Indianapolis Olympians
The Indianapolis Olympians were a founding National Basketball Association (NBA) team based in Indianapolis. They were founded in 1949 and folded in 1953. Their home arena was Butler Fieldhouse on the campus of Butler University, now known as Hinkle Fieldhouse. Franchise history The Olympians were founded in 1949 and were originally slated to play in the National Basketball League (NBL). However, with the merger of the NBL and the Basketball Association of America, the franchise played its first games in the newly formed National Basketball Association (NBA), essentially replacing the previously existing Indianapolis Jets franchise. The Olympians were led by University of Kentucky alumni Alex Groza and Ralph Beard, both of whom were key contributors on the gold medal winning 1948 US Olympic basketball team. Olympic team members Wallace Jones and Cliff Barker (both also Kentucky alumni) also played on the team. An Olympic alternate and UK grad, Joe Holland, played forward f ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Western Division (NBA)
The Western Division was a division in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and its forerunner, the Basketball Association of America (BAA). The division was created at the start of the 1946–47 BAA season, when the league was created, and was then kept as one of the divisions when BAA merged with the National Basketball League (NBL) to create the NBA on August 3, 1949. The division existed until the 1970–71 NBA season when the NBA expanded from 14 to 17 teams and realigned into the Eastern and Western conferences with two divisions each. Teams ;Notes * * denotes an expansion team. * denotes a team that merged from the National Basketball League (NBL) Team timeline DateFormat = yyyy ImageSize = width:1150 height:auto barincrement:25 Period = from:1946 till:1970 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:60 left:20 bottom:20 top:0 Colors = id:barcolor value:rgb(0.99,0.7,0.7) id:line value:black id:bg value:white PlotData = ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Cliff Barker
Clifford "Cliff" Eugene Barker (January 15, 1921 – March 17, 1998) was an American basketball player who won the gold medal with the USA national basketball team at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London and two national championships at the University of Kentucky. While at the University of Kentucky, Barker was an All-SEC (Second Team) and All-SEC Tournament guard during the 1947–48 and 1948–49 seasons. A member of the United States Army Air Forces during World War II, Barker was a B-17 Flying Fortress The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is an American four-engined heavy bomber aircraft developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). A fast and high-flying bomber, the B-17 dropped more bombs than any other aircraft during ... waist gunner and spent 16 months as a prisoner-of-war. "Fancy Nancy III," the B-17 he was assigned to was shot down in the vicinity of Konigslutter. "Fancy Nancy III" was assigned to the 612 Bombardment Squadron, a unit of th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Games Behind
In some North American sports, the phrase games behind or games back (often abbreviated GB) refers to a common way to reflect the gap between a leading team and another team in a sports league, conference, or division. Example In the standings below from the 1994 Major League Baseball season, the Atlanta Braves are six ''games behind'' the Montreal Expos. Atlanta would have to win six games, and Montreal would have to lose six games, to tie for first. The leading team is by definition zero games behind itself, and this is indicated in the standings with a dash, not a zero. Computing games behind Games behind is calculated by using either of the following formulas, in which Team A is a leading team, and Team B is a trailing team. Example math in this section uses the above standings, with Montreal as Team A and Atlanta as Team B. :\text = \frac :\text = \frac = \frac = \frac = 6 Alternately: :\text = \frac :\text = \frac = \frac = \frac = 6 Notes: * It can alternately be s ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Winning Percentage
In sports, a winning percentage or Copeland score is the fraction of games or matches a team or individual has won. The statistic is commonly used in standings or rankings to compare teams or individuals. It is defined as wins divided by the total number of matches played (i.e. wins plus draws plus losses). A draw counts as a win. : \text = Discussion For example, if a team's season record is 30 wins and 20 losses, the winning percentage would be 60% or 0.600: : 60\% = \cdot100\% If a team's season record is 30–15–5 (i.e. it has won thirty games, lost fifteen and tied five times), and if the five tie games are counted as 2 wins, then the team has an adjusted record of 32 wins, resulting in a 65% or winning percentage for the fifty total games from: : 65\% = \cdot100\% In North America, winning percentages are expressed as decimal values to three decimal places. It is the same value, but without the last step of multiplying by 100% in the formula above. Furthermore, t ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Division (sport)
In sports, a division is a group of teams who compete against each other for a championship. League system In sports using a league system (also known as a pyramid structure), a division consists of a group of teams who play a sport at a similar competitive level. Teams can move up to a higher division of play or drop down to a lower one via the process of promotion and relegation, based on their performance in the standings at the end of the season. The existence of divisions based on level of competition ensures that teams at one competitive level can play other teams at a similar competitive level, thus creating parity and more exciting matches. Franchise system In North America, where sports usually operate on a franchise system rather than a league system, a division is a group of teams within a league which is organized along geographical lines rather than competitive success. Teams based in cities that are in a particular region of the continent are grouped together in ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
List Of NBA Champions
The NBA Finals is the championship series for the National Basketball Association (NBA) held at the conclusion of NBA playoffs, its postseason. All NBA Finals have been played in a Playoff format#Best-of-seven playoff, best-of-seven format, and are contested between the winners of the Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern Conference and the Western Conference (NBA), Western Conference (formerly Divisions before 1970), except in when the Eastern Division (NBA), Eastern Division champion faced the winner between the Western Division (NBA), Western and Central Division (NBA), Central Division champions. From 1946 through 1949, when the league was known as the Basketball Association of America (BAA), the playoffs were a three-stage tournament where the two semifinal winners played each other in the finals. The winning team of the series receives the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy, which has been awarded since 1977 NBA Finals, 1977 (between 1947 BAA Finals, 1947 and 1976 NBA Finals, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
