The Rio Grande Valley Vipers are an American professional basketball team of the
NBA G League
The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is a professional basketball league in North America that serves as the Minor league#Basketball, developmental league of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The league comprises 31 teams; as of ...
based in
Edinburg, Texas
Edinburg ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hidalgo County, Texas, United States. The population was 100,243 at the 2020 census, and in 2022, its estimated population was 104,294, making it the second-largest city in Hidalgo County, and th ...
, and are affiliated with the
Houston Rockets
The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southwest Division (NBA), Southwest Division of the Western Conference (NBA) ...
. The Vipers play their home games at the
Bert Ogden Arena. The Vipers have won four league titles in 2010, 2013, 2019, and 2022, the most for any club in league history. They also have made the most championship series in league history, having made it seven times to the finals. They are also the
earliest champion to still play in their original city along with one of only three teams (the others being the
Iowa Wolves
The Iowa Wolves are an American professional basketball team in the NBA G League based in Des Moines, Iowa, and are affiliated with the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Wolves play their home games at the Wells Fargo Arena and compete in the Western ...
and the
Indiana Mad Ants) to have played in every league season since 2007. The Vipers entered a single-partnership affiliation agreement with the
Houston Rockets
The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southwest Division (NBA), Southwest Division of the Western Conference (NBA) ...
during the 2009–10 season. Previously, they were affiliated with the
Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cleveland Cavaliers, often referred to as the Cavs, are an American professional basketball team based in Cleveland. The Cavaliers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division (NBA), Central Divis ...
for the 2007–08 season and the
New Orleans Hornets from 2007 to 2009.
History
In late January 2007, during the 2006–07 season, the D-League announced an expansion to
Hidalgo, Texas
Hidalgo is a city in Hidalgo County, Texas, United States. Its population was 11,198 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census, and in 2020, the population had risen to 13,964.
History
The area that is now Hidalgo was first settled by Spanis ...
. Months later, the team was christened the "Rio Grande Valley Vipers", becoming the 14th team in league history, and they would play at
Dodge Arena. The Vipers played their first game as a franchise on November 23, 2007, where they beat the
Austin Toros
Austin refers to:
Common meanings
* Austin, Texas, United States, a city
* Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters
* Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters
* Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...
104–97 in front of over 5,000 fans at home. In their debut season, they finished with a 21–29 record, failing to qualify for the playoffs. In March 2008, four games before the season ended, inaugural head coach Bob Hoffman announced his resignation, as he decided to pursue a coaching job in college basketball.
The next season, they finished with the same record, failing to advance to the playoffs for the second year in a row. In 2009, the Vipers and the Houston Rockets entered into a single-affiliation partnership in which the Rockets controlled the team's basketball operations, while the business affairs would be handled by owner
Alonzo Cantu. On August 18, 2009, the Rockets fired
Clay Moser as coach, and named
Chris Finch as coach on September 29. The result paid immediate dividends in the 2009–10 season, as the Vipers enjoyed their most successful season. Led by league MVP
Mike Harris
Michael Deane Harris (born January 23, 1945) is a retired Canadian politician who served as the 22nd premier of Ontario from 1995 to 2002 and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario (PC Party) from 1990 to 2002. Taking the PC ...
, and coach of the year in Chris Finch, the Vipers went 34–16 to lead the Western Conference and earned the franchise's first playoff berth. In the playoffs, the Vipers beat both the
Reno Bighorns and
Austin Toros
Austin refers to:
Common meanings
* Austin, Texas, United States, a city
* Austin (given name), a list of people and fictional characters
* Austin (surname), a list of people and fictional characters
* Austin Motor Company, a British car manufac ...
in three games each to reach the D League Finals. They then met the
Tulsa 66ers in the finals. They won Game 1 on April 25 by a score of 124–107 in Tulsa before returning home for Game 2 on April 27, which had an attendance of 6,198 to see them at the Arena, the most to see a Vipers game in their history. Harris led all scorers with 26 points, but it came down to the buzzer that resulted in a three-point attempt by Craig Winder that went in to provide a 94–91 victory to win the first championship in team history, which was also the first championship for the region since the
Edinburg Roadrunners in 2004. The Vipers made the 2011 D League Finals, losing to the
Iowa Wolves
The Iowa Wolves are an American professional basketball team in the NBA G League based in Des Moines, Iowa, and are affiliated with the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Wolves play their home games at the Wells Fargo Arena and compete in the Western ...
