Delaware 87ers

The Delaware 87ers (nicknamed the Sevens) are an American professional basketball team of the NBA Development League. It is an affiliate of the Philadelphia 76ers in the National Basketball Association. The home games are played at the Bob Carpenter Center on the campus of University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware. The team was founded in 2007 as the Utah Flash and served as an affiliate to the Utah Jazz. In April 2013, the 76ers acquired the team and relocated it to Delaware.

History

2007–2011: Utah Flash

In 2004, Utah entrepreneur Brandt Andersen heard the NBA was expanding operations to include a development league. Eventually Andersen got a new team to start play in 2007, based in Orem, Utah, playing at the McKay Events Center.

The Flash nickname was chosen by a name-the-team contest, in which over 21,000 votes were cast. The team was established with a close help from its NBA affiliate Utah Jazz, who indicated to the general manager job David Fredman - who was an assistant coach and director of scouting for the Jazz for 28 years, and also the assistant general manager for the Denver Nuggets - and as a coach Brad Jones, a regional scout who was the nephew of long time Jazz coach Jerry Sloan. Also as an NBA affiliate were the Boston Celtics. In the first season for the Flash on December 21, 2007 guard Morris Almond (who had been sent down to the D league by the Jazz) tied an NBA Development League record with 51 points in a 118-116 victory over the Austin Toros later in that season Almond broke the record with an 53-point performance in the 102-87 blowout win against the Bakersfield Jam, Almond also led the league in scoring averaging 25.6 points a game. In July 2008, Fredman was called back by the Jazz to work as a scout, and coach Jones ended up pulling double duty as general manager as well. In 2009, the Celtics changed affiliations to the new team Maine Red Claws, leading the Atlanta Hawks to join forces with the Flash.

Delaware

Delaware (ⁱ/ˈdɛləwɛər/) is one of the Mid-Atlantic states located in the Northeast megalopolis region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, to the northeast by New Jersey, and to the north by Pennsylvania. The state takes its name from Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, an English nobleman and Virginia's first colonial governor, after whom what is now called Cape Henlopen was originally named.

Delaware is in the northeastern portion of the Delmarva Peninsula and is the second smallest, the sixth least populous, but the sixth most densely populated of the 50 United States. Delaware is divided into three counties, the lowest number of counties of any state. From north to south, the three counties are New Castle, Kent, and Sussex. While the southern two counties have historically been predominantly agricultural, New Castle County has been more industrialized.

Before its coastline was explored by Europeans in the 16th century, Delaware was inhabited by several groups of Native Americans, including the Lenape in the north and Nanticoke in the south. It was initially colonized by Dutch traders at Zwaanendael, near the present town of Lewes, in 1631. Delaware was one of the 13 colonies participating in the American Revolution and on December 7, 1787, became the first state to ratify the Constitution of the United States, thereby becoming known as The First State.