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32-665: The Wizards began play in 1995 in the International Basketball Association (IBA), and in 2001, with Dave Joerger at the helm, they won the IBA championship in the league's final year of operation. Following the 2000–01 season, the IBA merged with several teams from the Continental Basketball Association (CBA), and in their first year in the new CBA, Joerger and the Wizards won the league title, defeating

64-585: A 19–29 record. In April 2006, the Wizards and three other teams (Colorado 14ers, Idaho Stampede and Sioux Falls Skyforce) withdrew from the CBA in order to join the emerging NBA Development League . For their first season in the D-League, the Wizards brought back head coach Dave Joerger . Joerger guided the Wizards to a 33–17 record in 2006–07, good for the first seed in the Eastern Division. He went on to lead them to

96-504: A new franchise and affiliation before the 2016–17 season, although it did not come to fruition. On May 2, it was announced that former Arizona Sundogs and current Arizona Rattlers president, Chris Presson, would become the new team president for the Suns. The new team logo and jerseys for Northern Arizona was officially unveiled on May 11 and the front office personnel and coaching staff were announced on August 16. During their first season as

128-523: The Dignity Health Event Center seated only 500, the team did not sell individual general admission tickets and were sold to season ticket holders only. On May 29, 2015, it was announced that Nate Bjorkgren would leave the Jam to take part in the Suns' organization as a leading player development and assistant coach. Three months later, former NBA coach Chris Jent would be the newest head coach for

160-644: The Golden State Warriors , led by Co-Executive Chairmen Joe Lacob and Peter Guber, purchased the Wizards franchise from Bismarck Professional Basketball LLC. The Warriors became the fourth NBA team to own and operate their own NBA D-League affiliate, joining San Antonio, Oklahoma City and the Los Angeles Lakers. The Wizards remained in Bismarck during the 2011–12 season, but the Warriors were open to relocating

192-640: The NBA . This article related to a basketball competition is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Bakersfield Jam The Motor City Cruise are an American professional basketball team in the NBA G League based in Detroit , and are affiliated with the Detroit Pistons . The Cruise play their home games at Wayne State Fieldhouse . The franchise began play as the Long Beach Jam in 2003 under

224-651: The Rockford Lightning . After making it to the semifinals in the 2002–03 season, the Wizards again won the league title in 2004 over the Idaho Stampede , giving Joerger his third title as the Wizards' head coach. Following the 2003–04 season, coach Joerger left the Wizards for a coaching opportunity with the Sioux Falls Skyforce . In his place, the Wizards appointed former assistant coach Casey Owens as head coach. The Wizards lost their opening two games against

256-733: The Santa Cruz Warriors . In May 2012, with the Wizards' imminent move to Santa Cruz, long-time Bismarck Tribune reporter, Lou Babiarz, chose an all-time 15-man Dakota Wizards team. International Basketball Association The International Basketball Association (IBA) was founded in 1995 by a group of businessmen led by Tom Anderson. The original owners of franchises in the league were George Daniel (Black Hills Posse-Rapid City, SD), John Korsmo, Al Gardner, and Al Hovland (Fargo Beez), Jeff McCarron (St. Cloud Rock 'n Rollers), Bill Sorensen (Dakota Wizards - Bismarck) and Earl Barish (Winnipeg Cyclones). Earl Barish of Winnipeg directed

288-497: The American Basketball Association had in the 2002–03 season, one of the teams the league approved of would be the Long Beach Jam . In the team's inaugural season, the Jam managed to procure NBA Hall of Famer Dennis Rodman , fellow veteran Corey Gaines , up-and-coming player Matt Barnes , and Japanese point guard Yuta Tabuse on their squad. They also got former NBA Finals winning head coach Paul Westhead during

320-534: The Championship Game, where forward Darius Rice came off the bench to put together a record-setting night that led the Wizards to a 129–121 overtime victory over the Colorado 14ers. Rice scored 52 points and made 11 three-pointers, including one with 4.5 seconds left in regulation to send the game into overtime tied at 109. Rice's points and three-point field goal totals set D-League championship game records. With

