Evolution of the Hoop

During basketball's early years, players often used a simple woven basket as a net

 About a decade into the sports life, people began using metal hoops with nets, however the nets were closed so much like the peach basket, players had to retrieve the ball after each basket.

By 1906, people began cutting out the bottom of the netting, allowing the ball to simply fall through. This design has remained almost entirely unchanged to this day.

Legend Profile - Wilt Chamberlain (Part 1)

                               Chamberlain as a member of the Harlem Globetrotters in 1959.

 Wilt Chamberlain was an American basketball player who played for the San Francisco Warriors, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA between 1959 and 1973. Chamberlain in regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time by fans, though he has somewhat of a mythic aura about him as their exists little footage of the the early part of his career.

 Chamberlain achieved an incredible amount during his career, setting an insane amount of records and winning numerous awards. However, some question the legitimacy of Wilt's greatness as he played in the league at a time where his 7'1 height was greatly taller than the average height of players. It is believed by some that Wilt would not be as dominant as he was if he played in today's league. Chamberlain is perhaps most famous for being the only player ever to score 100 points in a game.

Chamberlain played for 3 years at the University of Kansas, where he was almost ridiculously dominant. Chamberlains college career was plagued with racism that followed him almost everywhere throughout the Midwestern and Southern United States. His dominance was so profound that he was double and sometimes even tripled teamed by opponents in almost every game. This was incredibly frustrating for Chamberlain, so much so that he decided to leave Kansas 1 year early to become a professional player. However at the time, the NBA did not take players that did not finish their full 4 years of study, so Chamberlain decided to join the gimmick team Harlem Globetrotters. He spent one year with the Globetrotters, where he saw great success, including a record breaking sold out tour of the Soviet Union.

  On October 24th 1959, Chamberlain joined the NBA with the Philadelphia Warriors. He immediately became the highest paid player in NBA history, making the equivalent of  $244 000 USD today before ever stepping on the court. In his first game against the Knicks, Wilt scored 43 points and pulled down 28 rebounds. In his 4th game, he met the then champion Boston Celtics anchored by the legendary Bill Russell and coached by the legendary Red Auerbach. Wilt would outscore Russell 30 points to 28, but Boston won the game. This was the beginning of perhaps the greatest single player rivalry in basketball history.

     In his first NBA season, Chamberlain averaged 37.6 points and 27 rebounds, convincingly breaking the previous regular-season records. He needed only 56 games to score 2,102 points, which broke the all-time regular season scoring record of Bob Pettit, who needed 72 games to score 2,101 points. Chamberlain broke eight NBA records, and was named NBA MVP and Rookie of the Year that season.

    After just his first season Chamberlain saw many parallels with his college career, and publicly mulled retirement. He stated he was sick of being double and tripled teamed and being aggressively fouled constantly, and he feared one day he would lose his cool and get violent with an opponent. However, the Warriors owner was able to convince him to return by increasing his salary to the equivalent of $510 000 USD today.

The following season, Chamberlain surpassed his rookie season statistics as he averaged 38.4 points and 27.2 rebounds per game. He became the first player to break the 3,000-point barrier and the first and still only player to break the 2,000-rebound barrier for a single season, grabbing 2,149 boards.  Chamberlain also won his first field goal percentage title, and set the all-time record for rebounds in a single game with 55. Chamberlain was so dominant on the team that he scored almost 32% of his team's points and collected 30.4% of their rebounds

In the his third season, he averaged 50.4 points and grabbed 25.7 rebounds per game. On March 2, 1962, Wilt scored 100 points  against the New York Knicks. Chamberlain's 4,029 regular-season points made him the only player to break the 4,000-point barrier (the only other player to break even the 3,000-point barrier is Michael Jordan in 1986-87). Amazingly, he was on the court for an average of 48.53 minutes, more than the 48 minute length of an NBA game, due to his participation in overtime periods. He was on the court for all but 8 minutes of the Warriors season, because he was ejected in a game with 8 minutes left. In the 1962 playoffs, the Warriors again were unable to convert Wilts dominance into a title, losing to the Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals.

 In 1963, the Warriors were sold to a group of investors in San Francisco, and they relocated, becoming the San Francisco Warriors. However Chamberlain's woes continued in San Francisco. Even with the help of future NBA Hall of Famer Nate Thurmond, he was unable to win a Championship with the Warriors, losing to the Celtics again, this time in the NBA Finals. In 1965, Chamberlain was traded back to his hometown of Philadelphia, this time to join the newly relocated Philadelphia 76ers.

                                                         Chamberlain with the 76ers in 1967

   Chamberlain joined a strong 76ers team in Philadelphia, joining future Hall of Famer Hal Greer. However in the 1965 playoffs, Chamberlain again fell to the Boston Celtics in the 2nd round of the Playoffs. This was when the reputation of "loser" began to plague Chamberlain. The following year Chamberlain was just as dominant, and would win the MVP Award, however his coach and teammates doubted his commitment. He was regularly late to practice and sometimes outright refused to show up. In the playoffs, Wilt once again met the Celtics. His performance this series was incredible, however his teammates performance was so lackluster that they were easily beaten by the Celtics. This led to a deterioration of Chamberlain's relationship with his teammates and coaches, where he would publicly criticize them. The following year, the 76ers brought in Chamberlains former coach from San Francisco, the strong headed Alex Hannum. Hannum did not back down against Chamberlain and was able to earn his respect. Hannum asked Chamberlain to change his attitude and be less selfish on the court, to which he obliged. Chamberlain's new attitude helped repair his relationship with his teammates and the team experienced great success. In the 1967 playoffs, Chamberlain met the Celtics (AGAIN), however, this time he was able to rally his team to defeat them, ending the Celtics 8 straight Championships. The 76ers met Chamberlains former team, the Warriors in the NBA Finals, where Chamberlain captured his first NBA Championship, defeating the Warriors 4 games to 2.