The Indianapolis Star
} ''The Indianapolis Star'' (also known as ''IndyStar'') is a morning daily newspaper that began publishing on June 6, 1903, in Indianapolis, Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. It has been the only major daily paper in the city since 1999, when the ''Indianapolis News'' ceased publication. It won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2021 and the Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting twice, in 1975 and 1991. It is currently owned by Gannett. History ''The Indianapolis Star'' was founded on June 6, 1903, by Muncie, Indiana, Muncie industrialist George F. McCulloch as competition to two other Indianapolis dailies, the ''Indianapolis Journal'' and the ''Indianapolis Sentinel''. It acquired the ''Journal'' a year and two days later, and bought the ''Sentinel'' in 1906. Daniel G. Reid purchased the ''Star'' in 1904 and hired John Shaffer as publisher, later replacing him. In the ensuing court proceedings, Shaffer emerged as the majority owner of the paper in 1911 and s ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Rochester Royals
The Sacramento Kings are an American professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. The Kings compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Conference (NBA), Western Conference. The Kings are the oldest team in the NBA, and the first team in the Major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada, major professional North American sports leagues located in Sacramento. The team plays its home games at Golden 1 Center. The franchise began with the Rochester Seagrams (a Semi-professional sports, semi-professional team) from Rochester, New York, that formed in 1923 and hosted a number of teams there over the next 20 years. They joined the National Basketball League (United States), National Basketball League in 1945 as the renamed Rochester Royals, winning that league's championship in their first season, 1945–46 Rochester Royals season, 1945–46. In 1948 they jumped wit ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
ABA–NBA Merger
The ABA–NBA merger was a major pro sports business maneuver in 1976 when the American Basketball Association (ABA) combined with the National Basketball Association (NBA), after multiple attempts over several years. The NBA and ABA had entered merger talks as early as 1970, but an antitrust suit filed by the head of the NBA players union, ''Robertson v. National Basketball Ass'n'', blocked the merger until 1976. As part of the merger agreement, the NBA agreed to accept four of the remaining six ABA teams: the Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, Brooklyn Nets, New York Nets, and San Antonio Spurs. The remaining two ABA teams, the Kentucky Colonels and the Spirits of St. Louis, folded, with their players entering a dispersal draft. A seventh ABA team, the Virginia Squires, had hoped to enter merger talks as well at the time, but ultimately folded operations a month before they could officially do so due to a failed assessment payment to the ABA during the 1976 ABA Playoffs despite th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
American Basketball Association
The American Basketball Association (ABA) was a major professional basketball league that operated for nine seasons from 1967 to 1976. The upstart ABA operated in direct competition with the more established National Basketball Association throughout its existence. The second of two leagues established in the 1960s after the American Basketball League (1961–1962), American Basketball League, the ABA was the more successful rival to the NBA. The league started with eleven teams; the Indiana Pacers, Kentucky Colonels, Minnesota Muskies, New Jersey Americans, and Pittsburgh Pipers were placed in the Eastern Division and the Anaheim Amigos, Dallas Chaparrals, Denver Rockets, Houston Mavericks, New Orleans Buccaneers, and Oakland Oaks (ABA), Oakland Oaks in the Western Division. George Mikan served as the first league commissioner and came up with the idea for the three-point shot to go along with a 30-second shot clock. Echoing the NHL, the league named a Most Valuable Player fo ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
Indiana Pacers
The Indiana Pacers are an American professional basketball team based in Indianapolis. The Pacers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division (NBA), Central Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern Conference. The team was founded in 1967 as an original member of the American Basketball Association (ABA) and became a member of the NBA in 1976 as a result of the ABA–NBA merger. They play their home games at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. The team is named after the state of Indiana's history with the Indianapolis 500's Indianapolis 500 pace cars, pace cars and with the harness racing industry. The Pacers have won three championships, in 1970 ABA Playoffs, 1970, 1972 ABA Playoffs, 1972, and 1973 ABA Playoffs, 1973, all in the ABA. They also reached the ABA Finals in 1969 ABA Playoffs, 1969 and 1975 ABA Playoffs, 1975, and have also appeared in the NBA Finals in 2000 NBA Finals, 2000 and 2025 NBA Finals, 2025. The team has also won nine ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
|
1976–77 NBA Season
The 1976–77 NBA season was the 31st season of the National Basketball Association. The season ended with the Portland Trail Blazers winning their first NBA Championship in franchise history, beating the Philadelphia 76ers in six games in the 1977 NBA Finals, NBA Finals. Prior to the season, the NBA merged with its primary rival league, the American Basketball Association (ABA). Four ABA teams joined the NBA, all four of which are still in the league today: the San Antonio Spurs, Indiana Pacers, Denver Nuggets, and History of the Brooklyn Nets, New York Nets. The Nets became the New Jersey Nets the following season, and now play as the Brooklyn Nets. With these additions, the NBA expanded from eighteen teams to twenty-two. Notable occurrences *The NBA's rival league, the American Basketball Association, joined with the NBA in the ABA–NBA merger. Four ABA franchises joined the NBA: the New York Nets, the Indiana Pacers, the San Antonio Spurs, and the Denver Nuggets. The other ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |