SEVENTY-THREE years and counting.
The 73rd renewal of the National Basketball Association will unwrap on October 16 (October 17, PH time) with two games on tap.
In the first of a doubleheader, the Philadelphia 76ers, bannered by All-NBA candidate Joel Embiid and last season’s Rookie of the Year awardee Ben Simmons, travel to Boston’s TD Garden to face Atlantic Division rival Boston Celtics, who are buoyed by the return to health of stars Gordon Hayward and Kyrie Irving.
In the main dish, the back-to-back defending titlist Golden State Warriors will host the Oklahoma City Thunder, led by Russell Westbrook, who averaged a triple-double (points, rebounds and assists) in each of the last two seasons, and free-agent returnee Paul George, who opted to stay in OKC right on the first day (July 1) of free agency without even greeting his California-rooted Los Angeles Lakers a simple “hello.”
During ceremonies prior to the GS-OKC duel, the Warriors will receive their title rings from their 4-0 conquest of the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2018 Finals last June.
The Dubs are seeking to become the first team to secure three NBA championships since the Los Angeles Lakers of Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant accomplished the feat from 2000 to 2002.
Moreover, Golden State is aiming to become the fourth franchise in NBA history to score a title “three-peat.” Previously, Lakers, behind the legendary bespectacled big man George Mikan, also won three straight crowns from 1952-54 while still located in Minneapolis; the Boston Celtics submitted the NBA’s longest championship-winning streak of eight years from 1959 to 1966, and Michael Jordan (now the Charlotte Hornets team owner) and the Chicago Bulls posted a pair of three-year title runs from 1991-93 and 1996-98.
There’s another incentive for the Warriors to take home the Larry O’Brien trophy in the soon-to-begin NBA wars. This is the last opportunity for the team to win in Oakland for, after 47 years at Oracle Arena, the Warriors will be moving to the new Chase Center in San Francisco in 2019-20.
Following opening day, the NBA’s earliest since the 1980-81 campaign began on October, an 11-game slate is set for October 18 (MT). These are Milwaukee at Charlotte, Brooklyn at Detroit, Memphis at Indiana, Miami at Orlando, Atlanta at New York, Cleveland at Toronto, New Orleans at Houston, Minnesota at San Antonio, Utah at Sacramento, Dallas at Phoenix and Denver at the Los Angeles Clippers.
Note that the Mavericks will be without the services of their 40-year-old all-time great from Germany, Dirk Nowitzki, in their season opener. The 7-foot Nowitzki, the Mavs’ all-time scoring leader and ranked sixth on the NBA’s all-time scoring ladder behind retired Hall of Famers (and Americans) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone, Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain, continues to rehab from left ankle surgery last April. He played 77 games last season — the most by an NBA player in his 20th year.
Once healthy, Nowitzki is likely to play a reserve role this campaign. His 21st season debut will set an NBA record for most consecutive seasons with one team in an entire career that he currently share with Bryant.
By the third day of action (Oct. 19), all 30 members would have played their season openers.
The three-game bill on that day will feature Chicago at Philadelphia, Miami at Washington and the LA Lakers at Portland.
This will be the first official NBA game of LeBron James with the Lakers – and the first in the Western Conference following 15 seasons in the East with Cleveland (two tours of duty) and Miami — after inking a four-year, $153.3-million free-agent deal with LA last July.
James’ streak of eight consecutive trips to the NBA Finals is in jeopardy but the Lakers, behind a mixture of seasoned veterans and promising youthful players, are likely to snare one of the eight playoff berths out in the loaded West.
James currently ranks seventh on the league’s all-time regular scoring list at 31,038 points – just 149 short of sixth-ranked Nowitzki’s 31,187.
There are 1,230 games to be played in the 2018-19 NBA regular season that concludes on April 10 (April 11, MT) next year. Since 1967-68, each team is having 82 games – 41 at home and 41 on the road – with three divisions of five teams each in both the Eastern (Atlantic, Central and Southeast) and Western (Northwest, Pacific and Southwest) conferences. A division championship does not guarantee a team one of the eight playoff tickets in each conference. The 16-team postseason derby will consist of the teams with the eight best records from each conference regardless of their division standings.
There has been talk in recent years of simply seeding the top 16 teams (based on their win-loss records) in the league without regard to their conference.
A number of top-tier veteran players have switched residence through trades, free agency or waivers. Aside from James, familiar faces in new places include Toronto’s Kawhi Leonard (formerly San Antonio), Golden State’s DeMarcus Cousins (New Orleans), San Antonio’s DeMar DeRozan (Toronto), Houston’s Carmelo Anthony (Oklahoma City), Washington’s Dwight Howard (Brooklyn), Dallas’ DeAndre Jordan (LA Clippers), Chicago’s Jabari Parker (Milwaukee), Denver’s Isaiah Thomas (LA Lakers), Oklahoma City’s Dennis Schroder (Atlanta), Washington’s Austin Rivers (LA Clippers), Atlanta’s Jeremy Lin (Brooklyn), Atlanta’s Vince Carter (Sacramento), Phoenix’s Trevor Ariza (Houston), New Orleans’ Julius Randle (LA Lakers), Milwaukee’s Brook Lopez (LA Lakers) and Charlotte’s Tony Parker (San Antonio).
Eight NBA teams hired new head coaches for this season. (More on this matter next time.)
Several tweaks and changes, some of them cosmetic, also were implemented.
There were NBA rule adjustments to the clear-path rule but the most important rule change made was the resetting of the shot clock to 14 seconds (instead of 24) after an offensive rebound to increase shot attempts, especially at the end of close games. The NBA had studied FIBA’s implementation of the rule in 2014, as well as its use in the G League, WNBA and NBA summer league games.
And for the first time in NBA history, the league will allow players to wear sneakers of any color at any point during the 2018-19 season. The rule change is part of the NBA’s ongoing effort to allow its players to be “expressive” on the court (whatever that is).
With an eight-year, $1-billion deal to outfit the NBA effective in 2017-18, Nike manufactured uniforms for all 30 member teams last season with the addition of several alternate jersey designs and the removal of traditional white-based jerseys worn only for home games. As such, teams were given the discretion of designating their home and road jersey colors.
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