Kurtis Blow - Basketball

"Basketball" is a 1984 song by rapper Kurtis Blow. The song is still very popular and well known among basketball fans today.

All Time Stats Leaders - Assists

                                          John Stockton, the NBA's All Time Assist Leader

The following is a list of the the Top 25 NBA Players in the category of Assists.

1	John Stockton	15,806
2	Jason Kidd	12,091
3	Steve Nash	10,335
4	Mark Jackson	10,334
5	Magic Johnson	10,141
6	Oscar Robertson	9,887
7	Isiah Thomas	9,061
8	Gary Payton	8,966
9	Andre Miller	8,514
10	Rod Strickland	7,987
11	Chris Paul	7,636
12	Maurice Cheeks	7,392
13	Lenny Wilkens	7,211
14	Terry Porter	7,160
15	Tim Hardaway	7,095
16	Bob Cousy	6,955
17	Guy Rodgers	6,917
18	LeBron James	6,785
19	Muggsy Bogues	6,726
20	Kevin Johnson	6,711
21	Derek Harper	6,577
22	Nate Archibald	6,476
23	Stephon Marbury	6,471
24	John Lucas	6,454
25	Reggie Theus	6,453

All-Time Stats Leaders - Points

                                   The NBA's all time highest scorer, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar



The following list is the Top 25 highest scoring players in NBA history.

1	Kareem Abdul-Jabbar	38,387
2	Karl Malone	36,928
3	Kobe Bryant	33,464
4	Michael Jordan	32,292
5	Wilt Chamberlain	31,419
6	Dirk Nowitzki	29,395
7	Shaquille O'Neal	28,596
8	Moses Malone	27,409
9	Elvin Hayes	27,313
10	Hakeem Olajuwon	26,946
11	LeBron James	26,718
12	Oscar Robertson	26,710
13	Dominique Wilkins	26,668
14	Tim Duncan	26,456
15	John Havlicek	26,395
16	Paul Pierce	26,272
17	Kevin Garnett	26,071
18	Alex English	25,613
19	Reggie Miller	25,279
20	Jerry West	25,192
21	Patrick Ewing	24,815
22	Ray Allen	24,505
23	Allen Iverson	24,368
24	Vince Carter	23,906
25	Charles Barkley	23,757

J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award

Kenneth Faried receiving the award in 2013. Faried, who was raised by two Lesbian mothers, is a                                      champion of equality and removing homophobia in sports.

 The J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award is an annual award given out to an NBA Player or Coach who shows outstanding work in his community. The winner is selected by the Professional Basketball Writers Association. Since it's inception in in 1975, there has been 34 recipients.

YEAR	PLAYER(S)	TEAM(S)
2014-15	Joakim Noah	Chicago Bulls
2013-14	Luol Deng	Cleveland Cavaliers
2012-13	Kenneth Faried	Denver Nuggets
2011-12	Pau Gasol	Los Angeles Lakers
2010-11	Ron Artest	Los Angeles Lakers
2009-10	Samuel Dalembert	Philadelphia 76ers
2008-09	Dikembe Mutombo	Houston Rockets
2007-08	Chauncey Billups	Detroit Pistons
2006-07	Steve Nash	Phoenix Suns
2005-06	Kevin Garnett	Minnesota Timberwolves
2004-05	Eric Snow	Cleveland Cavaliers
2003-04	Reggie Miller	Indiana Pacers
2002-03	David Robinson	San Antonio Spurs
2001-02	Alonzo Mourning	Miami Heat
2000-01	Dikembe Mutombo	Philadelphia 76ers
1999-00	Vlade Divac	Sacramento Kings
1998-99	Brian Grant	Portland Trail Blazers
1997-98	Steve Smith	Atlanta Hawks
1996-97	P.J. Brown	Miami Heat
1995-96	Chris Dudley	Portland Trail Blazers
1994-95	Joe O'Toole	Atlanta Hawks
1993-94	Joe Dumars	Detroit Pistons
1992-93	Terry Porter	Portland Trail Blazers
1991-92	Magic Johnson	Los Angeles Lakers
1990-91	Kevin Johnson	Phoenix Suns
1989-90	Doc Rivers	Atlanta Hawks
1988-89	Thurl Bailey	Utah Jazz
1987-88	Alex English	Denver Nuggets
1986-87	Isiah Thomas	Detroit Pistons
1985-86	Rory Sparrow, Michael Cooper	New York Knicks, Los Angeles Lakers
1984-85	Dan Issel	Denver Nuggets
1983-84	Frank Layden	Utah Jazz
1982-83	Julius Erving	Philadelphia 76ers
1981-82	Kent Benson	Detroit Pistons
1980-81	Mike Glenn	New York Knicks
1979-80	Austin Carr	Cleveland Cavaliers
1978-79	Calvin Murphy	Houston Rockets
1977-78	Bob Lanier	Detroit Pistons
1976-77	Dave Bing	Washington Bullets
1975-76	Slick Watts	Seattle SuperSonics
1974-75	Wes Unseld	Washington Bullets