Denver Nuggets

The Denver Nuggets are an American professional basketball team based in Denver, Colorado. The Nuggets are a member of the Northwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The team was founded as the Denver Larks in 1967 as a charter franchise of the American Basketball Association (ABA) but changed its name to Rockets before the first season. It changed its name again to the Nuggets in 1974, and played for the final ABA Championship title in 1976, losing to the New York Nets.

The team has had some periods of success, qualifying for the ABA Playoffs for all seasons from 1967 to the 1976 ABA playoffs where it lost in the finals. The team joined the NBA in 1976 after the ABA–NBA merger and qualified for the NBA playoffs in nine consecutive seasons in the 1980s and ten consecutive seasons from to 2013. However, it has not made an appearance in a championship round since its last year in the ABA. The Nuggets play their home games at Pepsi Center, which they share with the Colorado Avalanche of the National Hockey League (NHL).

Denver

Denver (officially, The City and County of Denver) (/ˈdɛnvər/; Arapaho: Niinéniiniicíihéhe') is the capital and most populous municipality of the U.S. state of Colorado. As of 2014, Denver is also the most populous county in Colorado. Denver is located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. The Denver downtown district is located immediately east of the confluence of Cherry Creek with the South Platte River, approximately 12 mi (19 km) east of the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Denver is nicknamed the Mile-High City because its official elevation is exactly one mile (5,280 ft or 1,610 m) above sea level, making it one of the highest major cities in the United States. The 105th meridian west of Greenwich, the longitudinal reference for the Mountain Time Zone, passes directly through Denver Union Station.

Yi Jianlian

Yi Jianlian (Chinese: 易建联; pinyin: Yì Jiànlián，born October 27, 1984) is a Chinese basketball player who currently plays for Guangdong Southern Tigers in the Chinese Basketball Association. He has also played in the National Basketball Association for the Milwaukee Bucks, New Jersey Nets, Washington Wizards, and Dallas Mavericks.

Yi joined the Guangdong Southern Tigers in 2002 and subsequently won the Rookie of the Year award. In five years with Guangdong, he won three CBA titles, and also played with the Chinese national basketball team in the 2004 Summer Olympics and the 2006 FIBA World Championship. In the 2007 NBA draft, he was selected by the Milwaukee Bucks as the sixth overall pick. Initially, Yi declined to sign with Milwaukee for several months before agreeing to a contract with them on 29 August 2007. He played in the NBA for several teams until 2012 when he returned to the Guangdong Southern Tigers.

CBA career

As a child, Yi Jianlian was not allowed by his parents to join a sports school, which is designed for children who are predicted to be future sports stars. However, after a sports school's basketball coach noticed Yi's potential while playing street basketball, he persuaded Yi's family to allow him to train professionally. Hoping to sign Yi to an endorsement deal, Adidas invited him to attend the company's ABCD camp in New Jersey in 2002, where he competed against all-American high school players.