2002 NBA Finals

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The 2002 NBA Finals was the 56th championship round of the National Basketball AssociationNBA). The series started on June 5th, 2002 and ended on June 12 the same year, following the conclusion of the 2002 NBA Playoffs and 2001-02 NBA season. The Finals were played two games at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California and the last several at Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

Western Conference champion Los Angeles Lakers swept the Eastern Conference champions New Jersey Nets in four games in a best-of-seven series. The Lakers became only the third NBA franchise, joining the 1960s Boston Celtics and 1990s Chicago Bulls to win three straight championships(after their 2000, 2001 wins) Los Angeles were led by All-Star center Shaquille O'Neal and shooting guard Kobe Bryant, which contrasted with the Nets who had one superstar, point guard Jason Kidd. The Lakers won their 14th championship, two away from the NBA franchise with most championships, Boston Celtics.

Following the conclusion of Game 4 in New Jersey, Lakers' O'Neal, who averaged 36.3 points and 12.3 rebounds in the Finals, was named the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player of the Finals for the third consecutive time, joining Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson as the only players with three.^[1] Lakers coach Phil Jackson won his ninth ring, tying him with Celtics' legendary coach Red Auerbach for most all-time. During the series, he passed fellow coach Pat Riley for most all-time playoffs wins with 156 with nearly 50 less losses than Riley.^[2]

The 2002 NBA Finals drew an average of 10 million viewers per game, and was the last NBA on NBC broadcast by the moment.

Television: NBC (Marv Albert, Bill Walton, and Steve "Snapper" Jones announcing)

Contents 1 Background 1.1 Jason Kidd leads Nets to Finals in his first year in New Jersey 2 Broadcasting 2.1 Television 3 Series scoring summary 4 2002 NBA Finals Roster 4.1 2002 Los Angeles Lakers 4.2 2002 New Jersey Nets 5 Schedule 6 Trivia 7 See also 8 External links

[edit] Background

[edit] Jason Kidd leads Nets to Finals in his first year in New Jersey

Three years after making a playoff appearance and losing to the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls in 1998, the Nets entered the 2001-02 season with 73-141 record over that span. In the 1999-00 season As such, the Nets decided to rebuild. In 2000, the organazation hired Rod Thorn as team president. Almost immendently, he hired Byron Scott to coach New Jersey. Due to the Nets' dismal 31-51 season in 1999-00, they had the first overall pick in the 2000 NBA Draft, which they used to select power forward Kenyon Martin out of the University of Cincinnati. The following year with Marbury and Martin, New Jersey still endured a losing season. Ending up 26-56, they won the 7th pick in the upcoming Draft.

With yet another lottery pick, Thorn decided to trade the pick, which would eventually be (Eddie Griffin) to the Houston Rockets for Richard Jefferson, Jason Collins and Brandon Armstrong. The next day however, was far more eye-popping for the NBA. then-Phoenix Suns owner Jerry Colangelo announced a franchise shaking trade: New Jersey would trade Marbury to the Suns for point guard Jason Kidd.

[edit] Broadcasting

[edit] Television

Marv Albert, known for his ironic catchphrase, "Yes!" provided play-by-play. Basketball Hall of Famer center Bill Walton was Albert's color man. Television: NBC (Marv Albert, Bill Walton, and Steve "Snapper" Jones announcing)

As that was the, to date, final broadcasting of the NBA on NBC, the final mountage was a clip with highlights from twelve years of ininterrupt broadcasts. Were shown historic moments, including the Chicago Bulls' dinasty lead by Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, the retirement of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers' new Shaq reign. The final image is an empty basketball room, showing a ball picking alone and sadly, and the message "Thanks for The Memories. NBA on NBC (1990-2002)". After that, NBA rights went to ABC and TNT.

[edit] Series scoring summary

The following scoring summary is written in a line score format, except that the quarter numbers are replaced by game numbers. The Lakers won all 4 games with 3 that were decided by 6 points or less.

Team	Game 1	Game 2	Game 3	Game 4	Wins
Los Angeles (West)	99	106	106	113	4
New Jersey (East)	94	83	103	107	0

[edit] 2002 NBA Finals Roster

[edit] 2002 Los Angeles Lakers

Head Coach: Phil Jackson
Shaquille O'Neal | Kobe Bryant | Robert Horry | Derek Fisher | Rick Fox | Devean George | Samaki Walker | Lindsey Hunter | Stanislav Medvedenko | Mitch Richmond | Brian Shaw | Mark Madsen | Mike Penberthy | Jelani McCoy |

[edit] 2002 New Jersey Nets

Head Coach: Byron Scott
Kenyon Martin | Jason Kidd | Keith Van Horn | Todd MacCulloch | Richard Jefferson | Lucious Harris | Aaron Williams | Jason Collins | Anthony Johnson | Brian Scalabrine | Brandon Armstrong | Donny Marshall | Steve Goodrich |

[edit] Schedule

• Game 1 - June 5, Wednesday 9:00pm et @Los Angeles, Los Angeles 99, New Jersey 94: Los Angeles leads series 1-0
• Game 2 - June 7, Friday 9:00pm et @Los Angeles, Los Angeles 106, New Jersey 83: Los Angeles leads series 2-0
• Game 3 - June 9, Sunday 8:30pm et @New Jersey, Los Angeles 106, New Jersey 103: Los Angeles leads series 3-0
• Game 4 - June 12, Wednesday 9:00pm et @New Jersey, Los Angeles 113, New Jersey 107: Los Angeles wins series 4-0

The Finals were played using a 2-3-2 site format, where the first two and last two games are held at the team with home court advantage. The NBA, after experimenting in the early years, restored this original format for the Finals in 1985. As of yet, the other playoff series are still running on a 2-2-1-1-1 site format.

The Lakers swept the New jersey Nets winning all 4 games, although the only game that was not close was a 106-86 win in Game 2.

[edit] Trivia

• Game 4 was NBC's final NBA game to date.
• This was the Lakers 14th championship (dating back to the Minneapolis Lakers of the 1950s), but it was the first time they ever won an NBA Finals by way of a sweep.
• By winning the Finals MVP award, Shaquille O'Neal joined Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan as the only players to be named Finals MVP at least three times, (Tim Duncan has since accomplished this, as well). O'Neal and Jordan are the only 3-peat Finals MVPs, with Jordan doing so twice.
• The NBA Finals wordmark logo was removed to a championship trophy logo attach next to the NBA logo. And the first and only Finals that both teams had a red white and blue ribbon on the uniforms.
• At the Lakers victory parade Mark Madsen did a rather novel dance, that was even mentioned by George W. Bush when the Lakers visited the White House.

[edit] See also

• 2002 NBA Playoffs

[edit] External links

• Official website
• NBA History