Iowa Energy
| Iowa Energy | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| League | NBA Development League |
| Founded | 2007 |
| History |
Iowa Energy 2007–present |
| Arena | Wells Fargo Arena |
| Location | Des Moines, Iowa |
| Team colors | Navy, blue, smoke blue, yellow |
| Team manager | Chris Makris |
| Head coach | Matt Woodley |
| Ownership | Energy Basketball, LLC Jed Kaplan (managing partner) |
| Affiliation(s) | Memphis Grizzlies |
| Championships | 1 (2011) |
| Division / Conference titles | 4 (2009, 2010, 2011, 2014) |
| Website | www.iowaenergy.com |
The Iowa Energy is an American professional basketball team based in Des Moines, Iowa. It is an affiliate of the Memphis Grizzlies. They play in the Western Conference in the NBA Development League (NBA D-League), a minor league basketball organization owned and run by the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Energy play their home games at the Wells Fargo Arena. They broke the D-league attendance record on their first ever home game with 8,842 fans. The record was later broken again by the Energy in Game 2 of the 2011 D-League Finals with an attendance of 14,036 fans. The Energy won the 2011 D-League Finals, having defeated the Rio Grande Valley Vipers two games to one.
On February 27, 2007, the D-League awarded an expansion team to Des Moines, Iowa as one of the four expansion teams for the 2007–08 season. The team is owned and operated by Iowa Basketball, LLC, a local ownership group led by attorney Jerry Crawford and also including Gary Kirke, Sheldon Ohringer, Paul Drey, Michael Richards and Bruce Rastetter. The team would play their home games at the Wells Fargo Arena, parts of the Iowa Events Center. The team later hired former Northern Iowa player Nick Nurse as the team's first head coach.
The team initially held a naming contest for the team. The choices listed on their website were Corncobs, Maize, River Rats, Scarecrows, and Thoroughbreds. However, on June 29, 2007, the owners announced the name Iowa Energy, along with team colors and logos. The team logo was an orange basketball above the word "energy" and the team colors are purple, orange and red. Two NBA teams, the Chicago Bulls and the Miami Heat, were announced as the team's NBA affiliates.
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