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In 1946, the Basketball Association of
America (BAA) was formed. The first game was played in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between the Toronto Huskies
and New York Knickerbockers on November 1, 1946. Three seasons later, in 1949,
the BAA merged with the National Basketball League to form the National
Basketball Association (NBA). An upstart organization, the American Basketball
Association, emerged in 1967 and briefly threatened the NBA's dominance until
the ABA-NBA merger in 1976. Today the NBA is the top professional basketball
league in the world in terms of popularity, salaries, talent, and level of
competition.
The NBA has featured many famous players,
including George Mikan, the first dominating "big man"; ball-handling
wizard Bob Cousy and defensive genius Bill Russell of the Boston Celtics; Wilt
Chamberlain, who originally played for the barnstorming Harlem Globetrotters;
all-around stars Oscar Robertson and Jerry West; more recent big men Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone; playmaker John Stockton; crowd-pleasing forward
Julius Erving; European stars Dirk Nowitzki and Dražen Petrović and the three
players who uggs
outlet many credit with ushering the professional game to its highest
level of popularity: Larry Bird, Earvin "Magic" Johnson, and Michael
Jordan.
In 2001, the NBA formed a developmental
league, the NBDL. As of 2008, the league has sixteen teams.
Women's National Basketball Association
Main article: Women's National Basketball
Association
The NBA-backed Women's National Basketball
Association (WNBA) began in 1997. Though it had shaky attendance figures,
several marquee players (Lisa Leslie, Diana Taurasi, and Candace Parker among
others) have helped the league's popularity and level of competition. Other professional
women's basketball leagues in the United States, such as the American
Basketball League (1996-1998), have folded in part because of the popularity of
the WNBA.
The WNBA has been looked at by many as a
niche league. However, the league has recently taken steps forward. discount ugg
In June 2007, the WNBA signed a contract
extension with ESPN. The new television deal runs from 2009 to 2016. Along with
this deal, came the first ever rights fees to be paid to a women's professional
sports league. Over the eight years of the contract, "millions and
millions of dollars" will be "dispersed to the league's teams."
The WNBA gets more viewers on national
television broadcasts (413,000) than both Major League Soccer (253,000)[20] and
the NHL (310,732).[21]
In a March 12, 2009 article, NBA
commissioner David Stern said that in the bad economy, "the NBA is far
less profitable than the WNBA. We're losing a lot of money amongst a large
number of teams. We're budgeting the WNBA to break even this year."[22]
Philippine Basketball Association
Main article: Philippine Basketball
Association
The Philippine Basketball Association is
the second oldest professional league in the world. The first game was played
on April 9, 1975 at the nike
outlet Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, Quezon City. Philippines. It was founded as a
"rebellion" of several teams from the now-defunct Manila Industrial
and Commercial Athletic Association which was tightly controlled by the
Basketball Association of the Philippines (now defunct), the then-FIBA
recognized national association. Nine teams from the MICAA participated in the
league's first season that opened in April 9, 1975.
International basketball
XX. Olympic games Munich
1972 Krešimir Ćosić of Yugoslavia
(blue shirt) vs. Petr Novicky of Czechoslovakia
The International Basketball Federation was
formed in 1932 by eight founding nations: Argentina,
Czechoslovakia, Greece, Italy,
Latvia, Portugal, Romania
and Switzerland.
At this time, the organization only oversaw amateur players. Its acronym,
derived from the French F¨¦d¨¦ration Internationale de Basketball Amateur, was
thus "FIBA."
Men's Basketball was first included in the
Berlin Olympic Games in 1936, although a demonstrationtournamentwasheldin1904.nike
outlet The United States defeated Canada in the first final, played
outdoors. This competition has usually been dominated by the United States, whose team has won all but three
titles, the first loss in a controversial final game in Munich
in 1972 against the Soviet Union. In 1950 the
first FIBA World Championship for men was held in Argentina. Three years later, the
first FIBA World Championship for Women was held in Chile. Women's basketball was added
to the Olympics in 1976, which were held in Montreal,
Canada with teams such as
the Soviet Union, Brazil and
Australia
rivaling the American squads.
Pros in the Olympics
FIBA dropped the distinction between
amateur and professional players in 1989, and in 1992, professional players
played for the first time in the Olympic Games. The United States' dominance continued
with the introduction of their Dream Team. However, with developing programs
elsewhere, other national teams started to beat the United States. A team made entirely
of NBA players finished sixth in the 2002 World Championships in Indianapolis, behind Yugoslavia,
Argentina, Germany, New
Zealand and Spain. In the 2004 Athens Olympics,
the United States suffered its first Olympic loss while using buy uggs sale professional
players, falling to Puerto Rico (in a 19-point loss) and Lithuania in group
games, and being eliminated in the semifinals by Argentina. It eventually won
the bronze medal defeating Lithuania,
finishing behind Argentina
and Italy.
In 2006, in the World Championship of Japan, the United
States advanced to the semifinals but were defeated by Greece
by 101-95. In the bronze medal game it beat team Argentina
and finished 3rd behind Greece
and Spain.
International stars in the NBA
Worldwide, basketball tournaments are held
for boys and girls of all age levels. The global popularity of the sport is
reflected in the nationalities represented in the NBA. Players from all over
the globe can be found in NBA teams:
* Chicago Bulls star forward Luol Deng is a
Sudanese refugee who settled in Great
Britain, and plays for the British national
team alongside Toronto Raptors centre Pops Mensah-Bonsu.
* Steve Nash, who won the 2005 and 2006 NBA
MVP award, ugg boots
for sale is a South Africa¨Cborn Canadian.
* Andrea Bargnani of the Toronto Raptors,
top pick in the 2006 NBA Draft, is from Italy. In addition, American
superstar Kobe Bryant spent much of his childhood in Italy while his father was playing
there.
* Dallas Mavericks superstar and 2007 NBA
MVP Dirk Nowitzki is German.
* All-Star Pau Gasol of the Los Angeles
Lakers is from Spain.
* 2005 NBA Draft top overall pick Andrew
Bogut of the Milwaukee Bucks is Australian. Also, 2008¨C09 rookie Nathan Jawai
is the first Indigenous Australian ever to play in the league.
* Houston Rockets All-star center Yao Ming
is from China.
* All star and former three point champion
Peja Stojakovic is Serbian.
* All star Andrei Kirilenko is Russian.
* Phoenix Suns guard Leandro Barbosa,
Cleveland Cavaliers forward Anderson Varejao and Denver Nuggets center Nen¨º are
Brazilian.
* Cleveland Cavaliers big man Žydr¨±nas
Ilgauskas is Lithuanian.
* Perhaps no NBA team is as identified by
international players as the San Antonio Spurs. The team's three most prominent
players are all international¡ªTim Duncan of the U.S. Virgin Islands, Manu
Ginobili of Argentina and Tony Parker of France (Duncan competes for the United
States internationally, as the Virgin Islands did not field a basketball team
for international competition until well after Duncan started playing
internationally, and all U.S. Virgin Islands natives are United States citizens
by birth).
* Ginobili's countryman Andr¨¦s Nocioni
plays for the Sacramento Kings.
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