May 29, 1905: The Dodgy Admission of Chelsea F.C. to the Football League

May 29, 1905: Chelsea Football Club are admitted to Division Two of England's Football League. This should not have happened so soon.

In 1904, Gus Mears bought Stamford Bridge, a track & field facility in Fulham, West London, with the aim of turning it into a football ground (soccer stadium). An offer to lease it to nearby Fulham Football Club was turned down, so Mears opted to found his own club to use the stadium.

As there was already a team named Fulham in the Borough, the name of the adjacent borough of Chelsea was chosen. And so, Chelsea F.C. was founded on March 10, 1905 at The Rising Sun pub. It was located opposite what is now the stadium's main entrance on Fulham Road, and is now named The Butcher's Hook.

At first, Chelsea attempted to join the Southern League, as England's main Football League was mostly teams from the Midlands and the North. One exception was Woolwich Arsenal, then in Kent, but the locality would eventually be redrawn into South-East London. The team that would, in 1913, move across the River Thames to Highbury in North London, and rename themselves simply Arsenal F.C., were in no position to object to Chelsea's admission to the Southern League.

One team in the area did: Tottenham Hotspur, whose White Hart Lane ground was then in Middlesex, but would later be redrawn into North London. Never mind that Fulham, Millwall (South), West Ham United (East), Clapton Orient (now Leyton Orient, East) and Woolwich Arsenal were all already considered "London clubs," and that Orient were within 5 miles of White Hart Lane, and unlike The Lane were then actually in London; whereas Chelsea's stadium, Stamford Bridge, was 13 miles away by the shortest land route. And yet, Tottenham's objection was upheld by the Southern League.

Thus rejected, Mears aimed higher, and applied for membership for Chelsea in the Football League Division Two. And they got it.

Under normal circumstances, a team would have had to start in a lower league, prove itself commercially viable there -- proving itself competitively viable was a secondary concern -- before being admitted to the Football League. But Chelsea got special treatment. It was the first time. It would not be the last.

Mears died in 1912. For a long time after that, Chelsea were regarded as something of a joke. From 1905-06 until 1953-54, only once, in 1919-20, when they were 3rd, did they finish higher than 8th in the Football League Division One. Nor did they have much success in the FA Cup: They reached the Final in 1915; and the Semifinals in 1911, 1920, 1932, 1950 and 1952. In 1933, English comedian Norman Long wrote and recorded a song about various strange, even impossible things happening. The title was "On the Day That Chelsea Went and Won the Cup."

They won their 1st title in their 50th Anniversary year, 1955. Their manager was Ted Drake, a former Arsenal forward, who thus became the 1st man to win the League as both a non-managing player and a non-playing manager. (The 2nd would also be a former Arsenal player: Joe Mercer with Manchester City in 1968.)

Chelsea got better in the mid-1960s, and began to be the favored team of the West End, London's version of Broadway, and of "Swinging London." Actors filming movies in London and environs were invited to Stamford Bridge by team management. American acting bombshell Raquel Welch even posed in a Chelsea kit.

In 1965, they finished 3rd, reached the Semifinal of the FA Cup, and won the League Cup. They reached the FA Cup's Semifinal in 1966, its Final in 1967, and finally winning it in 1970, defeating Leeds United in a replay, also finishing 3rd that season. The following season, they won the European Cup Winners' Cup.

As the team declined in the 1970s, the fan base took on more sinister overtones. With most London clubs having working-class roots, the right-wing National Front began to recruit among young male Chelsea fans. A hooligan "firm" called the Chelsea Headhunters was formed, and their battles, on the streets and in the stands, with West Ham's Inter-City Firm and other firms became legendary. Despite their later success being very much dependent on black players, Chelsea fandom still retains a tinge of racism.

So, in the 1980s, Stamford Bridge was a no-go zone: The fans were dangerous, the stadium was run-down, and the team was weak. In the 1990s, new rich owners put a lot of money into rebuilding the stadium, stand by stand, and bought better players, too. Chelsea won the FA Cup in 1997 and 2000, the League Cup in 1998, and the Cup Winners' Cup in 1998.

