Prior to joining the BPP, Shakur had met several of its members on a 1970 trip to Oakland, California.

Prior to joining the Our Gang comedies, " Sonny ," as he was called by his family, modeled children's clothing for a Dallas department store and was also seen around the Dallas area on highway billboards and in print advertisements for Wonder Bread.

Prior to joining the Pac-10, Scott was Chairman and CEO of the Women's Tennis Association.

Prior to joining Canada in 1871, B. C.

Prior to joining Chatham, he served recently as Chair and Associate Professor in the Department of Environmental Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Prior to joining the Suns on September 27, 1972 McCoy was the broadcaster for the Triple-A Phoenix Giants baseball club and " One of the Good Guys ," a DJ on KRUX 1360 AM.

Prior to the 1820s, Norwich was served by vessels using the River Yare, which flows through Breydon Water before joining the River Bure and then the North Sea near Great Yarmouth.

Prior to joining Maranatha, Sprouse led a secular incarnation of The Road Home which played extensively in Orange County, CA.

Prior to joining the Miles Davis band, Adderley formed his own group with his brother Nat after signing onto the Savoy jazz label in 1957.

Prior to joining, Casel spent four years studying performance and cultural organization in Dakar, Senegal.

Prior to this the atmosphere at the Rex had been jovial, with the UVF spectators even joining in to sing UDA songs along to the tunes of the UDA-aligned flute bands.

Prior to joining Fairchild, Dr. Thompson served as CEO of Big Bear Networks.

Prior to joining the band in 1997, he was the touring drummer for Alanis Morissette on her Jagged Little Pill and Can't Not tours, as well as the drummer in the progressive experimental band called Sylvia which, after changing their name to Anyone, went on to sign with Roadrunner Records.

Prior to joining the Afghan government, Jalali lived with his family in suburban Maryland.

Prior to the Bosman ruling, professional clubs in parts of Europe ( but not, for example, in Spain and France ) were able to prevent players from joining a club in another country even if their contracts had expired.

Prior to Kendrick joining the team, the Bisons were already 0-2 on the season.

Prior to joining the NFL, the Maroons played in the unofficial " Ohio League " from 1902 until 1921.

Prior to college, he graduated from Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, where his father was in the automotive industry ; most of his work experience prior to joining Sun was in automotive manufacturing.

Prior to joining Judas Priest in 1996, Owens was frontman of a heavy metal band called Brainicide.

Prior to joining George Mason University's School of Public Policy, where he spent two years, he taught at Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz College in Pittsburgh from 1987 to 2005.

Prior to joining MARTA, Dr. Scott served as GM / CEO of the Sacramento Regional Transit District.

Prior to joining the Roosevelt campaign and administration Early had served as an editor to the military paper Stars and Stripes and also as a reporter for the Associated Press.

Prior to joining Okanagan College, Lent taught at the University of Regina, Saskatchewan, and Notre Dame University College in Nelson, British Columbia.

Prior to joining the CIA, she worked for the Argentine Intelligence.

Prior was assigned to start the year with the Class A Tampa Yankees in Florida rather than joining the colder weather Scranton / Wilkes-Barre Yankees in order to work on his transition to a relief pitcher.

Prior to the beginning of training camps, however, the NBA owners, led by commissioner David Stern, locked out the players in order to force a new collective bargaining agreement with the National Basketball Players Association ( NBPA ).

Prior to entering politics, Johnson was a professional basketball player in the NBA, playing point guard for the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Phoenix Suns.

Prior to the 1998 NBA season the capacity was reduced to 19, 980 from the original 21, 400 spectators.

Prior to the 2001 arrival of Jason Kidd, the Nets had made the playoffs in only 10 of their first 25 seasons in the NBA.

Prior to the 1950 – 51 NBA season, Auerbach was approached by Walter Brown, owner of the Boston Celtics.

Prior to the 1966 – 67 NBA season, Auerbach announced his retirement as a coach and named his successor, Bill Russell.

Prior to entering the NBA, he played college basketball at the University of Miami.

Prior to the season the Colonels and the ABA's commissioner, Dave DeBusschere, challenged the NBA to have its champion, the Golden State Warriors, face the Colonels in a championship series, the winner of which would get $ 1 million.

Prior to joining the Kings, despite the fact that he achieved solid statistics throughout his career, Abdur-Rahim held the NBA record for most number of games played without making a playoff appearance.

Prior to the 2006-07 NBA season, the lighting inside Staples Center was modified for Lakers games.

Prior to the NBA, Okafor attended Houston's Bellaire High School, and the University of Connecticut.

Prior to the SuperSonics relocating to Oklahoma City, NBA commissioner David Stern favored and agreed with owner Clayton Bennett that Key Arena was not adequate enough for an NBA venue.

Prior to suffering the injury, he had missed only five games in his three NBA seasons.

Prior to the 2004 – 05 season, he signed with his seventh NBA team, the New Jersey Nets.

Prior to the NBA, Claxton played at Hofstra University under current Villanova University coach Jay Wright.

Prior to his NBA debut, he appeared in the Southern California Summer Pro League for the Spurs, and also appeared in three games with the Spurs squad in the 2004 Reebok Rocky Mountain Revue while averaging 10. 3 PPG, 5 APG, 4. 7 RPG, 1. 33 SPG, 24. 7 MPG, and shooting. 542 ( 13 – 24 ).

Prior to the most recent NBA TV deal, Memorial Day playoff games had become a yearly tradition on network TV.

Prior to the draft, the NBA assigned 1000 possible combinations to the non-playoff teams.

Prior to the fall of 2002, the NBA operating model prevented any WNBA team to exist without an NBA " brother " counterpart.

Prior to the rivalry, there had never been an occasion in the NBA where two teams had met in the playoffs 4 straight seasons and had each series go the distance each time.

Prior to the 2005 NBA Draft, the Mavericks had traded all their picks away and were left empty-handed.

Prior to his NBA career, he spent three seasons ( 1985 – 88 ) in the Continental Basketball Association, playing for the Wisconsin Flyers and Rapid City Thrillers, and in the French Ligue Nationale de Basketball team of Montpellier ( coached by Pierre Galle ) for the end of the 1987 – 88 and the whole 1988 – 89 season.