352-836: The Finals, where they competed against the winner of the Kansas City Knights (the previous champions of the ABA) and the Juárez Gallos . In the championship round, the Jam barely escaped against the Knights to win the ABA Championship with a final score of 126–123. In their second and final season under the Long Beach name, the Jam began their season under a pedestrian 8–6 record with another NBA Hall of Famer, this time Nate "Tiny" Archibald , leading

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384-434: The IBA as League President and the league eventually grew to ten franchises. In the fall of 2001, CBA and IBL teams merged with the IBA and purchased the assets of the defunct CBA, including its name, logo and records from the bankruptcy court and restarted operations, calling itself the CBA. This group continued to operate until June 2009, when it was forced to cease operations. These players played at least 1 game in

416-522: The Jam. On April 12, 2016, the Phoenix Suns announced that the organization had officially purchased the Jam and were relocating the franchise to the town of Prescott Valley, Arizona , for the 2016–17 season and became the Northern Arizona Suns. In response, the previous owners of the Jam franchise, Stan Ellis and David Higdon, announced that they have been working with the D-League in securing

448-464: The Northern Arizona Suns, the team started out the season strong, entering with a 10–1 record. However, the Suns would enter a major losing streak after having Tyler Ulis and Alan Williams briefly play for them via assignment, and would ultimately not recover from it afterward. In the 2017 offseason, the D-League rebranded as the NBA G League . On October 20, 2017, the Suns had assistant general manager Louis Lehman take over general manager duties for

480-454: The Northern Arizona Suns, while previous general manager Bubba Barrage remained in Phoenix as director of player personnel. Three days later, head coach Tyrone Ellis became an assistant coach for Phoenix alongside Northern Arizona assistants Bret Burchard and Brandon Rosenthal, leaving assistant coach Tyler Gatlin as the interim head coach during the G League preseason. Cody Toppert was named

512-690: The Phoenix Suns and were relocating the franchise to Detroit for the 2021–22 season to play at Wayne State Fieldhouse . It was also announced that the team's affiliation with the Grand Rapids Drive would end upon the completion of the 2020–21 season. On October 30, the team name was announced as the Motor City Cruise. On March 17, 2021, the Cruise announced the hiring of Rob Murphy as president and general manager. Pistons' assistant coach DJ Bakker

544-512: The Phoenix Suns originally announced that the team would relocate to the metro Phoenix area for the following season. However, the team withdrew entirely from the 2020–21 season amidst the COVID-19 pandemic when the G League held the abbreviated season in a bubble in Orlando, Florida . On July 29, 2020, the Detroit Pistons announced that the organization had purchased the Northern Arizona Suns from

576-485: The Sioux Falls Skyforce, until Sioux Falls won Game 5 with a 102–97 victory, ending the Wizards' playoff run. For the 2005–06 season, the Wizards replaced Casey Owens with former Baylor University head coach Dave Bliss . However, with the coaching change, the Wizards dropped from first in 2005 to out of the playoff race in 2006. Bliss resigned following the 2005–06 season, as season that saw the Wizards finish with

608-484: The Skyforce, but then cruised to a 12-game winning streak before losing to Sioux Falls on New Year's Eve, 2004. The Wizards also lost two potential all-stars, Billy Keys and Dickey Simpkins , who left the team mid-season to play overseas. The Wizards went on to clinch home court advantage throughout the 2005 playoffs with a league-best 32–16 record. Dakota split their first four playoff games with their first-round opponents,

640-631: The Snowbears folded soon afterwards, while Bellevue lost the championship match to the Arkansas RimRockers . After the end of that season, the Jam withdrew from the 2005–06 ABA season to move to the NBA Development League the following season afterward, with the intent to also move to Bakersfield around that same period of time. After their first season in Bakersfield ended in 2007, there

672-727: The departure of the Dave Joerger following the 2006–07 season, having been hired by the Memphis Grizzlies as an assistant coach, the Wizards hired Duane Ticknor to replace him. In July 2007, the Wizards became affiliated with the Memphis Grizzlies and the Washington Wizards . In 2007–08, the Wizards were again division champions, this time finishing as the first seed in the Central Division. They were, however, defeated in