. On July 14, 2011, Finch was hired as an assistant coach for the
Houston Rockets
The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southwest Division (NBA), Southwest Division of the Western Conference (NBA) ...
. Rockets GM
Daryl Morey
Daryl Morey (born September 14, 1972) is an American basketball executive who is the president of basketball operations of the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). His basketball philosophy, heavily reliant on analyt ...
approached
Nick Nurse (coach of the Energy) about coaching the team, and Nurse, intrigued by the analytics that the Vipers and Rockets were "kind of at the forefront … of the Moneyball, analytics stuff", soon accepted the
coaching position with RGV.
In his two seasons as coach, the Vipers would lead the league in attempted three-point shots.
In the 2012–13 season, the Vipers went 35–15 on the heels of a 10-game winning streak to close out the season, and it was second-best among all D-League teams. In the postseason, they beat the Maine Red Claws and the Tulsa 66ers in two-game sweeps to reach the finals for the third time in four seasons. The Vipers faced the
Santa Cruz Warriors
The Santa Cruz Warriors are an American professional basketball team in the NBA G League based in Santa Cruz, California, and are affiliated with the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors play their home games at Kaiser Permanente Arena. Prior to ...
, doing so in a two-game sweep that had them win Game 1 112–102 on April 25 before winning at home 102–91 on April 27 to win their second league title while also becoming the second team (and first since the
2008-09 playoffs) in the best-of-three era to go undefeated in D-League postseason play.
Andrew Goudelock won the
NBA Development League Most Valuable Player Award and got called up by the
Los Angeles Lakers
The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Conference (NBA ...
. After the season ended, Nurse left for an assistant coaching position with the
Toronto Raptors
The Toronto Raptors are a Canadian professional basketball team based in Toronto. The Raptors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NBA), Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), E ...
. In November of that year, the Vipers announced Gianluca Pascucci as the general manager and
Nevada Smith as the new head coach. Smith's teams received notice for their fast pace and eclectic shooting from the three-point line, continuing a trend set in 2009 (under previous coach Chris Finch) where the Vipers outpaced their NBA counterpart in the Houston Rockets each time, while shooting at a three-point rate higher than them all but once from 2009 to 2014); this reflected the vision of Rockets general manager
Daryl Morey
Daryl Morey (born September 14, 1972) is an American basketball executive who is the president of basketball operations of the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). His basketball philosophy, heavily reliant on analyt ...
in seeing the Vipers as a laboratory for potential strategies to grow in the NBA. The 2013–14 team started on a hot streak, winning their first 9 games of the season; the 10 wins from the previous season combined with the nine here made for a 19-game winning streak, the longest streak in D-League regular-season history. While the Vipers finished 30–20 for a fifth-place finish among all teams, they shot a whopping 2,268 three-point attempts, which averaged to 45 shots a game.
On February 26, 2015, the Vipers broke ground on a new arena in
Edinburg called
Bert Ogden Arena, which was originally scheduled for completion in October 2016. The arena was reportedly initially designed to house 8,500 seats, along with being a venue used for entertainment. The Vipers would serve as the main tenant and operator (with the City of Edinburg acting as owner of the arena), complete with a 40-by-20 foot
jumbotron
A jumbotron, sometimes referred to as jumbovision, is a video display using large-screen television technology (video wall).
