The National
Basketball Association (NBA) is the best in men's professional basketball league
and one of the Big Four major sports leagues in North America. It has
thirty franchised member clubs (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is widely considered
to be the chief men's professional basketball league in the world. It is an
active member of USA Basketball (USAB), which is recognized by FIBA (aka the
International Basketball Federation), as the national governing body for
basketball in the United States. It has the distinction of having players that are
some of the world's best paid sportsmen (by average annual salary per player).
The
NBA playoffs aim at
determining the champion team begins in late April. These follow a tournament
format.Each team plays an opponent in a best-of-seven series, with the first
team to win four games advancing into the next round, while the other team is
eliminated from the playoffs. The final playoff round is known as the NBA
Finals, and is held annually in June. The victor in the NBA Finals wins the Larry
O'Brien Championship Trophy. Each player and major contributor—including
coaches and the general manager—on the winning team receive a championship
ring. In addition, the league awards the Bill Russell NBA Finals Most
Valuable Player Award to the best performing player of the series.
One
of the stars of the NBA, Kobe Bryant joined the Lakers in 1996 and has won 3
NBA Championships in a row from 2000-2002. He also won the Bill Russell NBA
Finals Most Valuable Player Award in his 13th season, in 2009 and is a
sure shot to join the Hall of Fame of the NBA.
Recently, Kobe Bryant
made a piece of history by overtaking Wilt Chamberlain
(who had amassed an impressive 31,419 points in his sensational career) to move
to the 4th position on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. Kobe
achieved this feat in a game where he scored 19 points against the Sacramento
Kings on March 30th, 2013. The Lakers defeated the Kings 103-98 in
this historical match. What made the win even more sensational was the fact
that the Lakers were not poised to win even till half-time. They were trailing
by 12 points after the first quarter and reduced the point difference to 4 at
half time. Dwight Howard contributed to the win with 24 points while Pau Gasol
put in a solid performance scoring 12 points. On the Kings team, the top
scorers were Evans (21 points) and Cousins (19 points). Although it was only a
regular season encounter between these two California teams, this match will
have its place in the history of sports news given the significance of Bryant passing
Chamberlain’s milestone.
No comments:
Post a Comment