San Antonio Spurs

Tiago Splitter is a Brazilian professional basketball player who also holds Spanish citizenship. Along with his native language Portuguese, he also speaks English and Spanish. Splitter is currently under contract with the San Antonio Spurs of the NBA. Splitter was named the MVP of the Spanish... Supercup tournament in both 2006 and 2007. He was also named to the All-Euroleague First Team for the Euroleague 2007-08 season, after leading Saski Baskonia to the Euroleague Final Four. The following year, Splitter reached the Euroleague 2008-09 season playoffs, but failed to make another Euroleague Final Four participation. His performances earned him a spot on the 2008-09 All-Euroleague Second Team nevertheless. Splitter was named the Spanish League MVP in 2010. It was announced that Splitter was signed by the San Antonio Spurs on July 9, 2010, so that he could join them for the 2010-11 NBA season. Splitter was expected to declare for the 2006 NBA Draft, but because the expensive buyout of his contract discouraged NBA teams with high draft picks from drafting him, he remained in the Spanish ACB League for that season.
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Marcus Eliot Williams is an American professional basketball player who plays small forward, shooting guard and point guard. Williams attended Roosevelt High School in Seattle. As a freshman, he played for the University of Arizona during the 2005–2006 basketball season. He played in all 33... of Arizona's games and started 25 games. Williams was the second leading scorer, averaging 13.0 points per game while leading the team in three point field goal percentage. He also averaged 4.7 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game. His performance was good enough to earn him a spot on the Pac-10 all-freshman team. After his very strong freshman year, Williams considered entering himself into the 2006 NBA Draft. Williams was drafted in the 2nd round of the 2007 NBA Draft by the San Antonio Spurs with the 33rd overall pick. Williams was waived by the Spurs on 27 October 2007. After spending considerable playing time with the Austin Toros from the NBDL and performing very well, He was re-signed by the Spurs on 26 December 2007. On December 29, Williams was waived by the Spurs in favour of DerMarr Johnson.
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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 Phoenix Suns are a professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference in... the National Basketball Association and the only team in their division not to be based in California. Their home arena since 1992 has been the US Airways Center, which was formerly known as America West Arena, in downtown Phoenix. The Arena is often referred to as the "Purple Palace" due to its purple seats. The Suns began play as an expansion team in 1968. The franchise owns the NBA's fourth-best all-time winning percentage, winning 56 percent of its games, as of the end of the 2010–2011 season. In forty-three years of play, they have made the playoffs 29 times, posted nineteen seasons of 50 or more wins, made nine trips to the Western Conference Finals, and advanced to the NBA Finals in 1976 and 1993. As a result, based on their all-time win-loss percentage, the Suns are the winningest franchise to have never won an NBA Championship. The Suns were one of two franchises to join the NBA at the start of the 1968–69 season, alongside the Milwaukee Bucks.
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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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