The original technology was developed in the early 1980s by Mitsubishi Electric and Sony, which coined JumboTron as a ...
, the largest in the league. The arena was half-funded by sales taxes to go with private funding that resulted in an initial estimated cost of $68 million. On August 18 of that year, the Vipers named
Matt Brase their new head coach.
After a few delays, the new arena was announced to have a grand opening in June 2018, with the Vipers beginning play in the arena for the
2018–19 season, with an end cost of $88 million. The 2017–18 season was the 11th and final season for the team at their original arena (originally known as Dodge Arena before rebranding to State Farm Arena), and they were the longest tenant to ever play in the venue. On April 12, 2019, the Vipers won their third championship in a 129–112 game three win against the
Long Island Nets
The Long Island Nets are an American professional basketball team in the NBA G League based in Uniondale, New York, and are affiliated with the Brooklyn Nets. The team plays its home games at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Nassau County ...
, having rallied from a loss in the first game to win two straight, with
Isaiah Hartenstein scoring 30 points in the clinching game to lead the Vipers to victory.
The Vipers have seen two of their coaches become head coaches in the NBA,
Nick Nurse and Chris Finch, with the former being the first coach to lead both an NBA and NBA G-League team to championships. On October 1, 2019, assistant coach Mahmoud Abdelfattah was promoted to head coach after
Joseph Blair left for an assistant job with the
Philadelphia 76ers
The Philadelphia 76ers, also known colloquially as the Sixers, are an American professional basketball team based in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The 76ers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlan ...
; Abdelfattah became the first Palestinian and Muslim head coach in NBA/NBA G League history. Travis Stockbridge was named general manager, becoming the youngest general manager in NBA G League history at the age of 25.
In the 2021–22 season, the Vipers became the second team in league history to sweep the major three G League awards: the
NBA G League Coach of the Year Award for Mahmoud Abdelfattah (just the second Vipers coach to win the award),
NBA G League Most Valuable Player Award for
Trevelin Queen (the third Viper to win the award), and the
NBA G League Team Executive of the Year Award
The NBA Development League Team Executive of the Year is an annual NBA Development League (D-League) award given since the 2009–10 NBA Development League season, 2009–10 season to the top front office executive involved in team operations. The ...
for general manager Travis Stockbridge (the second Vipers executive to win the award). They reached the postseason for the tenth time in their fifteen-season history, becoming the fourth team in league history to reach the postseason ten times; they reached the NBA G League Finals for the sixth time, doing so with victories over the
Texas Legends in the Conference Semifinal and the
Agua Caliente Clippers in the Conference Final. On April 12, they won 145–128 in Game 1; the points scored by the Vipers was an NBA G League Finals record, and the 44 points scored by Trevelin Queen is second-most in finals history.
Daishen Nix (31 points, 12 rebounds, 11 assists) and
Anthony Lamb (10 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists) each recorded triple-doubles, which is the first occasion of a triple-double since 2013 and the first ever G League Finals game to feature two triple doubles. On April 14, they defeated the Blue Coats 131–114 to win their fourth title.
On February 12, 2023, they reached the 3rd place of the
2023 FIBA Intercontinental Cup.
Season-by-season
Current roster
Head coaches
Past players
* See
:Rio Grande Valley Vipers players for all players who are notable enough to have articles and have played for the team.
NBA affiliates
*
Houston Rockets
The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southwest Division (NBA), Southwest Division of the Western Conference (NBA) ...
(2007–present)
*
Cleveland Cavaliers
The Cleveland Cavaliers, often referred to as the Cavs, are an American professional basketball team based in Cleveland. The Cavaliers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division (NBA), Central Divis ...
(2007–2008)
*
New Orleans Hornets
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995
* "New" (Daya song), 2017
* "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...
(2007–2009)
References
External links
*
{{Texas sports
2007 establishments in Texas
Basketball teams established in 2007
Basketball teams in Texas