1991–92 NBA season explained

1991–92 NBA season
League:	National Basketball Association
Sport:	Basketball
Duration:	November 1, 1991 – April 19, 1992 April 23 – May 29, 1992 (Playoffs) June 3 – 14, 1992 (Finals)
No Of Teams:	27
Tv:	NBC, TBS, TNT
Draft:	Draft
Draft Link:	1991 NBA Draft
Top Pick Link:	List of first overall NBA draft picks
Top Pick:	Larry Johnson
Picked By:	Charlotte Hornets
Season:	Regular season
Top Seed:	Chicago Bulls
Mvp:	Michael Jordan (Chicago)
Mvp Link:	NBA MVP
Top Scorer:	Michael Jordan (Chicago)
Playoffs:	Playoffs
Playoffs Link:	1992 NBA playoffs
Conf1:	Eastern
Conf1 Link:	Eastern Conference (NBA)
Conf1 Champ:	Chicago Bulls
Conf1 Runner-Up:	Cleveland Cavaliers
Conf2:	Western
Conf2 Link:	Western Conference (NBA)
Conf2 Champ:	Portland Trail Blazers
Conf2 Runner-Up:	Utah Jazz
Finals:	Finals
Finals Link:	1992 NBA Finals
Finals Champ:	Chicago Bulls
Finals Runner-Up:	Portland Trail Blazers
Finals Mvp:	Michael Jordan (Chicago)
Finals Mvp Link:	NBA Finals MVP
Seasonslist:	List of NBA seasons
Seasonslistnames:	NBA
Prevseason Link:	1990–91 NBA season
Prevseason Year:	1990–91
Nextseason Link:	1992–93 NBA season
Nextseason Year:	1992–93

The 1991–92 NBA season was the 46th season of the National Basketball Association. The season ended with the Chicago Bulls winning their second straight NBA Championship, beating the Portland Trail Blazers 4 games to 2 in the NBA Finals. This was Larry Bird's final season as a player in the NBA.

Notable occurrences

Offseason
Team	1990–91 coach	1991–92 coach
Charlotte Hornets	Gene Littles	Allan Bristow
Miami Heat	Ron Rothstein	Kevin Loughery
Minnesota Timberwolves	Bill Musselman	Jimmy Rodgers
New York Knicks	John MacLeod	Pat Riley
In-season
Team	Outgoing coach	Incoming coach
Houston Rockets	Don Chaney	Rudy Tomjanovich
Los Angeles Clippers	Mike Schuler	Mack Calvin
Los Angeles Clippers	Mack Calvin	Larry Brown
Milwaukee Bucks	Del Harris	Frank Hamblen
Sacramento Kings	Dick Motta	Rex Hughes
San Antonio Spurs	Larry Brown	Bob Bass
Seattle SuperSonics	K.C. Jones	Bob Kloppenburg
Seattle SuperSonics	Bob Kloppenburg	George Karl

The game clock and shot clock combo was introduced as of today.
Magic Johnson of the Los Angeles Lakers announces his retirement early in the season after receiving the news that he had tested positive for HIV.
The Philadelphia 76ers' Charles Barkley honored Johnson by switching from his usual number 34 to 32, which he wore for the entire season. The 76ers had retired the number in honor of Billy Cunningham, who un-retired it for Barkley to wear.
Due to back problems, Boston Celtics star Larry Bird retires at the end of the season, and since Bill Russell vs. Wilt Chamberlain it brings one of the most memorable eras in NBA history (Magic vs. Bird) to a close.
After a season in the Western Conference's Midwest Division, the Orlando Magic move back to the Eastern Conference, playing in the Atlantic Division. The 27 teams of the NBA would remain in the same four divisions until 2004, when the league would realign into six divisions.
The 1992 NBA All-Star Game was played at the Orlando Arena in Orlando, Florida, with the West defeating the East 153–113. In an emotionally charged game, Magic Johnson wins the game's MVP award.
In the wake of the 1992 Los Angeles riots, the Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers rescheduled and relocated their home first-round playoff games. Game 4 of the Lakers-Blazers series was played at Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, while Game 4 of the Clippers-Jazz series was played at the Anaheim Convention Center.
Luc Longley, drafted by the Timberwolves, becomes the first Australian to play in the NBA. He would later play in three Bulls championship teams.
Larry Brown became the first to coach two different NBA teams in a single season after resigning from the San Antonio Spurs to coach the Los Angeles Clippers. Brown led the Clippers to the team's first winning season since their relocation to Los Angeles in addition to ending their fifteen-year playoff drought.
The season marked the last time the Boston Celtics would win 50 games (they won 51) until the 2008 season.
Following the first round loss to the New York Knicks, Detroit Pistons head coach Chuck Daly resigned, ending the Pistons' "Bad Boys" era.
On December 17, the Cleveland Cavaliers crushed the Miami Heat by a score of 148–80. This 68-point win by the Cavaliers stood as a record for nearly three decades until the Memphis Grizzlies defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder by 73 points 152–79 on December 2, 2021.
Run TMC, consisting of Golden State Warriors players Tim Hardaway, Chris Mullin and Mitch Richmond, was disbanded when Richmond was traded to the Sacramento Kings for Billy Owens.
The Utah Jazz played their first season at the Delta Center.
The Phoenix Suns played their final season at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
The Chicago Bulls set a franchise record with 67 wins in a season (later broken by the 1996 team).
The NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Finals both had their games played in Chicago, causing a potential scheduling conflict with each other. However, this was rendered moot as the Blackhawks were swept in four games by the Pittsburgh Penguins, who ended up winning their second consecutive Stanley Cup.
Dennis Rodman recorded 1,530 rebounds and averaged 18.7 rebounds per game in the regular season, both of which were the highest figures since 1972. It is the first of an NBA record seven consecutive rebounding titles for Rodman.
Michael Jordan scored 35 points in the first half of Game 1 of the 1992 NBA Finals, setting records for most points in a Finals half and most three-pointers in a half (six) until the latter was broken by the Houston Rockets' Kenny Smith (seven) in 1995. He also set a new NBA record for the most times a player has won a championship and led the league in scoring in the same season.^[1]
The Miami Heat were the first of the four late 1980s expansion franchises to make it to the playoffs, but were swept in the first round by the Bulls.
The Milwaukee Bucks failed to qualify for the playoffs for the first time since 1978-79.
All NBA teams sported patches on their warmups commemorating basketball's centennial anniversary.

