Rio Grande Valley Vipers

The Rio Grande Valley Vipers are an American basketball team in the NBA Development League, which is located in Hidalgo, Texas.

History

After the end of the 2007 season, the D -League expanded further to Texas to Hidalgo, Texas. They announced the team would be called " Vipers ". In their debut season, they finished the season with 21 won and 29 lost games and could not therefore qualify for the playoffs. In the following season, they finished the season with exactly the same statistics as the previous year with 21 wins and 29 defeats and failed to achieve its target to get into the playoffs.

In 2009, the Vipers and the Houston Rockets came to a partnership in which the Rockets controlled the basketball things the Vipers and regulated, while the franchise continues belonged to the local owners. This had a tremendous impact this season, as the Vipers won 34 of their 50 games. Led by league MVP Mike Harris and Coach of the Year Chris Finch they were first in the Western Conference and participated for the first time in the playoffs. In the playoffs, beat the Vipers both Reno and Austin in 3 games, and won in the finals against Tulsa with a sweep. Next year the Vipers came back to the finals, but were defeated there in 3 games of Iowa.

2012/2013 attracted the Vipers again until final championship and defeated there 2-0 games, the Santa Cruz Warriors and secured the title in 2013.

Famous former and current players

• Shannon Brown
• Cedric Simmons
• Steve Novak
• Aaron Brooks
• Marcus Morris
• Tim Ohlbrecht
• Vernon Macklin
• Rich Melzer
• Patrick Patterson