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1996-97 NBA season

1996–97 NBA season
League National Basketball Association
Sport Basketball
Duration November 1, 1996 – April 20, 1997
April 24 – May 29, 1997 (Playoffs)
June 1 – 13, 1997 (Finals)
Number of teams 29
TV partner(s) NBC, TBS, TNT
Draft
Top draft pick Allen Iverson
Picked by Philadelphia 76ers
Regular season
Top seed Chicago Bulls
Season MVP Karl Malone (Utah)
Top scorer Michael Jordan (Chicago Bulls)
Playoffs
Eastern champions Chicago Bulls
  Eastern runners-up Miami Heat
Western champions Utah Jazz
  Western runners-up Houston Rockets
Finals
Champions Chicago Bulls
  Runners-up Utah Jazz
Finals MVP Michael Jordan (Chicago)
NBA seasons

The 1996–97 NBA season was the 51st season of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The league used this season to mark its 50th anniversary, which included the unveiling of the league's list of its 50 greatest players. This particular season featured what has since been acknowledged as one of the most talented rookie-classes, featuring the debuts of Allen Iverson, Ray Allen, Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash, Jermaine O'Neal, Ben Wallace and Stephon Marbury. The season ended with the Chicago Bulls defeating the Utah Jazz 4 games to 2 in the NBA Finals to win the franchise's 5th championship.

The 1996 NBA lockout was the second lockout of four in the history of the NBA. It lasted for a couple of hours on July 10, 1996. The lockout was imposed after the league and the player's union could not reach an agreement involving $50 million in profit sharing from the television revenue. The league requested 50 percent of those profits to be applied toward player salaries while the union wanted more money to be included. After a few hours of talks, the league agreed to allocate an additional $14 million per season in television revenue toward the salary cap during the last four years of the six-year agreement. The lockout was ended only a few hours after it was announced and the agreement was reached.

Notes

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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Wikipedia

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