Phoenix Suns

Rodolfo "Rudy" Fernández y Farrés is a Spanish professional basketball player. He is a 6'6" tall shooting guard/small forward who is currently signed with the NBA's Denver Nuggets. He is also a member of the Spanish national basketball team. Rudy Fernández won the 2005 and 2007... Catalan Tournaments, the 2006 EuroChallenge championship, the 2008 Spanish King's Cup championship, and the 2008 Eurocup championship while playing with DKV Joventut of the Spanish ACB League. He also won numerous personal awards while playing with DKV Joventut, such as the 2004 Spanish King's Cup MVP, the 2006 EuroChallenge Final Four MVP, the Euroleague 2006-07 season's Rising Star award, the 2008 Spanish King's Cup MVP, the 2008 Eurocup Finals MVP, and the 2007 Catalan Tournament Final MVP. He was also named the 2006 FIBA Europe Young Player of the Year. In July 2007, his contract with Joventut was extended through the year 2011, however his contract was bought out early in the year 2008 so that he could join the NBA. On his exit out of the club he paid tribute to his DKV coach, Aito Garcia Reneses, "All I know of basketball is thanks to Aito Garcia Reneses,” he said.
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Alando Forest Tucker is an American professional basketball player. Tucker played five seasons at The University of Wisconsin–Madison and wore the number 42. Primarily a small forward, he is listed at 6'6" , 205 lbs . Alando attended Lockport Township High School in Lockport, Illinois.... Tucker averaged 21.6 points and seven rebounds per game as a junior. He was one of only two juniors to be named to the Herald News AA all-area team. As a senior Tucker earned all-state honors averaging 22.2 points while hauling in 7.7 rebounds and dishing 5.7 assists per game. He scored 35 points against Joliet, the number one ranked team in the state. After seeing drugs and gang violence throughout his childhood, Tucker and his older brother Antonio made a pact to stay clean. They pledged to stay drug, tobacco, and alcohol free and stay away from tattoos. Tucker started off his college basketball career in 2002–03 starting 27 of 32 games as a freshman. He averaged 12.0 points and 5.9 rebounds per game. In 2003–04, Tucker played in just four games because of a right foot injury. He applied for and received a medical redshirt after the season.
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Darryl Eugene "D. J." Strawberry, Jr. is an American professional basketball player. He is the son of former Major League Baseball player Darryl Strawberry. A graduate of Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, California, Strawberry built a reputation for hard-nosed defense. During his senior year,... he was involved in a nationally-televised matchup against St. Vincent - St. Mary High School of Akron, Ohio, where he was assigned the task of defending their star player and future NBA superstar LeBron James. Strawberry was lauded for his efforts, which included holding James to a 33% shooting performance and forcing him into seven turnovers. At 6-feet 5-inches tall, Strawberry assumed the role of a swingman for the Maryland Terrapins, and he was much valued for his on-the-ball defense. He averaged nearly 2 steals per game, leading his team in that category. He was also valued for his off-the-bench intensity; it is felt that Maryland's absence from the 2005 NCAA Tournament was due in no small part to a season-ending ACL injury Strawberry suffered in mid-January of that year.
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The San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio, Texas. They are part of the Southwest Division of the... Western Conference in the National Basketball Association . The Spurs are one of four former American Basketball Association teams to remain intact in the NBA after the 1976 ABA-NBA merger and is the only former ABA team to have won an NBA championship. The Spurs have won four NBA championships, more than any NBA franchise except the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, and Chicago Bulls. The Spurs' perfect record in NBA Finals series is surpassed only by the Chicago Bulls, who have won six without a loss; the Bulls and Spurs are the only two teams to maintain perfect records through multiple Finals series. As of July 2009, the Spurs rank third among active franchises for the highest winning percentage in NBA history; they have only missed the playoffs 4 times as an NBA franchise. In their 33 NBA seasons since 1976–1977, the Spurs have captured 17 division titles, which gives the Spurs the most division titles in the NBA during that 33-year span .
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The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles, California. They play in the Pacific Division of the... Western Conference in the National Basketball Association . The Lakers play their home games at Staples Center, which they share with their local NBA rival, the Los Angeles Clippers, the Los Angeles Kings of the NHL, and the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA. The Lakers are one of the most successful teams in the history of the NBA, and have won 16 championships, their last being in 2010. As of 2012, the Lakers are the most valuable NBA franchise according to Forbes, having an estimated value of $900 million. The franchise started with the 1947 purchase of a disbanded team, the Detroit Gems of the NBL. The new team began play in Minneapolis, Minnesota, calling themselves the Lakers in honor of the state's nickname, "Land of 10,000 Lakes". The Lakers won five championships in Minneapolis, propelled by center George Mikan, who is described by the NBA's official website as the league's "first superstar". After struggling financially in the late 1950s following Mikan's retirement, they relocated to Los Angeles before the 1960–61 season.
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The Utah Jazz is a professional basketball team based in Salt Lake City, Utah. They are currently a part of the Northwest Division of the Western... Conference in the National Basketball Association . The franchise began in 1974 as the New Orleans Jazz, in New Orleans, Louisiana, but the team moved to Utah in 1979 after just five seasons. The Jazz were one of the most unsuccessful teams in the league in their early years, and it would be 10 years before they made a playoff appearance . They would not miss the playoffs again until 2004. During the late 1980s, John Stockton and Karl Malone arose as the franchise players for the team, and formed one of the most famed point guard–power forward duos in NBA history. Led by coach Jerry Sloan, who took over for Frank Layden in 1988, they became one of the powerhouse teams of the 1990s, culminating in two NBA Finals appearances in 1997 and 1998, where they lost both times to the Chicago Bulls, led by Michael Jordan. Both Stockton and Malone moved on in 2003. After missing the playoffs for three consecutive seasons the Jazz returned to prominence under the on-court leadership of point guard Deron Williams.
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The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston, Texas. The team plays in the Southwest Division of the Western... Conference in the National Basketball Association . The team was established in 1967, and played in San Diego, California for four years, before being moved to Houston. In the Rockets' debut season, they won only 15 games. But after drafting Elvin Hayes first overall in the 1969 NBA Draft, they made their first appearance in the playoffs in 1969. After Hayes was traded, Moses Malone was acquired to replace him. Malone won two MVPs during his time in Houston, and he led the Rockets to the conference finals in his first year with the Rockets. He also took the Rockets to the NBA Finals in 1981, but they were defeated in six games by the Boston Celtics. In 1984, the Rockets drafted Hakeem Olajuwon, who led them to the 1986 Finals in his second year, where they lost again to Boston. In the next seven seasons, they lost in the first round of the playoffs five times. They did not win their first championship until 1994, when Olajuwon led them to the finals. The team repeated as champions in 1995.
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