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704-431: The first round of the playoffs by the arch rival, the Sioux Falls Skyforce. The Wizards continued to make the playoffs in 2008–09 and 2009–10, but with a missed playoff berth in 2010–11, the team missed the postseason for the first time since 2005–06, and just the second time since 1998–99. The Wizards concluded the 2010–11 season with a 19–31 record and in fourth place in the eight-team Eastern Conference. On June 28, 2011,

736-399: The head coach just prior to the start of the season. The team finished the season with a 23–27 record and missed the playoffs. At the end of the season, head coach Toppert was promoted to an assistant coaching position in Phoenix. He would be replaced by former Northern Arizona Suns assistant and Phoenix Suns' assistant coach Bret Burchard . Following the pandemic-shorted 2019–20 season ,

768-645: The revived American Basketball Association and moved to Bakersfield in the D-League in 2006 as the Bakersfield Jam . After ten years in Bakersfield, California , the franchise was moved to Prescott Valley, Arizona , in 2016 by the Phoenix Suns and were subsequently renamed the Northern Arizona Suns . In 2021, the team relocated to Detroit after being purchased by the Pistons. During the year-long hiatus that

800-459: The start of the season, but he managed to procure himself an assistant coach gig with the Orlando Magic after their first game of the season. Nevertheless, with the presence of players like Rodman, Gaines and Tabuse under new head coach Earl Cureton , the Jam would hold a 24–7 record. It was not only considered the best record of the league that season, but also gave the Jam a bye all the way into

832-533: The team return to the playoffs with a 29–21 record. However, they were unable to move on past the first round following a 2–0 defeat at the hands of the Bakersfield Jam . Following intense off-season discussions regarding a move, on October 10, 2012, the Golden State Warriors announced that the Dakota Wizards would relocate to Santa Cruz beginning with the 2012–13 season. The team was subsequently renamed

864-478: The team to Northern California in 2012. To reflect the new ownership, the Wizards debuted with a new color scheme, the Warriors' blue and gold, used as an alternative to the purple and green, which dates back to their IBA days. The old color scheme was still used with the team's road uniforms, while the blue and gold was used with the home uniforms and the logo. The Wizards were led by Edwin Ubiles in 2011–12, as he helped

896-580: The team with a 10-4 second half during that season, which produced them with the second-best record in the Red Division. The Jam competed in the playoffs and made it to the quarterfinals, where they lost 130–115 to the Utah Snowbears (who produced a 25–1 that season), who would surprisingly end up forfeiting their last match to the Bellevue Blackhawks (potentially due to sunk costs with the team) since

928-405: The team, but it would also allow the Jam to operate under their own management in the process. On May 9, it was confirmed that the Suns and the Jam would agree to working under a hybrid affiliation. Four days later, the Jam completed their transition by allowing Suns scout Bubba Barrage to be the team's newest general manager and letting Nate Bjorkgren coach the Jam in place of Will Voigt . Since

960-459: The way as head coach during the first half of the 2004–05 season. On January 17, 2005, Archibald resigned from his position as head coach and had former player and future head coach of the Phoenix Mercury , Corey Gaines , assigned as their new head coach during the second half of their season. In that season, they managed to produce an 18–10 record in a greatly expanded ABA, with Gaines improving

992-518: Was a contest where the fans could decide on a new name for the team. The choices were to rename the team Desperados , Roughnecks , Oilers , or keep the name Jam. On May 17, the team announced that the team will remain the Bakersfield Jam, as that name won the poll in a landslide vote. The team played at Rabobank Arena until 2009 and later at the Jam Events Center . On April 29, 2009, it

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1024-426: Was reported that the Jam had ceased operations, citing lack of sufficient fan attendance. However, on June 18, the Jam announced that they had not shut down and plan to play in the 2009–10 season, with further details to come the following day. On April 30, 2014, it was reported that the Jam would enter a hybrid operation with the Phoenix Suns . Not only would that lead to the Suns having exclusive collaborations with

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