In 2003, Russian oil oligarch Roman Abramovich bought the team, and out-spent the other big teams in the Premier League -- Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool F.C. -- by a wide margin. His dirty billions made Chelsea, for a time, England's most successful team, and a worldwide brand.

Before sanctions on Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine forced him to sell the team in 2022, he bought them -- through talented players, and, it has been noticed, referees looking the other way while some of their players executed dirty tackles and ridiculous dives for penalties -- the Premier League title in 2005, '06, '10, '15 and '17; the FA Cup in 2007, '09, '10, '12 and '18; the League Cup in 2005, '07 and '15; the UEFA Europa League in 2013 and '19; and the UEFA Champions League in 2012 and 2021, making them the 1st (and, through 2022, the only) team in London to win it.

Think about it: If Tottenham hadn't been such pricks in 1905, Chelsea might never have gotten into the Football League, might have gone out of business, wouldn't be a bigger club today than Tottenham, and English football fans would have been spared the likes of Roman Abramovich, Jose Mourinho, John Terry, Arjen Robben, Michael Ballack, Didier Drogba and Diego Costa. (True, they all could have been involved with other English clubs, but it wouldn't have been with Chelsea.) And various teams' fans, and their own hooligan "firms," wouldn't have kept getting their heads handed to them by the Chelsea Headhunters.

This is, perhaps, not the first act of stupidity by Tottenham as a club. But it is the first big one, and, while it took nearly a century, it did come back to bite them in the ass. (Or "the arse," if you prefer the English version.) 

*

May 29, 1905 was a Monday. English actor Sebastian Shaw was born on this day. American audiences know him best as the dying and Force Ghost Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.

These baseball games were played that day:

* The New York Highlanders lost to the Philadelphia Athletics, 2-1 at Columbia Park in Philadelphia. Rube Waddell, probably the best pitcher in the American League at the time, and definitely the weirdest one, outpitched Al Orth, a pitcher known as "The Curveless Wonder." Willie Keeler went 1-for-5 for the Highlanders, who became the New York Yankees in 1913.

* The New York Giants beat their arch-rivals, the Brooklyn Superbas, 8-5 at the Polo Grounds. The Superbas became the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1911.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Boston Beaneaters, 10-7 at the South End Grounds in Boston.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-3 at Exposition Park in Pittsburgh. Honus Wagner went 3-for-5 with an RBI.

* The Cleveland Naps beat the St. Louis Browns, 5-3 at League Park in Cleveland. The Naps were named for their manager, 2nd baseman and best player, Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie, who went 1-for-3 with a walk in this game.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Chicago Cubs, 6-3 at The Palace of the Fans in Cincinnati.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Detroit Tigers, 9-1 at South Side Park in Chicago.

* And the Boston Americans, forerunners of the Red Sox, and the Washington Senators were not scheduled.

May 6, 2009: Cheatfest at Stamford Bridge

Ancelotti (left) unable to stop Drogba

May 6, 2009: A UEFA Champions League Semifinal is played at Stamford Bridge in West London. Michael Essien scored for host Chelsea FC in the 9th minute. Chelsea, managed by former AC Milan star player and manager Carlo Ancelotti, still led FC Barcelona, managed by their former star player Pep Guardiola, 1-0 going into stoppage time.

Had that score held, Chelsea would have advanced to the Final, which would have been a rematch of the previous season's Final, where they lost to Manchester United in Moscow.

Chelsea were already known as a team of cheats, especially "diving" for free kicks and penalties. None was worse than Didier Drogba, the forward from the African nation of the Ivory Coast. I was at work (due to the 5-hour time difference between London and the U.S. East Coast), and was following the game on a message board, where someone wrote, "How many times has Drogba been shot in this game? I count four."

But their opponents, FC Barcelona, cheated more than any sports team in the world at the time. And the referee, a Norwegian named Tom Henning Øvrebø, fell for all of it. The Chelsea players believed they should have been awarded 4 penalties during the game. During postgame analysis, the clearly pro-English commentators on Sky Sports 2 (Britain's version of ESPN2) said they were unfairly denied 3.

Barça left back Eric Abidal somehow avoided a red card before he was sent off in the 66th minute, for a soft foul on Nicolas Anelka. In the 82nd minute, there was a handball in the penalty area by Gerard Piqué (the longtime boyfriend of singer Shakira) that Øvrebø did not call. 

