The 2006–07 NBA season was the 61st season of the National Basketball Association. The San Antonio Spurs were crowned the champions after sweeping the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals.
The first NBA draft under the new CBA rules was conducted, where draftees must be at least a year removed from high school graduation and are at least 19 years old to be eligible. Andrea Bargnani of Italy was selected by the Toronto Raptors as the No. 1 pick, becoming the second foreign player without U.S. collegiate basketball background to be selected No. 1. Portland Trail Blazers guard Brandon Roy was named Rookie of the Year.
A new design for the official NBA game ball was revealed on June 28, 2006, at the NBA draft. Amid complaints by players and coaches, the league switched back to the previous ball on January 1, 2007.
The 2007 NBA All-Star Game was played on February 18, 2007, at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, the first time the event was held in a non-NBA city. The West defeated the East 153-132, with Kobe Bryant winning the game's MVP award.[2]
For the second straight year, the Hornets played a split home schedule between New Orleans, Louisiana and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, due to Hurricane Katrina.
The Denver Nuggets and the New York Knicks entered into a brawl near the end of a December 16 match up. All ten players on the court at the time, including Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony (the league's leading scorer at the time), were ejected. Seven players were suspended as a result of the incident, the most notable of which was Carmelo Anthony's 15-game suspension.
After the 2006 Playoff controversy, the format of team seeds changed. Each division winner may be seeded no lower than 4th, but the top non-division-winning playoff team may seed higher than a divisional champ if they have a better win-loss record. Home court advantage is given to the team with the better record, regardless of seeding.
The Phoenix Suns and the Dallas Mavericks notched multiple 12+ game win-streaks during the course of the regular season. The Suns rattled off streaks of 15 and 17 games straight (tied for fifth longest in NBA history), while the Mavericks' streaks stretched to 12, 13, and 17 games straight.[4] The San Antonio Spurs joined these two teams by notching a 13-game winning streak.
Jason Kidd and Vince Carter of the New Jersey Nets become only the tenth pair of teammates in NBA history to record triple doubles in the same game. Nearly 20 years had passed since the last tandem, Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, performed this feat.
The Toronto Raptors won their first division title in the franchise's twelve-year history. It also marked the first time a Canadian-based NBA team had won a division title.[6]
The Golden State Warriors, who had not qualified for the playoffs since 1994, became the first 8 seed to defeat a 1 seed in a best-of-seven playoff series, defeating the 67-win Dallas Mavericks in 6 games.[7]
Dirk Nowitzki won the NBA MVP Award and Tony Parker won the NBA Finals MVP Award,[8] the first time either award was won by a European-born player.
Long-time Boston Celtics coach and executive Red Auerbach died on October 28 of heart attack at age 89. Reeling with the loss of their patriarch, and being down two key contributors in Paul Pierce and Tony Allen, the Celtics finished the season with the second-worst record in the NBA, at 24-58, which included a franchise record 18-game losing streak. Another Celtics legend, Dennis Johnson, died on February 22, 2007 of the same ailment at age 52.
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.