1991–92 NBA changes

The New Jersey Nets changed their road uniforms to a darker blue color.
The Philadelphia 76ers changed their uniforms, adding stars to their jerseys.
The Portland Trail Blazers changed their logo and uniforms.
The Utah Jazz moved into the Delta Center.

Teams

1991-92 National Basketball Association

Division	Team	City	Arena	Capacity
Atlantic	Boston Celtics	Boston, Massachusetts	Boston Garden	14,890
	Miami Heat	Miami, Florida	Miami Arena	15,200
	New Jersey Nets	East Rutherford, New Jersey	Brendan Byrne Arena	20,049
	New York Knicks	New York, New York	Madison Square Garden	19,812
	Orlando Magic	Orlando, Florida	Orlando Arena	17,283
	Philadelphia 76ers	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	The Spectrum	18,176
	Washington Bullets	Landover, Maryland	Capital Centre	18,756
Central	Atlanta Hawks	Atlanta, Georgia	Omni Coliseum	16,378
	Charlotte Hornets	Charlotte, North Carolina	Charlotte Coliseum	24,042
	Chicago Bulls	Chicago, Illinois	Chicago Stadium	18,676
	Cleveland Cavaliers	Richfield, Ohio	Richfield Coliseum	20,900
	Detroit Pistons	Auburn Hills, Michigan	The Palace of Auburn Hills	22,076
	Indiana Pacers	Indianapolis, Indiana	Market Square Arena	17,171
	Milwaukee Bucks	Milwaukee, Wisconsin	Bradley Center	18,717

Midwest	Dallas Mavericks	Dallas, Texas	Reunion Arena	18,293
	Denver Nuggets	Denver, Colorado	McNichols Sports Arena	17,171
	Houston Rockets	Houston, Texas	The Summit	16,285
	Minnesota Timberwolves	Minneapolis, Minnesota	Target Center	18,798
	San Antonio Spurs	San Antonio, Texas	HemisFair Arena	16,057
	Utah Jazz	Salt Lake City, Utah	Delta Center	18,306
Pacific	Golden State Warriors	Oakland, California	Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Arena	13,335
	Los Angeles Clippers	Los Angeles, California	Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena	16,161
	Los Angeles Lakers	Inglewood, California	Great Western Forum	17,505
	Phoenix Suns	Phoenix, Arizona	Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum	14,870
	Portland Trail Blazers	Portland, Oregon	Memorial Coliseum	12,888
	Sacramento Kings	Sacramento, California	ARCO Arena	17,317
	Seattle SuperSonics	Seattle, Washington	Seattle Center Coliseum	17,072

Map of teams

Standings

By division

Eastern Conference

Western Conference

By conference

Notes

z – Clinched home court advantage for the entire playoffs
c – Clinched home court advantage for the conference playoffs
y – Clinched division title
x – Clinched playoff spot

Playoffs

See main article: article and 1992 NBA playoffs. 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.

Statistics leaders


Category	Player	Team	Stat
Points per game			30.1
Rebounds per game			18.7
Assists per game			13.7
Steals per game	John Stockton	Utah Jazz	2.98
Blocks per game			4.49
FG%			.604
FT%			.947
3FG%			.446