And in the 93rd minute, which had been intended as the last minute of stoppage time, Andrés Iniesta scored to make it 1-1. It was Barça's only shot on target in the entire game. Some "best team in the world" they were.

Because of the goal, Barça's celebration of it, and Chelsea's objections to Øvrebø, play continued into a 96th minute. In that minute, there was another Barcelona handball in the box, committed by Samuel Eto'o. Øvrebø awarded Eto'o a yellow card, but he did not award Chelsea a penalty. Granted, there was no guarantee that the penalty would have been converted, but Øvrebø had directedly contradicted the written rule of the sport.

Øvrebø blew his whistle, and it was 1-1 on the night, and 1-1 in the tie overall. Due to the away goals rule in place at the time, Barcelona advanced.

Chelsea were furious. German midfielder Michael Ballack, himself a notorious diver, chased Øvrebø off the pitch in anger. And Drogba, a native French speaker, showed his proficiency in English, as well as a massive hypocrisy: He looked into a camera, and yelled, "It's a disgrace! It's a disgrace! It's a fucking disgrace!" He later received a 6-game suspension within European play for his actions. Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Čech said, "We all remember Didier Drogba's reaction, and he got slammed for it, but what did people expect?"

People expected the rules to be properly followed by the players, and to be properly applied by the officials. In this case, they got neither. But then, fans of both Chelsea and Barcelona had cheered their own players when the rules were violated. So, if this game was a disgrace, then, what should they have expected?

Barcelona went on to defeat Manchester United in the Final, in Rome. They would beat Man United in the 2011 Final as well, at London's Wembley Stadium. Chelsea finally won the Champions League in 2012, becoming the 1st London-based team to do so.

Drogba was such a cheat, he once dove for a penalty, and received it, against Arsenal in a preseason friendly.

Øvrebø refereed his last game in 2012, turning to his other profession full-time: He's a psychologist.

UEFA officially removed the away goal rule from all of its club competitions -- including the Champions League, the Europa League, and the Europa Conference League -- starting with the 2021-22 season. The rule was abolished not because so many people considered it to be unfair, but because it was deemed to discourage home teams from attacking in the first leg.

*

May 6, 2009 was a Wednesday. These games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Tampa Bay Rays, 4-3 at the new Yankee Stadium. Joe Girardi brought Phil Coke in to pitch the 10th inning, instead of leaving Mariano Rivera in. In this case, Coke was not it: He gave up a leadoff home run to Carlos Peña. All 3 Yankee runs were driven in by Mark Teixeira, who went 2-for-5. Derek Jeter went 0-for-5.

* The New York Mets beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 1-0 at the new Citi Field. Johan Santana was the winning pitcher. The only run came in the bottom of the 7th, when Fernando Tatís Sr. singled home Carlos Delgado.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Boston Red Sox, 9-2 at Fenway Park in Boston.

* The Baltimore Orioles were leading the Minnesota Twins, 4-1 at Camden Yards in Baltimore, when the game was called due to rain after 6 innings.

* The Atlanta Braves beat the Florida Marlins, 8-6 at Land Shark Stadium (now Hard Rock Stadium) in Miami Gardens, Florida.

* The Milwaukee Brewers beat the Cincinnati Reds, 15-3 at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

* The Kansas City Royals beat the Seattle Mariners, 9-1 at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Houston Astros, 6-3 at Minute Maid Park (now Daikin Park) in Houston.

* The Colorado Rockies beat the San Francisco Giants, 11-1 at Coors Field in Denver.

* The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the San Diego Padres, 3-1 at Petco Park in San Diego.

* The Toronto Blue Jays beat the Los Angeles Angels, 13-1 at Angel Stadium (formerly Anaheim Stadium).

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Washington Nationals, 10-3 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Oakland Athletics, 3-2 at the Oakland Coliseum.

* And the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers were rained out at U.S. Cellular Field (now Rate Field) in Chicago. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on June 8. The Tigers won the opener, 5-4. The White Sox won the nightcap, 6-1.

