which he saw action. But the Celtics, during season, went on an 18-game losing streak and had one of the worst seasons in franchise history. Prior to the 2007–08 season, he expressed excitement at the Celtics acquisitions of fellow All-Stars Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett
28.
Antoine Walker
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Antoine Devon Walker is an American retired professional basketball player. He was drafted with the sixth pick in the 1996 NBA draft out of the University of Kentucky. Walker played for the Celtics, Mavericks, Hawks, Heat, Timberwolves, the BSNs Mets, Walker, a three-time NBA All-Star, won an NCAA championship with Kentucky in 1996 and an NBA championship with the Miami Heat in 2006. He was a forward on the Wildcats 1996 NCAA Mens Division I Basketball Championship Game-winning team. As a freshman at Kentucky he was named SEC Tournament MVP, in his sophomore year, Walker was named All-SEC First, All-SEC Tournament and to the All-NCAA Regional Teams. After Walkers sophomore season, he declared for the 1996 NBA draft and was picked sixth overall by the Boston Celtics. In the 1996–1997 season, Walker made the All-Rookie First Team and led the team in scoring and rebounding, as the team had its worst season in franchise history, 15–67. The following season, Pitino was reunited with Walker as the new coach of the Celtics and he also scored a career-high 49 points in a loss against the Washington Wizards. In the 98 draft, the Celtics had the 10th pick, the next few years, Pierce and Walker were the 1–2 punch for the Celtics. In the 2001–2002 season, Walker had his best overall season by helping lead the Celtics to a 49–33 record and he was second on his team in scoring, first in rebounds, and first in assists. Pierce and Walker took the team to the Eastern Conference finals, the next season, Walker made his third All-Star team. On February 20,2002, former Kentucky teammate Tony Delk was traded to the Celtics, nine and one-half days before the start of the 2003–04 season, Walker was traded with Delk to the Dallas Mavericks for Raef LaFrentz, Chris Mills, and Jiří Welsch. Walker was used in a limited capacity on his new team due to the number of high-caliber players populating the Mavericks roster. Included on that team was Antawn Jamison, newly acquired from the Golden State Warriors, on August 8,2004 Walker and Delk were traded again, this time to the Atlanta Hawks for Jason Terry, longtime Hawk Alan Henderson and a draft pick. On February 24,2005, Walker was traded back to the Celtics in a deal that sent Gary Payton, Tom Gugliotta, Michael Stewart, and a first-round draft pick to the Hawks. On August 2,2005, Walker was involved in a five-team, the Celtics received Curtis Borchardt, Qyntel Woods, and a handful of draft picks in Walkers stead. The Heat played Walker mostly off the bench, and he rotated between both forward positions, Walker also led the team in overall 3-point shots made for the season, and increased his 3-point, free throw and overall shooting percentages. Miami advanced to the NBA Finals and faced the Dallas Mavericks, in the title clinching sixth game in Dallas, Walker contributed 14 points and 11 rebounds
29.
Tony Battie
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Demetrius Antonio Battie is an American retired professional basketball player. He is currently an analyst for the Orlando Magic of the National Basketball Association and his best season, statistically, was in his junior year when he scored 18.8 points per game,11.8 rebounds per game, and 2.5 blocks per game. Battie was drafted fifth overall by the Denver Nuggets in the 1997 NBA draft and he was traded to Los Angeles Lakers along with Tyronn Lue for Nick Van Exel in 1998, and that same year, he was traded to the Boston Celtics for Travis Knight. The Cavaliers traded Battie to the Orlando Magic for Drew Gooden, Steven Hunter, on June 25,2009, he was traded to the New Jersey Nets along with Rafer Alston and Courtney Lee in exchange for Vince Carter and Ryan Anderson. In July,2010 Battie signed a contract with Philadelphia 76ers as a free agent and he would spend the last two seasons with the 76ers before announcing his retirement. Battie was a role player who only became more valuable with age. As an offensive player, he lacked the skills to be an effective scorer, Batties worth came from his perfected offensive and defensive screens which aided in the team strategy. On the defensive side, Battie was a rebounder and blocker. As his career progressed, Batties veteran presence was a tool to young, emerging teams like the Magic. Career statistics and player information from NBA. com Tony Battie at Basketball-Reference. com
30.
