The 2009–10 NBA season is the 64th season of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The 1,230-game regular season, which consists of 82 games for each of the 30 teams, began on Tuesday, October 27, 2009, and will end on Wednesday, April 14, 2010.
The 2009 NBA Draft was held on June 25, 2009, and Blake Griffin was selected first overall by the Los Angeles Clippers.[1] The Dallas Mavericks will host the 59th Annual All-Star Game at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas on February 14, 2010.[2]
Transactions
Player movement
Key transactions:
Trades:
- On June 23, 2009, San Antonio, Milwaukee and Detroit agreed to a three-team four-player trade that sent forward Richard Jefferson to San Antonio.[3]
- On June 25, 2009, Minnesota traded guards Randy Foye and Mike Miller to Washington Wizards for forwards Etan Thomas, Darius Songaila, Oleksiy Pecherov and the fifth pick in the 2009 NBA Draft which was later used to select guard Ricky Rubio.[4]
- On June 25, 2009, Phoenix traded center Shaquille O'Neal to Cleveland for guard Sasha Pavlović, center Ben Wallace, a 2010 second-round pick and $500,000.[5]
- On June 25, 2009, New Jersey traded guard Vince Carter and forward Ryan Anderson to Orlando for guards Rafer Alston and Courtney Lee and center Tony Battie.[6]
- On July 9, 2009, Orlando, Dallas, Memphis and Toronto agreed to a four-team eight-player trade that sent forward Shawn Marion to Dallas and forward Hedo Türkoğlu to Toronto.[7]
- On July 28, 2009, Charlotte traded center Emeka Okafor to New Orleans for center Tyson Chandler.[8]
Signing:[9][10]
Re-signing:[9][10]
Coaching changes
Offseason
- On April 22, 2009, the Washington Wizards hired Flip Saunders as head coach, replacing interim head coach Ed Tapscott.[11]
- On April 23, 2009, the Sacramento Kings fired interim head coach Kenny Natt and four assistant coaches after the Kings finished with an NBA season-low 17 wins.[12]
- On May 11, 2009, the Philadelphia 76ers' interim head coach Tony DiLeo decided to withdraw his name from consideration as head coach for the 2009–10 season, citing family concerns. DiLeo retains his old position as the Assistant General Manager and Senior Vice President.[13]
- On June 1, 2009, the Philadelphia 76ers hired Eddie Jordan as head coach.[14]
- On June 9, 2009, the Sacramento Kings hired Paul Westphal as head coach.[15]
- On June 17, 2009, the Minnesota Timberwolves fired interim head coach Kevin McHale, ending McHale's 15-year stint at the franchise.[16]
- On June 30, 2009, the Detroit Pistons fired head coach Michael Curry, after only one season at the position.[17]
- On July 9, 2009, the Detroit Pistons hired Cavaliers assistant coach John Kuester as head coach.[18]
- On August 10, 2009, the Minnesota Timberwolves hired Lakers assistant coach Kurt Rambis as head coach.[19]
In-season
Notable occurrences
June
July
- On July 7, 2009, the NBA announced that the salary cap for the 2009–10 season would be $57.70 million and would go into effect on July 8.[24]
September
- On September 1, 2009, the five-year contract between the NBA and its referees expired. Both parties have failed to negotiate a new contract at the start of the pre-season, which resulted in a lockout by the National Basketball Referees Association (NBRA) which started on September 18.[25][26]
- On September 5, 2009, three-time NBA Champion Bruce Bowen retired after 12 seasons in the NBA, at the age of 38.[27]
- On September 11, 2009, Charlotte Bobcats co-owner William Beck died in a plane crash, at the age of 49.[28]
- On September 11, 2009, NBA legends Michael Jordan, John Stockton and David Robinson along with Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan were inducted to the Basketball Hall of Fame.[29]
- On September 16, 2009, Indiana Pacers co-owner Melvin Simon died at the age of 82.[30]
- On September 24, 2009, Mikhail Prokhorov, Russia’s richest man according to Forbes magazine, reached a deal to became the majority owner of the Nets and to fund nearly half the cost of building Nets' new arena.[31]
- On September 30, 2009, the NBA issued a policy regarding Twitter and other social media sites, banning players, coaches and other team basketball operations personnel from using them during games.[32]
October
- On October 1, the pre-season games started and were refereed by replacement referees from the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and the NBA D-League due to the lockout of referees.[33] This marked the first time that replacement referees were used in the NBA since the 1995–96 season.[34]
- On October 2, the NBA Board of Governors approved the expanded use of instant replay starting this season to determine whether a 24-second shot clock violation occurred during a play, and to determine during the last two minutes of regulation play or any overtime period which player last touched the ball prior to it going out-of-bounds.[35]
- On October 8, the NBA played its first-ever game in Taipei. A pre-season game between the Indiana Pacers and the Denver Nuggets was played at Taipei Arena. Taipei became the seventh Asian city to host an NBA game, after Beijing, Guangzhou, Macau, Shanghai, Tokyo and Yokohama.[36][37]
