TODAY IN SPORTS
April 25
• 1950 – Charles Cooper, an All-American from Duquesne playing with the Harlem Globetrotters, becomes the first black to be picked in the NBA draft when he’s taken by the Boston Celtics.
• 1950 – New York purchased the contract of Nat “Sweetwater”
Clifton from the Harlem Globetrotters making him the first black player to sign an NBA contract.
• 1965 – The Boston Celtics score 42 points on a record 21 field goals in the final quarter of Game 5 to post a 129-96 rout of the Los Angeles Lakers and win their seventh consecutive NBA championship.
• 1965 – Jerry West of Los Angeles averaged 46.3 points per game as the Lakers defeated the Baltimore Bullets in six games in the 1965 Western Division Finals. West scored at least 40 points in every game in posting the highest scoring average for a playoff series in NBA history.
• 1993 – Michael Williams set an NBA record for consecutive free throws with 84. He made 10 straight as the Minnesota Timberwolves beat Utah 113-111. Calvin Murphy held the previous mark of 78 for Houston in 1981.
• 1993 – Chicago’s Michael Jordan captured his seventh straight NBA scoring title (32.6 ppg), tying Wilt
Chamberlain’s NBA record. Jordan also led the league in steals (2.83 spg) for the third time in his career, becoming the fourth NBA player to collect 1,800 career thefts.
• 2009 – San Antonio’s Tony Parker matches George Gervin’s franchise playoff record for points in a half, scoring 31 by halftime of the Spurs’ 99-90 loss to Dallas in Game 4 of their series. Parker makes 12 of 17 shots.
• 2013 – Miami’s Ray Allen scores 23 points and breaks the NBA career playoff record for 3-pointers, and the Heat beat the Milwaukee Bucks 104-91 for a 3-0 lead in their firstround series. Allen’s five 3-pointers against the Bucks gives him 322 for his career, two more than Reggie Miller.