American-style football was out of season. There were 2 games in the NBA Playoffs. The Boston Celtics beat the Orlando Magic, 112-94 at the TD Banknorth Garden (now named simply the TD Garden) in Boston. And the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Houston Rockets, 111-98 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles. Kobe Bryant scored 40 points.

There were 2 games in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Carolina Hurricanes beat the Boston Bruins, 3-2 at the RBC Center (now the Lenovo Center) in Raleigh, North Carolina. Jussi Jokinen scored the winning goal, 2:48 into overtime. And the Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Washington Capitals, 3-2 at the Mellon Arena (as the Civic Arena was then known) in Pittsburgh. Kris Letang scored the winning goal, 11:23 into overtime.

April 23, 1955: Chelsea's One True Title

April 23, 1955: Chelsea Football Club take the pitch at their West London home stadium of Stamford Bridge, and defeat Yorkshire side Sheffield Wednesday, 3-0. This clinches their 1st-ever League title, in their 50th season of play. It will be their only title in their 1st 99 years of play.

Their manager is Ted Drake, once a great striker for North London club Arsenal, who had helped them win the League in 1935 and 1938. This makes him the 1st man ever to win the League as a non-managing player and as a non-playing manager.

Roy Bentley was their leading scorer. One of their defenders, Ron Greenwood, went on to manage East London team West Ham United to the 1964 FA Cup. Outside left Frank Blunstone was the last surviving member of the team. (UPDATE: As of April 23, 2025, Blunstone is also the earliest surviving player for the England senior national team, having assisted Bentley on 2 of the 3 goals he scored in a 3-2 over Wales at Wembley Stadium on November 10, 1954.)

That same day, Manchester United beat Arsenal, 3-2 at the Arsenal Stadium, a.k.a. Highbury, in North London. Two weeks later, on May 7, Newcastle United beat Manchester City, 3-1 at Wembley Stadium in West London, to win the FA Cup for the 3rd time in the last 5 years. They haven't won it since.

In almost a century, without Russian oil money behind them and dirty tactics on the field, they won just one title, and they needed an Arsenal man to do it. They claim in song to be "Carefree, wherever we may be," but, no matter how big "the Famous CFC" get, they will forever, at heart, be a small club.

*

April 23, 1955 was a Saturday. Australian actress Judy Davis was born.

Football was out of season. The NHL season ended 9 days earlier, when the Detroit Red Wings beat the Montreal Canadiens for the Stanley Cup. The NBA season ended 13 days earlier, when the Syracuse Nationals beat the Fort Wayne Pistons for the Championship.

These baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox, 7-2 at Yankee Stadium. Johnny Kucks is the winning pitcher. Bill "Moose" Skowron went 2-for-5 with a home run and 5 RBIs. Mickey Mantle goes 2-for-3. Yogi Berra goes 0-for-1... with 3 walks. As the man himself might have said, had he thought of it, "I did some hittin', even though I didn't do any hittin'." Ted Williams did not play.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat their arch-rivals, the New York Giants, 3-1 at Ebbets Field. So, while all 3 New York teams weren't at home, they were all playing in the City at the same time. Carl Erskine outpitched Sal Maglie. Jackie Robinson went 0-for-2 with 2 walks. Duke Snider went 1-for-4 with an RBI. Willie Mays went 1-for-4.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-0 at Connie Mack Stadium in Philadelphia. Murry Dickson pitched a 4-hit shutout. Willie "Puddin' Head" Jones and Stan Palys hit home runs. Roberto Clemente had made his major league debut on April 17, but did not play in this game.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Washington Senators, 3-0 at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore. Harry Byrd pitched a 3-hit shutout.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Cleveland Indians, 3-0 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Billy Hoeft pitched a 3-hit shutout, outpitching Mike Garcia. Ray Boone, father of Bob, and grandfather of Bret and Aaron, hit a home run.

* The Chicago Cubs beat the Cincinnati Reds, 1-0 at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Frank Baumholtz singled Jim Bolger home in the bottom of the 6th inning, making Jim Davis a winning pitcher in relief of Warren Hacker. Hacker pitched 5 2/3rds innings, allowing 3 hits; Davis, the rest of the way, allowing 2, for a 5-hit shutout, to beat Joe Nuxhall. Ernie Banks went 0-for-3.

