The 2002

National Lacrosse League The National Lacrosse League (NLL) is a men's professional box lacrosse league in North America. The league is headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The NLL currently has fifteen teams: ten in the United Stat ...

season is the 16th season in the NLL. The season began on November 16, 2001 and concluded with the championship game on April 13, 2002, so, during that season, it was known as the 2001-2002 season as can be seen in the Albany Attack'
2001-2002 Central Division Championship banner
The

Toronto Rock The Toronto Rock are a professional box lacrosse franchise based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. They are members of the North Division of the National Lacrosse League (NLL). The team was the first Canadian franchise in the NLL. Oakville reside ...

defeated the Albany Attack 13–12 to win their third championship in four seasons. Colin Doyle was named championship game MVP for the second time. Only one year after the season was lengthened to 14 games, 2002 saw it extended again, this time to 16 games.

Team movement

2002 was a year of expansion for the NLL, particularly north of the border. No less than four teams were added, three of them Canadian: the

New Jersey Storm The New Jersey Storm were a member of the National Lacrosse League, based in East Rutherford, New Jersey. They played from 2002 to 2003 playing at the then Continental Airlines Arena. The team was an expansion team that was purchased for by an eq ...

Montreal Express The Montreal Express was a member of the National Lacrosse League during the 2002 season. They played at the Molson Center in Montreal, Quebec. They were inactive during the 2003 and 2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of ...

, Vancouver Ravens, and

Calgary Roughnecks The Calgary Roughnecks are a professional box lacrosse team based in Calgary, Alberta. They are members of the Western Division of the National Lacrosse League (NLL) and play their home games on WestJet Field at Scotiabank Saddledome. The te ...

all made their NLL debuts. The expansion caused the NLL to return to a divisional format for the first time since

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nels ...

. The teams were split into the Eastern, Central, and Northern divisions; the winners of each division would make the playoffs, as well as the top three ranked non-division-winners. The Eastern division consisted of Washington, Philadelphia, New York, and New Jersey, the Central division had Albany, Rochester, Montreal, Buffalo, and Columbus, while the remaining Canadian teams (Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, and Calgary) were in the Northern division. Early in the morning of February 14, limousine driver Costas Christofi was found shot to death at the home of New Jersey Storm owner

Jayson Williams Jayson Williams (born February 22, 1968) is an American former professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 11 seasons, primarily with the New Jersey Nets. He played his first three seasons with the ...

. Williams was later arrested and charged with manslaughter. Williams was acquitted of most charges, but was to be retried for reckless manslaughter. However, the case was delayed several times. On Monday, January 11, 2010, Williams pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in the case, and was sentenced on February 23, 2010. Williams would remain owner of the Storm until the franchise folded after the 2005 season. For the first time in league history, a team changed arenas midseason, as the

Ottawa Rebel The Ottawa Rebel was a team in the National Lacrosse League based in Ottawa, Ontario from 2001 until 2003. They initially played at the Corel Centre (now called the Canadian Tire Centre), but part-way through the 2002 season moved to the smaller ...

left the

Corel Centre Canadian Tire Centre (french: links=no, Centre Canadian Tire) is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, located in the western suburb of Stittsville. It opened in January 1996 as the Palladium and was also known as Corel Cen ...

for the smaller

Ottawa Civic Centre TD Place Arena, originally the Ottawa Civic Centre, is an indoor arena located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, seating 9,500. With temporary seating and standing room it can hold 10,585. Opened in December 1967, it is used primarily for sports, inc ...

. There were two home games left in the season at the time of the move.

Milestones

*November 23, 2001: The first ever game for both the

and

was a record-setting affair. Montreal set an NLL record for goals by one team in a game by defeating the Roughnecks 32–17 in Calgary. The records for most goals by in a game by both teams (49) and most penalty minutes in a game by both teams (155) were also broken in this game. *January 4, 2002:

Derek Malawsky Derek Malawsky (born September 6, 1973) is a Canadian lacrosse player for the Edmonton Rush in the National Lacrosse League. Derek's brother Curt also plays in the NLL, and the two have played together in Rochester, San Jose, and again in Arizona ...

of the

Rochester Knighthawks The Rochester Knighthawks (also known as the K-Hawks) are a professional box lacrosse team in the North Division of the National Lacrosse League. They play in Rochester, New York at the Blue Cross Arena at the War Memorial. The Knighthawks are ow ...

sets a new NLL record with 11 assists in a 22–11 win over the

Buffalo Bandits The Buffalo Bandits are a professional box lacrosse Box lacrosse, also known as boxla, box, or indoor lacrosse, is an indoor version of lacrosse played mostly in North America. The game originated in Canada in the 1930s, where it is more po ...

Final standings

Regular season

Playoffs

*Washington was the higher seed but surrendered the location of the game to Philadelphia for financial reasons.

All Star Game

The 2002

All-Star Game An all-star game is an exhibition game that purports to showcase the best players (the "stars") of a sports league. The exhibition is between two teams organized solely for the event, usually representing the league's teams based on region or d ...

was held on April 21 at the

Mohegan Sun Arena The Mohegan Sun Arena is a 10,000 seat multi-purpose arena in Uncasville, Connecticut, located inside the Mohegan Sun casino resort. The arena facility features of configurable exhibition space and a clear span. It was built by the Perini Buil ...

Uncasville, Connecticut Uncasville is an area in the town of Montville, Connecticut, United States. It is a village in southeastern Montville, at the mouth of the Oxoboxo River where it flows into the Thames River. The name is now applied more generally to all of the ...

, where the North team (all of the Canadian teams plus Rochester) beat the South 14–10. The MVP was Toronto's

Steve Toll Steve Toll (born June 16, 1974 in St. Catharines, Ontario) is a former lacrosse player and current executive in the Canadian Lacrosse League. In his 14-year National Lacrosse League career, Toll won five NLL Championships four with the Toronto Rock ...

, who scored three goals. At the time, this also marked

Paul Gait Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) * Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

's final professional lacrosse game, as he retired after this season. However, Gait was convinced by his brother Gary to come out of retirement during the 2005 season, and played four games for the

Colorado Mammoth The Colorado Mammoth are a box lacrosse team playing in the National Lacrosse League. The Mammoth have played at Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado, since the 2003 season. They are owned by Stan Kroenke, who is also the owner of the Colorado Avalan ...

before retiring once again.

All-Star teams

Awards

Weekly awards

In 2002, the NLL expanded its weekly player awards from one to four. There are now awards for the best overall player, best offensive player, best defensive player, and best rookie.

Monthly awards

Awards are also given out monthly for the best overall player and best rookie.

Statistics leaders

Bold numbers indicate new single-season records. ''Italics'' indicate tied single-season records.

Footnotes

References

2002 Archive at the Outsider's Guide to the NLL
{{DEFAULTSORT:2002 Nll Season 02