In the fall of 1993, Jerry Colangelo, majority owner of the Phoenix Suns, the area's NBA franchise, announced he was assembling an ownership group, " Arizona Baseball, Inc .," to apply for a Major League Baseball expansion team.

This was the first major professional sports championship for the state of Arizona and the first for a team ( in the four major North American professional sports leagues ) owned or controlled by Colangelo, whose basketball Suns made it to the NBA Finals in 1976 and 1993 but lost both times.

In the summer of 2005, Colangelo was named director of USA Basketball whose team represented the United States in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 FIBA World Championship.

Colangelo was born and raised in Chicago Heights, Illinois where he played basketball and baseball for Bloom Township High School.

Colangelo was an assistant coach of the Chicago Bulls basketball team.

In 1989, Colangelo was an essential part of the group that planned to build America West Arena ( now US Airways Center ), providing financial backing.

Barkley's relationship with Colangelo, however, grew sour over the years, and in 1996, he was traded to the Houston Rockets.

On May 9, 2002, Colangelo was awarded an honorary degree from Arizona State University.

On April 4, 2004, Colangelo was elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

On November 4, 2007, Colangelo was inducted into the Phoenix Suns Ring of Honor at the halftime of a Suns game against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

One of the first people to congratulate Moreno after the news was Diamondbacks ' owner Jerry Colangelo, a personal friend who declared it a good opportunity for Moreno.

Jerry Colangelo, future owner of the Arizona Diamondbacks and Phoenix Suns, was the ace of that Bloom High School staff.

In the 1980s, the company was taken over by Madrigal and lost several of its employees and innovators ( Mark Levinson, Tom Colangelo, etc .).

Like in Seattle, he often clashed with his coach, John MacLeod, and was finally traded by general manager Jerry Colangelo to the Boston Celtics for Rick Robey and draft picks.

This gave the Raptors fans and management a glimpse of his abilities and in July 2006, Parker was officially signed by Raptors General Manager Bryan Colangelo as a free agent as part of a massive revamp of the 2006 – 07 Toronto team.

Richard John Colangelo ( April 14, 1957 – March 10, 2007 ), better known by the stage name of Richard Jeni, was an American stand-up comedian and actor.

Colangelo also serves as Chairman of the National Italian American Foundation ( NIAF ), a nonprofit nonpartisan educational foundation that promotes Italian American culture and heritage.

Colangelo, as a friend of promoter Bob Arum, also helped to bring professional boxing to Arizona.

By then a long-time friend of Colangelo, he helped Colangelo decide to trade Jeff Hornacek, Andrew Lang and Tim Perry for Charles Barkley, while also helping with the decision of signing free agent Danny Ainge.

It also featured discrete circuit construction, no integrated circuits were incorporated in order to keep the signal pure. Archetype of American highend, highpower amplifier. Design credit: Thomas P. Colangelo

Colangelo sold his interest in the General Partnership of the Diamondbacks to a group of investors who were all involved as partners in the founding of the team in 1995.

Colangelo has been involved in many professional sports teams in Arizona.

Although every Major League Baseball team cultivates fans from outside its immediate metropolitan area, and even though the greater Phoenix area has 2 / 3 of the statewide population, Colangelo still decided to call the team the " Arizona Diamondbacks " rather than the " Phoenix Diamondbacks ".

Two years before their first opening day, Colangelo hired Buck Showalter, the American League Manager of the Year in 1994 with the New York Yankees.

In 1992, Colangelo founded the Arena Football League's Arizona Rattlers and owned them until 2005.

In April 2004, Colangelo sold the Suns, Mercury and Rattlers to an investment group headed by San Diego, California businessman, Tucson, Arizona native Robert Sarver for $ 401 million.

Late in the 2004 baseball season, Colangelo sold his controlling interest in the Arizona Diamondbacks to a group of investors led by Jeff Moorad.

Jerry Colangelo is part of an investment group planning development in Buckeye, Arizona.

Colangelo purchased the bankrupt Wigwam Resort in Litchfield Park, Arizona.

Construction of this arena began in 1990, as Suns owner Jerry Colangelo envisioned a need for a new playing facility to replace Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Burke and Gluckstern originally planned to move the team to Minnesota ( which had lost the North Stars to Dallas in 1993 ), but eventually reached an agreement with Phoenix businessman Jerry Colangelo that would see the team move to Arizona and become the Phoenix Coyotes.

To help ensure that KAZT would be a high-quality station that would " do some good for Arizona ", the Londen family put together an advisory board of notable Arizonans, including Governor Jane Dee Hull, U. S. Representative Bob Stump, prominent local auto dealer Lou Grubb, Jerry Colangelo of the Phoenix Suns and Arizona Diamondbacks, and Michael Bidwill of the Arizona Cardinals.

From the beginning, Colangelo wanted to market the Diamondbacks to a statewide fan base and not limit fan appeal to Phoenix and its suburbs.

The idea to remake the arena came to Jerry Colangelo when he visited Staples Center, and envisioned a similar entertainment district in Phoenix.

He succeeded at his goal versus powerhouse Phoenix, scoring 54 points, including 21-of-37 from the field, 6-of-12 three-pointers ( while reportedly eyeing in the direction of Suns chairman Jerry Colangelo ), in a high-scoring 144 – 139 Wizards win over the Suns.

He coached the Phoenix Suns for the first seven games of the 1972 – 73 campaign, before being fired and replaced by Jerry Colangelo, then did a stint with Memphis of the American Basketball Association in 1973 – 74.

Colangelo fired Showalter after a relatively disappointing 2000 season, and replaced him with Bob Brenly, the former Giants catcher and coach, who had up to that point been working as a color analyst on Diamondbacks television broadcasts.

Colangelo ’ s willingness to go into debt and acquire players through free agency had led to one of the quickest free falls in major sports history.

Jerry Colangelo ( born November 20, 1939 ), is an American businessman and sports executive.

Colangelo has been known for a no-nonsense ownership style.

In his autobiography, How You Play the Game, Colangelo tells of working after graduating college at the House of Charles, a tuxedo rental shop in Chicago Heights.

Colangelo had two stints as head coach during that decade, compiling a record of 59 wins and 60 losses.

Colangelo put together a group that bought the Suns in late 1987, in the wake of the drug scandal.

In 1992, Colangelo traded Jeff Hornacek, Tim Perry, and Andrew Lang to the Philadelphia 76ers for Charles Barkley.

Colangelo declared himself a born-again Christian, a reason that he credits for his change of heart about Barkley.

While in Chicago for a Suns game, Colangelo attended a Chicago Cubs baseball game at Wrigley Field.

For his new baseball club, Colangelo hired Joe Garagiola, Jr. as General Manager.

Showalter and Yankees owner George Steinbrenner did not agree to a contract extension, so Colangelo quickly hired Showalter as future manager of the Diamondbacks.