On December 13, 2008, thePhiladelphia 76ers fired head coachMaurice Cheeks after a 9–14 start. Assistant general managerTony DiLeo was appointed interim head coach for the rest of the season.[6]
On December 15, 2008, theSacramento Kings fired head coachReggie Theus after a 6–18 start to the season. Assistant coachKenny Natt was appointed interim head coach.[7]
On July 2, 2008, the city ofSeattle and theSeattle SuperSonics (owned by theOklahoma City,Oklahoma-basedProfessional Basketball Club LLC) reached a settlement where the defendants agreed to pay $45 million to relocate the team to Oklahoma City, retain the SuperSonics' players, coaches, and contracts, and "share" the SuperSonics' franchise history with a hypothetical future Seattle team. However, the SuperSonics name, colors, and logo remained reserved for a future Seattle club.[8] The team was named theOklahoma City Thunder on September 3, 2008.
On July 23, 2008, restricted free agentJosh Childress signed withEuroleague clubOlympiacos for three years and $20 million net (the biggest signing in Euroleague history), marking the first departure of an American-born player to Europe in the prime of his career.[9]
On October 23, 2008, the NBA Board of Governors (owners) approved expanded use of instant replays for this season to determine if made baskets would be worth two or three points, and to award either two or three free throws on shooting fouls.[12]
December
On December 10, 2008,Carmelo Anthony scored 33 of his season-high 45 points in the third quarter in a win against the Minnesota Timberwolves, breaking the franchise record and equaling the league record for most points in a quarter.[13]
On December 25, 2008, theLos Angeles Lakers broke theBoston Celtics' 19-game winning streak in a rematch of the previous season's NBA Finals.[15]
January
On January 22, 2009,Alonzo Mourning retired from the NBA after 15 seasons.[16]
February
On February 4, 2009,LeBron James's 52-pointtriple-double against theNew York Knicks on February 4 was negated by subtracting a rebound from his total. The negated rebound was given toBen Wallace. James would have been the first player sinceKareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1975 to have a 50-point triple-double.[17]
On February 5, 2009, the Los Angeles Lakers broke another Celtic winning streak this time at 12-game winning streak, joining a short list of teams to break two 12+ game win streaks in a season.[18]
On February 8, 2009, the Los Angeles Lakers broke theCleveland Cavaliers' 23-game home-winning streak. In doing so, the Lakers became the first team in NBA history to win back-to-back games on the road (Boston and Cleveland) against teams with .800-plus win percentages at least 40 games into the season.[19]
NBA All-Star Break The 2009 NBA All-Star Game was played at the US Airways Center, home of the Phoenix Suns, on February 15, 2009, with the West winning 146–119 and the Phoenix Suns'Shaquille O'Neal and Los Angeles Lakers'Kobe Bryant being named the Co-MVPs. During the NBA All-Star Weekend,Nate Robinson of theNew York Knicks won the Sprite Slam Dunk competition;Kevin Durant, who won the Rookie Challenge MVP, also won the inauguralH.O.R.S.E Competition and Miami'sDaequan Cook beatRashard Lewis in a tiebreaker to win the Foot Locker Three-Point Shootout.
On February 20, 2009, thePhoenix Suns became the first team since the 1990Portland Trail Blazers to have three consecutive games of scoring 140 points or more.[21]
On March 3, 2009, in the NBA's third annualNoche Latina event, a program that recognizes the NBA's fans and players from across Latin America and U.S. Hispanic communities, the Los Angeles Lakers wore celebratory jerseys (with the wordingLos Lakers) in their 99–89 win over the Memphis Grizzlies.[24] Noche Latina celebrations took place in eight of the top ten American Hispanic markets in the NBA this season (up from four in 2007–08): Los Angeles, Miami, Phoenix, San Antonio, Dallas, Chicago, Houston and New York.
On March 10, 2009, theUtah Jazz won their 12th game in a row. That was the fourth-longest win streak in franchise history and the longest since 1999. It was later broken by a loss to theAtlanta Hawks.[25][26]
On March 15, 2009, thePhoenix Suns scored the third-highest number of points in a regulation game—without overtime—in a 154–130 win against theGolden State Warriors. They also scored 56 fast-break points, the highest recorded since the league began tracking the stat in 1997.[29] The win also included two 40+ point quarters, 42 in the first and 46 in the third.
On March 21, 2009, Shaquille O'Neal moved from sixth all-time leading scorer to fifth, surpassingMoses Malone.[30]
April
On April 2, 2009, the NBA teamed up withNRDC for the first-ever NBA Green Week 2009 in an effort to generate awareness and funds for protecting the environment. The week featured special on-court apparel, auctions to support environmental protection organizations, hands-on community service projects and the launch of a PSA featuring Hollywood icon and NRDC TrusteeRobert Redford. The Denver Nuggets, the Charlotte Bobcats, and the Chicago Bulls wore green-colored uniforms and socks made from 45 percent organic cotton during select home games throughout the week to raise additional environmental awareness. NBA partner adidas outfitted all players with 100 percent organic cotton adidas shooting shirts featuring the NBA Green logo, which were worn during every game that week.[31]
On April 10, 2009, Kobe Bryant moved from the 18th all-time leading scorer to 17th, surpassingCharles Barkley.
