P. J. Carlesimo

Peter John "P. J." Carlesimo (born May 30, 1949) is an American basketball coach, coaching in both the NBA and college basketball for nearly 40 years. He is also a television broadcaster, having worked with ESPN, The NBA on TNT', Westwood One and CSN New England.

Carlesimo served as head coach of four different NBA teams, and was named Seton Hall University's "Coach of the Century." He was an assistant coach for the 1992 United States men's Olympic basketball team ("The Dream Team") that won the gold medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics. He was also an assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs team that won three championships between 2003 and 2007.

Personal life

Carlesimo is married and has two sons.

He is the son of college basketball coach and athletic director Peter A. Carlesimo.

Early coaching stints

Carlesimo is a 1971 graduate of Fordham University, where he played basketball under coach Digger Phelps. He began his coaching career as an assistant at the school after he graduated. He received his first head coaching job when he took over New Hampshire College for one year, beginning in 1975. The New Hampshire Penmen ended the 1975–1976 season with a 14-13 record and won the Mayflower Conference championship. Carlesimo also had a successful coaching stint at Wagner College of Staten Island, New York, a Division I school, leading the team to two NIT berths in six years as coach from 1976 to 1982. In addition, Carlesimo spent time coaching in Puerto Rico during the summers.

PJ

PJ may refer to:

People known by the initials

Fictional

See also

NBA Finals

The NBA Finals is the championship series of the National Basketball Association. It is played between the Western and Eastern champions of the Conference Finals. The first team to win four games in the seven-game championship round is declared the champion and is awarded the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy. (Winners from 1946 to 1983 received the Walter A. Brown Trophy redesigned in 1977 to the current form.) The NBA Finals has been played at the end of every NBA and Basketball Association of America season in history, the first being held in 1947.

Between 1985 and 2013, the winner of the NBA Finals was determined through a 2–3–2 format: the first and last two games of the series being played at the arena of the team who earned home court advantage by having the better record during the regular season (the team with home-court went 21–8 between '85 & '13). Most NBA Finals series were played under the 2–2–1–1–1 format (Games 1 and 2 at home for the higher seeded team, Games 3 and 4 at home for the lower seeded team, Game 5 at the higher, Game 6 at the lower, and Game 7 at the higher) prior to 1985; the Finals returned to this format in 2014. The series was named the BAA Finals from 1947 to 1949 and then changed to the NBA World Championship Series from 1950 to 1982. The following two years, the league used Showdown '83 and Showdown '84. It returned to NBA World Championship Series in 1985, before settling on NBA Finals in 1986.

Latrell Sprewell

Latrell Fontaine Sprewell (born September 8, 1970) is a former American professional basketball player; he played for the Golden State Warriors, the New York Knicks, and the Minnesota Timberwolves. During his time as a professional, Sprewell was named to the yearly NBA All-Star game four times; he also helped the Knicks reach the NBA Finals and the Timberwolves the Western Conference finals. Despite his accomplishments, his career was overshadowed by a 1997 incident in which he choked coach P. J. Carlesimo during a practice, which ultimately resulted in a 68-game suspension.

Sprewell's career came to an unexpected end in 2005 when he refused a $21-million three-year contract offer from the Timberwolves, which he implied would not be enough to feed his children. Since that time, he has made headlines for grounding his million dollar yacht, having two of his homes foreclosed upon, and being prohibited from seeing his children.

NBA career

Golden State Warriors

After attending Washington High School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Sprewell played competitively with the Three Rivers Community College Raiders Basketball Team in Poplar Bluff, Missouri from 1988–1990, and from 1990–1992 with the University of Alabama, where he was a teammate of future NBA players Robert Horry, Jason Caffey and James Robinson.

Michael Jordan

Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials, MJ, is an American former professional basketball player. He is also a businessman, and principal owner and chairman of the Charlotte Hornets. Jordan played 15 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards. His biography on the NBA website states: "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time." Jordan was one of the most effectively marketed athletes of his generation and was considered instrumental in popularizing the NBA around the world in the 1980s and 1990s.

After a three-season stint playing for coach Dean Smith at the University of North Carolina, where he was a member of the Tar Heels' national championship team in 1982, Jordan joined the NBA's Chicago Bulls in 1984. He quickly emerged as a league star, entertaining crowds with his prolific scoring. His leaping ability, illustrated by performing slam dunks from the free throw line in slam dunk contests, earned him the nicknames "Air Jordan" and "His Airness". He also gained a reputation for being one of the best defensive players in basketball. In 1991, he won his first NBA championship with the Bulls, and followed that achievement with titles in 1992 and 1993, securing a "three-peat". Although Jordan abruptly retired from basketball before the beginning of the 1993–94 NBA season to pursue a career in baseball, he returned to the Bulls in March 1995 and led them to three additional championships in 1996, 1997, and 1998, as well as an NBA-record 72 regular-season wins in the 1995–96 NBA season. Jordan retired for a second time in January 1999, but returned for two more NBA seasons from 2001 to 2003 as a member of the Wizards.