Šarūnas Marčiulionis

Raimondas Šarūnas Marčiulionis ([ˈrɐ̂ˑɪ̯mɔndɐs ʂɐˈrûːnɐs mɐrʲt͡ʃʊˈlʲôːnʲɪs]) (born June 13, 1964) is a retired Lithuanian professional basketball player. Born in Kaunas, he was one of the first Europeans to become a regular in the North American National Basketball Association (NBA). In the 1988 Seoul Olympics Basketball Tournament, together with teammate Arvydas Sabonis, he led the USSR national team to a gold medal in basketball. On August 8, 2014, Marčiulionis was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Professional career

Marčiulionis started his pro basketball career with Statyba in the USSR League, the forerunner of the VTB United League in 1981.

Marčiulionis was drafted by the Golden State Warriors in the 6th round of the 1987 NBA draft. He moved to the NBA in 1989 and he played four years with the Warriors, finishing as the runner-up for the Sixth Man of the Year Award in both 1992 and 1993. Marčiulionis became one of the first Europeans to get significant playing time in the NBA, helping to lead the way for the internationalization of the league in the late 1990s. After missing a year and a half with a leg injury, he was traded to the Seattle SuperSonics in 1994, then traded to the Sacramento Kings in 1995, and he finished his NBA career with the Denver Nuggets in the 1996–97 season.

Chicago Bulls

The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago, Illinois. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member team of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The team was founded on January 16, 1966. The team play their home games at the United Center, an arena shared with the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League (NHL). The Bulls saw their greatest success during the 1990s. They are known for having one of the NBA's greatest dynasties, winning six NBA championships between 1991 and 1998 with two three-peats. All six championship teams were led by Hall of Famers Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and coach Phil Jackson. The Bulls are the only NBA franchise to win multiple championships and never lose an NBA Finals series in their history.

The Bulls won an NBA record-72 games during the 1995–96 NBA season and are the only team in NBA history to win 70 games or more in a single season. Many experts and analysts consider the 1996 Bulls to be one of the greatest teams in NBA history. As of 2016, the Bulls are the third most valuable NBA franchise according to Forbes, with an estimated value of $2.3 billion, earning approximately $67.6 million in operating income from the 2015–16 NBA season. Michael Jordan and Derrick Rose have both won the NBA Most Valuable Player Award while playing for the Bulls, for a total of six MVP awards.

National Basketball Association

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America, and is widely considered to be the premier men's professional basketball league in the world. It has 30 franchised member clubs (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada), and is an active member of USA Basketball (USAB), which is recognized by FIBA (also known as the International Basketball Federation) as the national governing body for basketball in the United States. The NBA is one of the four major North American professional sports leagues. NBA players are the world's best paid sportsmen, by average annual salary per player.

The league was founded in New York City on June 6, 1946, as the Basketball Association of America (BAA). The league adopted the name National Basketball Association on August 3, 1949, after merging with its rival National Basketball League (NBL). The league's several international as well as individual team offices are directed out of its head offices located in the Olympic Tower at 645 Fifth Avenue in New York City. NBA Entertainment and NBA TV studios are directed out of offices located in Secaucus, New Jersey.

Hall of fame

A hall of fame is a structure housing memorials to famous or illustrious individuals in a certain field, usually chosen by a group of electors. The meaning of "fame" has changed over the years, originally meaning "renown" as opposed to today's more common meaning of "celebrity".

In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actual halls or museums which enshrine the honorees with sculptures, plaques, and displays of memorabilia and general information regarding the inducted recipient/s. Sometimes, the honorees' plaques may instead be posted on a wall (hence a '"wall of fame") or inscribed on a sidewalk (as in a "walk of fame" or an "avenue of fame"). In others, the hall of fame is more figurative and just simply consists of a list of names of noteworthy individuals (or sometimes groups, for ex. Sporting groups or Rock groups) maintained by an organization or community or honouring its inducted members legacy or legend.

The English-language term was popularised in the United States by the Hall of Fame for Great Americans at Bronx Community College, in New York City, completed in 1900. Its inspiration is the Ruhmeshalle ("Hall of Fame") in Munich, Germany. The Walhalla memorial in Bavaria, Germany, is an even earlier hall of fame, conceived in 1807 and built from 1900 to 1907.

Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame

The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as the sport's most complete library, in addition to promoting and preserving the history of basketball. Dedicated to Canadian doctor and inventor of the sport James Naismith, it was opened in, and inducted its first class in 1959.

As of September 11, 2015, when the induction ceremony took place, the Basketball Hall of Fame had honored 345 individuals and 10 teams.

History of the Springfield building

The Naismith Hall of Fame was established in 1959 by Lee Williams, a former athletic director at Colby College. In the 1960s, the Basketball Hall of Fame struggled to raise enough money for the construction of its first facility. However, during the following half a decade, the necessary amount was raised and the building opened on Feb. 17, 1968, less than one month after the National Basketball Association played its 18th All-Star Game. The Basketball Hall of Fame's Board named four inductees in its first year. In addition to honoring those who contributed to basketball, the Hall of Fame sought to make contributions of its own. In 1979, the Hall of Fame sponsored the Tip-Off Classic, a pre-season college basketball exhibition. This Tip-Off Classic has been the start to the college basketball season ever since - and although it does not always take place in Springfield, Massachusetts, generally it returns every few years.