1988–89 NBA season
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The 1988–89 NBA season was the 43rd season of the National Basketball Association. The season ended with the Detroit Pistons winning the NBA Championship, sweeping the Los Angeles Lakers 4 games to 0 in the NBA Finals.
[edit] Notable occurrences
- The NBA adopts the three-official system used in college basketball permanently. The league experimented with three officials per game in 1978–79, but went back to two officials per game for the next nine seasons, although they actually have three with the inclusion of an alternate referee for all playoff games and selected regular season games.
- The Miami Heat and the Charlotte Hornets enter the NBA as the league's 24th and 25th franchises. Because of this the Sacramento Kings move to the Pacific Division. The Heat, however, began their season as a member of the Western Conference despite its geographical position, enduring its longest road trips when playing Western Conference teams. They also started the season 0–17, at the time the worst start in NBA history, eventually finishing at 15–67. The Hornets finished a little better at 20–62.
- The 1989 NBA All-Star Game was played at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, with the West defeating the East 143–134. Karl Malone of the Utah Jazz takes home the game's MVP award.
- The Detroit Pistons play their first game at The Palace of Auburn Hills. The Palace would start a trend of new arenas complete with revenue-increasing luxury boxes and club seating, which other teams soon follow.
- The Milwaukee Bucks play their first game at the Bradley Center.
- The Sacramento Kings play their first game at ARCO Arena (now Power Balance Pavilion).
- TNT begins airing NBA games. They share the cable broadcast rights with sister network TBS.
- Michael Jordan records ten triple-doubles in eleven games near the end of the season.
- Prior to the season, the first-year Hornets announce that they choose teal as their primary color, which gave them immediate attention. In the next decade, expansion teams in the other professional sports leagues (most notably the San Jose Sharks of the NHL, the Florida Marlins of Major League Baseball's NL, and the Jacksonville Jaguars of the NFL) further popularized the use of the color. The Hornets also popularized the use of pinstripes on the uniforms, which were later adopted by the Orlando Magic, Chicago Bulls (alternates only), Toronto Raptors, Indiana Pacers and Charlotte's successor NBA team, the Bobcats.
- The Chicago Bulls started a playoff tradition by wearing black sneakers. Prior to that, the Boston Celtics were the only team to wear black sneakers. Following the Bulls' unlikely playoff run, other teams began adopting the style, beginning with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1990.
- The season marks Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's last, after 20 seasons. All NBA teams paid tribute to Kareem by staging special events to honor him.
- The Los Angeles Lakers became the first team to sweep a seven-game playoff series, and then be swept in the next, courtesy of the Detroit Pistons in the 1989 NBA Finals.
- Larry Bird played in only six games for the Celtics (the first six games) due to heel spurs. Bird was in the prime of his career, having finished no worse than third in NBA MVP balloting over the previous 6 seasons, winning three MVP's over the span. The Celtics, who had won no fewer than 57 games over the previous 9 seasons, won only 42. This season marked the first time that Larry Bird did not win the NBA All-Star Weekend Three-Point Shootout contest (Bird had won the first three shootouts). Seattle SuperSonics guard Dale Ellis, who was runner-up the year before, won the shootout.
- In the wake of the Miami riots, the game between the Miami Heat and the Phoenix Suns on January 17, 1989 was canceled. It was the first cancellation of an NBA game due to a civil disturbance.
- Jerry Sloan took over as Utah Jazz head coach in December 1988. He would serve in this capacity for 23 years, the longest such tenure in U.S. professional sports.
[edit] Final standings
[edit] By division
[edit] By conference
Notes
- z, y – division champions
- x – clinched playoff spot
[edit] Playoffs
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.
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First Round |
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Conference Semifinals |
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Conference Finals |
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NBA Finals |
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1 |
L.A. Lakers |
3 |
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8 |
Portland |
0 |
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1 |
L.A. Lakers |
4 |
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4 |
Seattle |
0 |
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4 |
Seattle |
3 |
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5 |
Houston |
1 |
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1 |
L.A. Lakers |
4 |
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Western Conference |
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3 |
Phoenix |
0 |
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3 |
Phoenix |
3 |
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6 |
Denver |
0 |
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3 |
Phoenix |
4 |
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7 |
Golden State |
1 |
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2 |
Utah |
0 |
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7 |
Golden State |
3 |
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W1 |
L.A. Lakers |
0 |
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E1 |
Detroit |
4 |
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1 |
Detroit |
3 |
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8 |
Boston |
0 |
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1 |
Detroit |
4 |
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5 |
Milwaukee |
0 |
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4 |
Atlanta |
2 |
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5 |
Milwaukee |
3 |
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1 |
Detroit |
4 |
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Eastern Conference |
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6 |
Chicago |
2 |
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3 |
Cleveland |
2 |
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6 |
Chicago |
3 |
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6 |
Chicago |
4 |
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2 |
New York |
2 |
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2 |
New York |
3 |
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7 |
Philadelphia |
0 |
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[edit] Statistics leaders
[edit] NBA awards
Note: All information on this page were obtained on the History section on NBA.com
[edit] Player of the week
The following players were named NBA Player of the Week.
[edit] Player of the month
The following players were named NBA Player of the Month.
[edit] Rookie of the month
The following players were named NBA Rookie of the Month.
[edit] Coach of the month
The following coaches were named NBA Coach of the Month.
[edit] See also
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