- On October 9, Marvin Fishman, one of the original owners of the Milwaukee Bucks, died at the age of 84.[38]
- On October 23, the NBA and its referees announced that they have agreed into a new two-year labor agreement for the next two seasons, thus ending the lockout of referees.[39][40]
- On October 27, the regular season opened with a record of 83 international players on the opening night rosters, tying the records set in the 2006–07 season. Israeli Omri Casspi, Swede Jonas Jerebko and Tanzanian Hasheem Thabeet are representing their countries for the first time the NBA.[41] The opening night rosters also featured a record number of former D-League players with 63 players on 29 NBA teams.[42]
November
December
- On December 2, Allen Iverson returned from his retirement and agreed to sign for the Philadelphia 76ers, the team in which he made his NBA debut 13 years ago.[47]
Records broken
- On October 27, Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James became the youngest player to record 13,000 career points.[48]
- On November 6, Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant became the youngest player to record 24,000 career points.[49]
- On November 14, Milwaukee Bucks rookie Brandon Jennings scored 55 points bettering the Bucks rookie scoring record previously set by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on February 21, 1970 by four points. He also became the youngest player to score more than 50 points in a game. He fell just two points short of the franchise scoring record set by Michael Redd on November 11, 2006. He also fell just three points short of the league record for points by a rookie set twice in 1960 by Wilt Chamberlain.[50][51]
- On November 25, Dallas Mavericks guard Jason Kidd moved into second place on NBA's career assists list. Kidd recorded seven assists on the night to bring his career assists total to 10,337 assists, overtaking Mark Jackson who recorded 10,334 assists.[52]
- On December 2, the New Jersey Nets lost to extend their losing streak to 18 since the start of the season. This set the record for the NBA's all-time worst winless start. The Nets broke the old record of 17 games, previously held by both the 1988–89 Miami Heat, who were in their first season, and the 1998–99 Los Angeles Clippers.[53]
- On December 2, Cleveland Cavaliers center Žydrūnas Ilgauskas played his 724th game with the Cavaliers to set the franchise record for most games played. He broke the old record of 723 games held by Danny Ferry.[54]
- On December 17, the New York Knicks attempted 29 three point shots in the first half of a game at the Chicago Bulls, setting a new NBA record for three point attempts in a half.
Standings
By division
|
By conference
|
Statistics leaders
Through games played on December 18, 2009. Source: Basketball Reference
Awards
Players of the week
The following players were named the Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Week.
Players of the month
The following players were named the Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Month.
Rookies of the month
The following players were named the Eastern and Western Conference Rookies of the Month.
Coaches of the month
The following coaches were named the Eastern and Western Conference Coaches of the Month.
Salary cap
Main article:
NBA Salary Cap
On July 7, 2009, the NBA announced that the salary cap for the 2009–10 season would be $57.70 million and would go into effect on July 8 as the league's "moratorium period" had ended and teams could begin signing free agents and making trades. The tax level for the season was set at $69.92 million, with each team paying a $1 tax for each $1 by which it exceeds $69.92 million. The mid-level exception was $5.854 million for the season and the minimum team salary, which was set at 75% of the salary cap, was $43.275 million.[24]
For the 2008–09 season, the salary cap was set at $58.68 million (▼$0.98 million), while the tax level was $71.15 million (▼$1.23 million). Although the league-wide revenue increased by 2.5% in the previous season, the decrease in the salary cap and tax level was the result of the formula used to set the cap and tax under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement.[24]
Broadcast
The 2009–10 NBA season will be broadcast in the United States by ABC, ESPN, TNT and NBA TV. A number of games will be nationally televised by ABC, ESPN and TNT, while some games will be televised by NBA TV. Three teams, the Houston Rockets, New Jersey Nets and Charlotte Bobcats will not have any national TV appearances on ABC, ESPN and TNT. ABC will air several Sunday games and a double-header on Christmas day. ESPN will mainly televise the regular season games on Wednesdays and Fridays, while TNT will mainly televise the Thursday games. TNT will also broadcast the 2010 NBA All-Star Game and the NBA All-Star Saturday Night Events on February.[65][66][67]
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External links