On April 15, 2009, the Cleveland Cavaliers finished the season with a home record of 39–2, just one game shy of matching the all-time record.[32]
On April 15, 2009, Shaquille O'Neal led the league in field goal percentage for an NBA-record tenth time.
On April 23, 2009,Dikembe Mutombo retired after 18 seasons in the NBA, at age 42.[33]
On April 30, 2009, theChicago Bulls and theBoston Celtics played in a record fourth overtime game in a single playoff series.[35]
May
On May 9, 2009,Hall of Fame head coachChuck Daly died ofpancreatic cancer at the age of 78.[36] For the entire NBA Playoffs, all NBA coaches and commentators wore pins with the initials "CD" on their suits to honor the Hall of Fame coach.[37]
On May 21, 2009,Sam Cassell retired after 15 seasons in the NBA, at age 39.[38]
On May 22, 2009,World Wrestling Entertainment and theDenver Nuggets were involved in a double-booking controversy, where WWE'sWWE Raw was supposed to be held at thePepsi Center on May 25. But Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals was also booked in the same venue on the same date. As a result, WWE decided to move the show, ironically, to theStaples Center, the home of the Nuggets' conference finals opponents, theLos Angeles Lakers.[39][40]
June
On June 14, 2009, theLos Angeles Lakers captured their 15th NBA title in franchise history with a 99–86 victory over theOrlando Magic in Game 5 of the2009 NBA Finals. This also marked the tenth NBA Title for head coachPhil Jackson. In winning his tenth title, he passedRed Auerbach to obtain the crown of most titles for an NBA head coach.
On December 17, 2008,Chris Paul of theNew Orleans Hornets broke the 22-year-old record for consecutive games with a steal (105), previously held byAlvin Robertson, in a game against Robertson's former team, theSan Antonio Spurs. The streak reached 108 games before ending on the December 25 against theOrlando Magic.
On December 23, 2008, theBoston Celtics recorded the best two-loss start in NBA history (27–2), in a 110–91 victory over thePhiladelphia 76ers. They also broke a franchise record for the longest winning streak (18) with their 19th consecutive win. Their winning streak came to an end after a loss to theLos Angeles Lakers.
On January 13, 2009, theOrlando Magic made an NBA record 23 three-pointers against theSacramento Kings. Nine of the twelve Magic players who played in the game made at least one three-pointer.
On March 15, 2009, the Phoenix Suns scored 56 fast-break points against the Golden State Warriors, the most recorded in a single game since the league began tracking the stat in 1997.[29]
On April 15, 2009, the Raptors'José Calderón topped the 1980–81 Rockets'Calvin Murphy for the NBA record for free-throw percentage. Calderón made 98.1% of his free throws in the season, missing only 3 of the 154 he took, taking the record from Murphy's mark of 95.8%.
Minnesota Timberwolves – added new logo and new uniforms, remained with dark blue, green, black and grey to their color scheme, added side panels to their jerseys and shorts.
New Orleans Hornets – added new logo and new uniforms, added blue to their color scheme, added pinstripes with side panels to their jerseys and shorts.
Oklahoma City Thunder – relocation from Seattle, Washington to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, added new logo and new uniforms, added orange sunset, thunder blue, yellow, dark navy blue and black to their color scheme, added side panels to their jerseys and shorts.
Orlando Magic – changed their uniforms and their wordmark to their jerseys, added pinstripes with black side panels to their jerseys and shorts.
Sacramento Kings – changed their uniforms, the purple road jersey changed from "Sacramento" wordmark script to the "Kings" wordmark script with black side panels to their jerseys and shorts, and the white home jersey changed from the "Kings" wordmark script to "Sacramento" wordmark script with changed colors from purple to black side panels to their jerseys and shorts.
Toronto Raptors – slightly changed their primary logo removing the purple area to their color scheme, added new black road alternate uniforms with red and grey side panels to their jerseys and shorts.
x- clinched playoff berth y- clinched division title c- clinched home court advantage for the conference playoffs z- clinched home court advantage for the entire playoffs
Denver finished ahead of San Antonio based on head-to-head record (2–1) and Portland based on divisional record (the Nuggets' 12–4 to the Trail Blazers' 11–5), while San Antonio finished ahead of Portland upon winning the Southwest Division.
Teams in bold advanced to the next round. The numbers to the left of each team indicate the team's seeding in its conference, and the numbers to the right indicate the number of games the team won in that round. The division champions are marked by an asterisk.Home court advantage does not necessarily belong to the higher-seeded team, but instead the team with the better regular season record; teams enjoying the home advantage are shown in italics.
TheNBA announced that thesalary cap for the season would be $58.680 million, immediately going into effect on July 9 as the league's "moratorium period" had ended and teams could begin signingfree agents and making trades.[61]
Thetax level for the season was set at $71.150 million, with each team paying a $1 tax for each $1 by which it exceeds $71.150 million. Themid-level exception was $5.585 million for the season and the minimum team salary, which was set at 75% of the salary cap, was $44.010 million.[61]
For the2007–08 season, the salary cap was set at $55.630 million ($3.05 million), the tax level was $67.865 million ($3.285 million) and the mid-level exception was $5.356 million ($229,000).[61]
$3.05 million), the tax level was $67.865 million (
Media related to2008–09 NBA season at Wikimedia Commons