* The Milwaukee Braves beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 5-4 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Bobby Thomson, no stranger to winning a game with its last swing, singled Billy Bruton home with the winning run in the bottom of the 12th inning. Chet Nichols went the distance for the Braves. Hank Aaron, promoted to the major leagues the previous April when Thomson broke his ankle, and later moved from left field to right field, went 3-for-5 with a walk and an RBI. Stan Musial went 1-for-5 with a walk.

* And the Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City Athletics, 29-6 at Kansas City Municipal Stadium. That's not a typographical error (or a clean base hit): Twenty-nine to six. The Pale Hose scored 4 runs in the 1st inning, 7 in the 2nd, 3 in the 3rd, 2 in the 4th, none in the 5, 6 in the 6th, 3 in the 7th, 4 in the 8th, and none in the 9th. There were no ZIP Codes at the time, but that opening scoreline, 47320, would become the ZIP Code for Deputy, Indiana.

Twenty-nine runs in a single game? That's harsh, man. Actually, Jack Harshman was the winning pitcher for the South Siders. He went 3-for-5 with a home run, a walk and 2 RBIs. Sherm Lollar went 5-for-6 with 2 home runs, a walk, and 5 RBIs. Alfonso "Chico" Carrasquel went 5-for-6 with a walk. Orestes "Minnie" Miñoso went 4-for-6 with a home run, a walk and 5 RBIs. Bob Nieman went 3-for-4 with 2 home runs, a walk, and 7 RBIs. Walt Dropo went 3-for-7 with a home run and 3 RBIs. Jim Rivera went 3-for-7 with 2 RBIs. George Kell went 2-for-5 with 2 RBIs. Nellie Fox went 1-for-5 with an RBI.

For the A's, Bobby Shantz didn't get out of the 2nd inning, and no pitcher went more than 2 1/3rd innings.

February 27, 2010: Wayne Bridge Refuses to Shake John Terry's Hand

February 27, 2010: Chelsea Football Club play Manchester City Football Club, at Stamford Bridge in West London, Chelsea's home stadium. Before the game, the opposing teams lined up to shake hands. But Man City's left back, Wayne Bridge, refused to shake the hand of Chelsea's Captain, centreback John Terry.

There were priors.

Wayne Michael Bridge was born on August 5, 1980 in Southampton, Hampshire, England. Few English soccer players have been so wronged and had so few people in power stand up for them. Well, few white ones, anyway.

At age 18, he was already starting at left back for hometown team Southampton F.C.. In 2002, he was named to the Premier League Team of the Year. In 2003, he was signed by Chelsea. In 2004, his late goal knocked North London's Arsenal F.C. out of the UEFA Champions League in the Quarterfinal, essentially starting a run of success for them that hasn't ended.

In 2005, he helped Chelsea win the Premier League. But he was loaned to another West London team, Fulham F.C., for the 2005-06 season, missing out on another Premier League winners' medal. In 2007, he helped them achieve a rare domestic cup "double," winning the FA Cup and the League Cup.

But when Chelsea signed Ashley Cole away from Arsenal, they gave him Bridge's starting position. Cole also took Bridge's starting place on the England national team. Moving him to left midfield didn't help, and the 2006 World Cup was his last tournament for the country.

John George Terry was born on December 7, 1980, in Barking, East London. He started playing in the youth system of local side West Ham United, but at 14 was sold to Chelsea. He made his first team debut in 1998, and by 2001, he had become a starter and a star.

But he had also begun to reveal himself as perhaps the worst human being in the League. On September 12, he and teammate Frank Lampard were drinking in the bar of a hotel near Heathrow Airport, where some Americans were stranded after the previous day's terrorists attacks. They taunted the Americans, and word of it reached the media. They were fined 2 weeks' wages.

Four months later, he and 2 other players were charged with assault and affray after a confrontation with a nightclub bouncer. Terry was banned from selection for the England team for the duration of the case, though he was ultimately cleared of all charges. In 2009, he was investigated by Chelsea and the FA for allegedly taking money from an undercover reporter for a private tour of Chelsea's training ground. Again, this star for the England national team was cleared.