Jamal Mashburn
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Jamal Mashburn is a retired American professional basketball player. A small forward, Mashburn was a prolific scorer in his 12 seasons in the league, after attending Cardinal Hayes High School in The Bronx, Mashburn had a very successful basketball career in college, playing for the University of Kentucky. He was the fourth-leading career scorer for the Wildcats and a consensus First Team All-American by his junior year, following the tournament he declared for the 1993 NBA draft, with Mashburn being selected by the Dallas Mavericks with the fourth pick. Despite this the Mavericks could only manage 13 wins for the 1993–94 season, in the offseason, the team drafted star point guard Jason Kidd, teaming up with Jackson and Mashburn to become known collectively as The Three Js. The season also featured a 50-point performance for Mashburn on November 12 against the defending champion Chicago Bulls in Chicago and this made him the fourth-youngest player to score 50 points in an NBA game. He also broke franchise records and blossomed into one of the best scoring forwards in the league. Despite the teams improvement they were unable to make the playoffs, Mashburn started in just 21 games of the Mavericks first 37 games of the 1996–97 season, and on February 14,1997 he was traded to the Miami Heat for three players. Miami was a team led by all-stars Alonzo Mourning and Tim Hardaway. The addition of Mashburn boosted the teams offense, and the finished the season with a franchise best 61 games with Mashburn averaging 13.4 points in 30 starts. In the playoffs the Heat defeated the Orlando Magic in a difficult 5 games in the first round, the Bulls proved too much for the Heat and won the series in the 5th game in Chicago. Mashburn averaged 10.5 points in his first postseason, Mashburn started in 3 of the games and saw his production slip. The following season would be shortened to 50 games due to a league lockout, Miami captured the best record in the Eastern Conference, but once again lost in the first round to New York, as Mashburn averaged 10 points in the five game series. The Heat won 52 games before sweeping the Detroit Pistons in the first round of the playoffs in three games and this set up another rematch with New York, as the Heat and Knicks battled in another grueling seven game series. Following another disappointing playoff run for the team, Mashburn and teammate P. J. Brown were traded to the Charlotte Hornets for Eddie Jones and Anthony Mason. In his first season in Charlotte, Mashburn averaged 20.1 points,7.6 rebounds and 5.4 assists in 76 games. Led by his play and the play of Baron Davis, the Hornets won 46 games, while his former team was favored to win the series, Mashburn averaged 23.7 points, as the younger Hornets shocked the Heat and swept them in three games. Next up were the Milwaukee Bucks, who took a lead before the Hornets won game three in Charlotte led by Mashburns 36 points and game four, in which Mashburn scored 31. Despite managing to win three games, the Bucks responded to win the last two games and the series
31.
Baron Davis
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Baron Walter Louis Davis is an American professional basketball player who was a two-time NBA All-Star. He was drafted with the third pick in the 1999 NBA draft by the Charlotte Hornets. He also played in the NBA for the New Orleans Hornets, Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Clippers, Cleveland Cavaliers, Davis played college basketball for UCLA, where he was an All-American honoree before turning professional after his sophomore year. He was a high school player while at Crossroads School. Davis last played for the Delaware 87ers of the NBA Development League, outside the basketball court Davis is a businessman. Davis is the NBAs all-time leader in steals per game for the playoffs, Davis was born in Los Angeles and grew up in the South Central area. His grandmother and guardian, Lela Nicholson, was instrumental in pushing him to play basketball, with her encouragement, he eventually enrolled at Crossroads School, a prestigious private school in Santa Monica. Johns standout Erick Barkley at that prestigious event and that year, Davis was also named Gatorade National Player of the Year and a Parade All-American. During this time, Davis was involved in a minor controversy pertaining to his driving a 1991 Chevy Blazer that was a gift from his sister, the car was sold to her by a member of Jim Harricks family. At the time, Harrick was the UCLA mens basketball coach, the controversy subsided when it was discovered that Davis sister had, in fact, bought the car at the listed blue-book price. Davis then enrolled at UCLA in 1997 without problem, in 1998, Davis was named the Pac-10 Freshman of the Year and made the Third Team All-America his sophomore year in 1999. In Davis two years at UCLA, he averaged 13.6 points and 5.1 assists for the Bruins, while coming down from a dunk during an NCAA Tournament game his freshman year, he injured his knee and tore his anterior cruciate ligament. In his NBA debut, a 100–86 win over the Orlando Magic, Davis scored nine points, in Davis first year, he backed up Eddie Jones and David Wesley, as the Hornets lost in the first round of the playoffs to the 76ers in four games. Davis saw better success the year, as his averages in points, assists, steals and minutes per game all increased. Davis lead the Hornets back into the playoffs, and swept the Miami Heat before being defeated by the Ray Allen-led Milwaukee Bucks in seven games in the second round. The next season, Davis again started all 82 games while averaging 18 points and 8.5 assists per game and he was also selected as an injury replacement for Vince Carter in the 2002 NBA All-Star Game. In the summer of 2002, the Hornets relocated from Charlotte, North Carolina, in the New Orleans Hornets inaugural season, Davis suffered multiple injuries that limited him to just 50 games. He was still able to lead the Hornets back to the playoffs, iverson would later describe Davis as the most difficult defensive assignment of his career
