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1965

A stacked classed enters the league via the NBA Draft, including four future Hall of Fame inductees: Gail Goodrich (UCLA) to the Lakers as a territorial pick, Rick Barry (Miami) to the Warriors at #2 overall, Billy Cunningham (North Carolina) to the 76ers at #5 overall, and Bill Bradley (Princeton) to the Knicks as a territorial pick. Fred Hetzel (Davidson) is the #1 overall pick of the Warriors, while twin brothers Dick and Tom Van Arsdale are drafted back-to-back, #10 and #11 overall by the Knicks and Pistons, respectively.

1980

Dimitris Diamantidis is born in Kastoria, Greece. His pro career started on a youth squad for his hometown team, AS Kastoria, who later renamed their arena after Diamantidis.

1985

Chris Paul is born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. His “CP3” nickname actually dates back to childhood, granted due to his father and older brother also having the same “C.-P.” initials.

1986

Goran Dragic is born in Ljubljana, Slovenia. He briefly held the record for most career NBA points by a Slovenian player, before it was broken in 2025 by Luka Doncic.

1988

NCAA All-American Ryan Anderson is born in Sacramento, California.

1990

Kevin Johnson finishes with 26 points and nine assists and hits a game winner in the final second for the Suns in a 104-102 victory over the Jazz in a winner-take-all game five of the Western Conference Quarterfinals.

1992

Jonas Valanciunas is born in Utena, Lithuania. At age 19, he represented Lithuania at the EuroBasket tournament, becoming the youngest player in national team history to participate in a major tournament.

1997

Rick Pitino leaves Kentucky to become the head coach of the Boston Celtics.

“Big Shot” Robert Horry of the Lakers sets a still standing NBA playoffs record by making all seven of his three-point field goal attempts, but Karl Malone finishes with 31 points and 11 rebounds, leading the Jazz to a 103-101 win in game two of their Western Conference Semifinals series.

2005

The Wizards pick up a playoff series win for the first time in 23 years, clinching their Eastern Conference Quarterfinals series against the Bulls with a 94-91 victory in game six.

2006

An otherwise thrilling Western Conference Quarterfinals series comes to a dull end, as the #1 seeded Suns avoid a major upset with a 121-90 blowout win over Kobe Bryant and the Lakers in game seven.

2008

Kobe Bryant is named NBA league MVP for the ’07-’08 season, while Chris Paul finishes second in voting.

2014

Kevin Durant is named NBA league MVP, becoming the first player in SuperSonics/Thunder history to be honored as such.

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