In 2003, Chelsea were bought by Roman Abramovich, a Russian energy mogul and politician. He spent huge amounts of money to buy players from all over the world, and he didn't care how his players behaved, on or off the pitch. Chelsea became a team of dirty tacklers and divers for penalties. But because they were led by England team players Terry and Lampard, officials looked the other way at what should have been yellow-card and even red-card offenses.

They began winning major trophies, and Terry was hailed with a banner at Stamford Bridge that survived his tenure there, calling him, "CAPTAIN, LEADER, LEGEND," even though he was never more than an average defender, and, while never accused of dirty play on the pitch, benefited from that of his teammates.

In 2010, it was revealed that John Terry had had an affair with Bridge's girlfriend, French model Vanessa Perroncel. Terry should have been the one to pay child support for Wayne and Vanessa's son, Jayden, but Wayne was made to pay.

Wayne Bridge and Vanessa Perroncel

Bridge was sold to Manchester City, and, in their next game against Chelsea, famously refused to shake Terry's hand during pregame introductions. City, too, had been bought by an energy billionaire, and were on the rise, and won the game, 4-2. But Chelsea went on to win both the Premier League title and the FA Cup, the combination known in England as "The Double."

Things continued to go badly for Bridge. City reduced his appearances, so he didn't get winner's medals for their 2011 FA Cup and 2012 Premier League wins. He retired in 2014, and is on the professional poker circuit. He is now married to Frankie Sandford, of the pop group The Saturdays, and they now have 2 sons.

Meanwhile, despite his many indiscretions, Terry is still beloved in England, especially among Chelsea fans. He had been stripped of the England captaincy over the Bridge scandal, but was reinstated in 2011. Later that year, he was caught using racist language toward Anton Ferdinand, black a player for another West London team, Queens Park Rangers. Prior to the next game between them, Anton followed Bridge's lead, and refused to shake Terry's hand.

Ironically, the reason Terry had been reinstated as England Captain was because of an injury to his replacement, Anton's brother, Rio Ferdinand of Manchester United. Terry went on trial for the racist language, and, although he was acquitted, he was again stripped of the England captaincy. He settled that matter by retiring from international competition.

Terry retired from all competition in 2018, having won 5 Premier League titles, 5 FA Cups, 3 League Cups, the UEFA Champions League in 2012, and the UEFA Europa League in 2013 -- but, like every other player for the England national team since 1996, no tournaments with them, proving that, when faced with officials not from England, it wasn't so easy. He has since retired to Chelsea with their coaching staff.

John's wife Toni has stayed with him through everything. Vanessa Perroncel has never married.

*

February 27, 2010 was a Saturday. Elsewhere in English football, Arsenal defeated Stoke City, 3-1 at the Britannia Stadium (now the bet365 Stadium) in Stoke-on-Trent, in Staffordshire in the West Midlands. Arsenal scored 2 goals in stoppage time to win, because Stoke were down to 10 men. This was because their Captain, Ryan Shawcross, had purposely broken the leg of Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey. I have a separate entry for this event. Ramsey was out for a year, but did recover to become one of the best players in the world, and helped Arsenal win more trophies over the next few years than Stoke have won in their entire history.

Baseball and American-style football were out of season. The NHL was on a break, so that its players who had been selected for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver could play in them.

There were 7 games in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the Memphis Grizzlies, 120-109 at Madison Square Garden.

* The New Jersey Nets beat the Boston Celtics, 104-96 at the TD Garden in Boston.

* The Milwaukee Bucks beat the Miami Heat, 94-71 at the American Airlines Arena (now the Kaseya Center) in Miami.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Chicago Bulls, 100-90 at the Conseco Fieldhouse (now the Gainbridge Fieldhouse) in Indianapolis.

* The Portland Trail Blazers beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, 110-91 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

* The Utah Jazz beat the Houston Rockets, 133-110 at the Delta Center (then the EnergySolutions Arena) in Salt Lake City, Utah. Deron Williams led all scorers on the day with 35 points.

* And the Golden State Warriors beat the Detroit Pistons, 95-88 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena (then named the Oracle Arena).