It took the Pistons the full seven-game route to dispose of the Heat in the Eastern Conference playoff finals. Miami blew a 3-2 series lead to lose Game 6 by 25 on the road and Game 7 by six at home. Detroit went on to play in its second straight Last Dance and failed to retain the crown, bowing to San Antonio in another seven-game war.
Brown has since left Detroit to coach the New York Knicks whose major offseason acquisition so far is former Phoenix guard Quentin Richardson.
Others making their debuts on new teams this year are Milwaukee’s Terry Stotts, Seattle’s Bob Weiss, Detroit’s Flip Saunders, the Los Angeles Lakers’ comebacking Phil Jackson, Orlando’s comebacking Brian Hill, Philadelphia’s Maurice Cheeks, Minnesota’s Dwayne Casey, Cleveland’s Mike Brown and Portland’s Nate McMillan.
So 10 of the NBA’s 30 teams will showcase new coaches this season. Two of them are making returns to their former teams. Jackson took a one-year rest from the Lakers and is now back on the L.A. bench, trying to mend fences with Kobe Bryant. Hill left the Magic in 1997 and will attempt to relive Orlando’s glory days when he led the team to the Finals in 1995.
Miami is the early choice to shake up the league what with coach Stan Van Gundy bringing in James Posey, Antoine Walker and Jason Williams to team with holdovers Shaquille O’Neal, Dwayne Wade, Damon Jones and Udonis Haslem. A recent free agent hire was former Red Bull import Earl Barron. Gone are Eddie Jones, Keyon Dooling and Rasual Butler but who cares?
How Jackson will do in L.A. after making mincemeat of Bryant in his book "The Last Season" is the subject of much speculation. There’s no question Lakers owner Jerry Buss is madly in love with Bryant so Jackson just has to learn to live with the man he detests. Buss even made Bryant’s father Joe the Los Angeles Sparks head coach in the Women’s National Basketball Association.
Bryant will never be what Michael Jordan was for Jackson in Chicago so if he thinks the Lakers are the second coming of the Bulls, the so-called Air Apparent is in for a rude awakening.
Jackson, however, will do his best to save the franchise if only for his significant other, Buss’ daughter Jeanie who happens to be the Lakers executive vice president of business operations. The Lakers went nowhere last season and didn’t even make it to the playoffs. Jackson is supposed to be the savior but with Bryant lording it over, you can bet the Lakers won’t go very far. Recent hires Smush Parker, Laron Profit and Kwame Brown are expected to play supporting roles because nobody will dare to steal the limelight from Bryant.
Cleveland should be a team to watch with LeBron James a year older. Larry Hughes and Donyell Marshall are the veterans who were recruited to bolster the Cavs’ scoring sock.
Others jumping teams are Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Bonzi Wells to Sacramento, Sam Cassell and Cuttino Mobley to the Los Angeles Clippers, Marc Jackson and Jeff McInnis to New Jersey, Eddie Jones and Damon Stoudemire to Memphis, Brian Scalabrine to Boston, Brian Grant to Phoenix, former Ginebra import Rick Brunson to Seattle and Bobby Simmons to Milwaukee.
Mike Finley, recently waived by Dallas, should find a new team in a hurry. San Antonio and Denver are reportedly interested.
The NBA is fresh from posting another record season. The league set the highest average attendance in history and the highest total attendance for combined regular season and playoff games. The average attendance of 17,454 fans topped the 1995-96 record of 17,431 and the previous season’s mark of 17,195.
The new total attendance record of 22,935,057 surpassed the previous mark of 21,855,125 set last year and the 1995-96 total of 21,797,222 for regular season and playoff games. Additionally, the 2005 playoffs registered a record 81 sellouts, eclipsing the previous all-time record of 69 in 2003.
The defending champion San Antonio Spurs host the Denver Nuggets to open the league’s 60th season on Nov. 1. The highlight will be the ring awarding ceremony for the Spurs. The season will start off with five straight nights of doubleheaders on TV in what the NBA calls its "Premier Week."
On Christmas Day, the NBA will feature a blockbuster twinbill on TV–first, the rematch between 2004-05 finalists San Antonio and Detroit and second, the grudge game between the Lakers and Miami.
An interesting attraction in the schedule is ‘Rivalry Week’ from Feb. 23 to March 1 where regional contests, divisional games and historic playoff matchups will be the focus. Some of the matches are Detroit versus Indiana (with Ron Artest back in harness), Sacramento versus the Lakers, New Jersey versus New York, the Clippers versus the Lakers and Boston versus the Lakers.
NBA programming is now seen in 214 countries around the world in 43 languages reaching a global audience of more than 750 million households outside of North America.
Business is really booming in the NBA. And once again, Solar Sports will bring you the action every day, every week on TV during the season and all the way up to the Finals.