given_name jim chones
The National Basketball Association ( NBA ) is the predominant men ' s professional basketball league in North ___MASK38___ , and is widely considered to be the premier men ' s professional basketball league in the world . It has 30 teams ( 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada ), and is ___MASK52___ active member of USA Basketball ( USAB ), which is recognized by FIBA ( also known as the International Basketball Federation ) as the national governing body for basketball in the United States . The NBA is one of the four major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada . NBA players are the world ' s best paid sportsmen , by average annual salary ___MASK44___ player . The ___MASK25___ Gladiators are ___MASK52___ arena football team based in ___MASK25___ , Ohio , United States , who play in the Arena Football League ( AFL ) as part of the AFL National Conference . The Gladiators play their ___MASK10___ games at Quicken Loans Arena , which they share with the ___MASK25___ Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association and the ___MASK25___ Monsters of the American Hockey League . The franchise was originally based in East Rutherford , New Jersey , and then later in Las Vegas , Nevada , before relocating to ___MASK25___ for the 2008 AFL season . The Gladiators have qualified for the playoffs eight times in their history , reaching the ArenaBowl for the first time in 2014 . Quicken Loans Arena , commonly known as " The Q ", is a multi - purpose arena in downtown ___MASK25___ , Ohio , United States . The building is the ___MASK10___ of the ___MASK25___ Cavaliers of the National Basketball Association ( NBA ), the ___MASK25___ Monsters of the American Hockey League , and the ___MASK25___ Gladiators of the Arena Football League . It also serves as a secondary arena for ___MASK25___ State Vikings men ' s and women ' s basketball . ___MASK15___ Naismith ( November 6 , 1861  November 28 , 1939 ) was a Canadian - American physical educator , physician , chaplain , sports coach and innovator . He invented the game of basketball at ___MASK86___ 30 in 1891 . He wrote the original basketball rule book and founded the University of Kansas basketball program . Naismith lived to see basketball adopted as an Olympic demonstration sport in 1904 and as an official event at the 1936 Summer Olympics in ___MASK54___ , as well as the birth of the National Invitation Tournament ( 1938 ) and the NCAA Tournament ( 1939 ). ___MASK15___ Bernett Chones ( born November 30 , 1949 ) is ___MASK52___ American former professional basketball player , and current radio analyst for the Cleveland Cavaliers . A 6 ' 11 `` forward / center , Chones starred at Marquette University , where he earned All - America honors as a junior in 1972 after averaging 20 . 5 points and 11 . 9 rebounds ___MASK44___ game . When he left Marquette to pursue ___MASK52___ NBA career , he was only the second player in NCAA history to leave school for the NBA before his graduating year . Professionally , he first played in the American Basketball Association ( ABA ) with the New York Nets , with whom he was ___MASK52___ ABA All - Rookie First Team selection . He also spent a season with the Carolina Cougars . In 1975 , he moved to the National Basketball Association , where he played five seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers , and later won ___MASK52___ NBA Championship as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers in 1980 . He retired from basketball in 1982 with combined ABA / NBA totals of 9 , 821 points and 6 , 427 rebounds . After retiring from the NBA , Chones spent eleven seasons as the television color analyst for the Cleveland Cavaliers , and in 2007 , returned as a radio postgame analyst . During the 2010 - 2011 season , usual Cavs radio voice Joe Tait missed much of the season as he recovered from surgery / illness . During that time , Chones and WTAM morning co - host / sports director and Cavs pregame / postgame host Mike Snyder formed the interim radio play by play team . Chones became a full - time member of the radio team in the 2011 - 2012 season , working with new play by play announcer John Michael . The Kansas Jayhawks , commonly referred to as KU , ___MASK32___ the teams of the athletic department at the University of Kansas . KU is one of three schools in the state of Kansas that participate in NCAA Division ___MASK27___ The Jayhawks ___MASK32___ also a member of the Big 12 Conference . University of Kansas athletic teams have won eleven NCAA Division I championships : three in men ' s basketball , one in men ' s cross country , three in men ' s indoor track and field , three in men ' s outdoor track and field , and one in women ' s outdoor track and field . The ___MASK25___ Cavaliers , also known as the Cavs , are ___MASK52___ American professional basketball team based in ___MASK25___ , Ohio . The Cavs compete in the National Basketball Association ( NBA ) as a member of the league ' s Eastern Conference Central Division . The team began play in 1970 . Since 1994 , the team has played its ___MASK10___ games at Quicken Loans Arena , which is shared with the ___MASK25___ Gladiators of the Arena Football League and the ___MASK25___ Monsters of the American Hockey League . The American Hockey League ( AHL ) is a 30 - team professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental league for the National Hockey League ( NHL ). Since the 2010  11 season , every team in the league has ___MASK52___ affiliation agreement with ___MASK52___ NHL team ; before then , one or two NHL teams would not have ___MASK52___ AHL affiliate and so assigned players to AHL teams affiliated with other NHL teams . Twenty - seven AHL teams are located in the United States and the remaining three are in Canada . The league offices are located in Springfield , Massachusetts , and its current president is David Andrews . The Arena Football League ( AFL ) is a professional indoor American football league in the United States . It was founded in 1987 by ___MASK49___ Foster , making it the third longest - running professional football league in North America , after the Canadian Football League ( CFL ) and the National Football League ( NFL ). The AFL plays a proprietary code known as arena football , a form of indoor American football played on a 66 - by - 28 yard field ( about a quarter of the surface area of an NFL field ), with rules encouraging offensive performance , resulting in a faster - paced and higher - scoring game . The sport was invented in the early 1980s and patented by Foster , a former executive of the United States Football League ( USFL ) and the NFL . Basketball is a sport that is played by two teams of five players on a rectangular court . The objective is to shoot a ball through a hoop in diameter and mounted at a height of to backboards at each end of the court . The game was invented in 1891 by Dr . ___MASK15___ Naismith , who would be the first basketball coach of the Kansas Jayhawks , one of the most successful programs in the game ' s history . The ___MASK25___ Monsters  previously known as the Lake Erie Monsters  are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League ( AHL ) based in ___MASK25___ , Ohio , United States . The team began play in 2007 and since 2015 has served as the top affiliate of the Columbus Blue Jackets of the National Hockey League ( NHL ). The Monsters play ___MASK10___ games at Quicken Loans Arena in downtown ___MASK25___ and have one Calder Cup championship , after winning their first title in 2016 .