From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- "NBA" redirects here. For
other uses, see NBA
(disambiguation).
The National Basketball Association, more commonly
referred to as the NBA, is the world's premier
men's professional basketball
league and one of the major
professional sports leagues of North
America.
The league was founded in New
York City on June 6, 1946
as the Basketball Association of America (BAA).
The league adopted the name National Basketball Association
in the fall of 1949 after merging with the rival National
Basketball League. The league's several international
and individual team offices are directed out its head
offices located in the Olympic
Tower at 645 Fifth
Avenue in New York City. NBA
Entertainment and NBA
TV studios are directed out of offices located in
Secaucus,
New Jersey.
Regular season
Following the summer break, teams hold training camps
in October. Training camps allow the coaching staff
to evaluate players (especially rookies), scout the
team's strengths and weaknesses, prepare the players
for the rigorous regular season, and determine the 12-man
active roster (and a 3-man inactive list, if needed)
with which they will begin the regular season. Teams
have the ability to assign players with less than two
years of experience to the NBA development league. After
training camp, a series of preseason exhibition games
are held. The NBA regular season begins in the first
week of November.
In the regular season, each team plays 82 games, which
are divided evenly between home and away games. Schedules
are not identical for all teams. A team faces opponents
in its own division four times a year, teams from the
other two divisions in its conference either three or
four times, and teams in the other conference twice
apiece. A team can therefore have a relatively easy
or difficult schedule, depending on the division and
conference it is located in. Following the recent changes
to the National
Hockey League's scheduling format, the NBA is now
the only major league in which all the teams play each
other during the regular season, and where a season
ticket holder can see every team in the league come
to town in any one season.
In February, the NBA regular season is interrupted
to celebrate the annual NBA
All-Star Game. Fans are balloted throughout the
United
States, Canada
and through the Internet,
and the top vote-getters at each position in each conference
are given a starting spot on their conference's All-Star
team. Coaches vote to choose the remaining 14 All-Stars.
Then, East faces West in the All-Star game. The player
with the best performance during the game is rewarded
with a Game MVP award. Other attractions of the All-Star
break include the got
milk? Rookie Challenge game, which pits the best
rookies and the best second-year players against each
other; the Foot
Locker Three-Point Shootout, a competition between
players to see who is the best 3-point shooter; and
the Sprite
Rising Stars Slam Dunk contest, to see which player
dunks the ball in the most entertaining way.
Shortly after the All-Star break is the league's trade
deadline. After this date, teams are not allowed to
exchange players with each other for the remainder of
the season, although they may still sign and release
players. Major trades are often completed right before
the trading deadline, making that day a hectic time
for general managers.
In April, the regular season ends. It is during this
time that voting begins for individual awards, as well
as the selection of the honorary league-wide postseason
teams. The NBA
Sixth Man Award is given to the best player coming
off the bench (not starting for his team). The NBA
Rookie of the Year Award is awarded to the best
rookie player. The NBA
Most Improved Player Award is awarded to the most
improved player. The NBA
Defensive Player of the Year Award is awarded to
the league's best defender. The NBA
Coach of the Year Award is awarded to either the
best coach in the league or the coach that has made
the most positive difference to a team. The NBA
Most Valuable Player Award is given to player deemed
the most valuable for that season. Additionally, The
Sporting News awards an unofficial (but widely recognized)
NBA
Executive of the Year Award to the general manager
who is adjudged to have done the best job for his franchise.
The postseason teams are the All-NBA Teams, the All-Defensive
Teams, and the All-Rookie Teams; each consists of five
players. There are three All-NBA teams, consisting of
the top players at each position, with first-team status
being most desirable. There are two All-Defensive teams,
consisting of the top defenders at each position. There
are also two All-Rookie teams, consisting of the top
first-year players regardless of position.
Playoffs
- Main article: NBA
Playoffs
The NBA Playoffs begin in late April, with eight teams
in each conference qualifying for the playoffs. The
top three seeds for each conference are determined by
taking the winners of the conference's three divisions
and ranking them by regular season record. The remaining
five seeds are determined by taking the five teams with
the next-best records from among the non-division winning
teams in the conference. However, the seeding system
has one feature that is unusual in North American sports;
division champions do not necessarily have home-court
advantage in the playoffs. Although the playoff brackets
are not reseeded, home-court advantage is based strictly
on regular-season record, without regard to whether
a team won its division.
Having a higher seed offers several advantages. Since
the first seed plays the eighth seed, the second seed
plays the seventh seed, the third seed plays the sixth
seed, and the fourth seed plays the fifth seed in the
playoffs, having a higher seed generally means you will
be facing a weaker team. The team in each series with
the better record has home court advantage, including
the First Round. This means that, for example, if the
team who receives the 6 (six) seed has a better record
than the team with the 3 (three) seed (seeded thus by
virtue of a divisional championship), the 6 seed would
have home court advantage, even though the other team
has a higher seed. Therefore, the team with the best
regular season record in the league is guaranteed home
court advantage in every series it plays.
The playoffs follow a tournament format. Each team
plays a rival in a best-of-seven series, with the first
team to win four games advancing into the second round,
while the other team is eliminated from the playoffs.
In the next round, the successful team plays against
another advancing team of the same conference. Thus,
all but one team in each conference are eliminated from
the playoffs. Since the NBA does not re-seed teams,
the playoff bracket in each conference uses a traditional
design, with the winner of the series matching the 1st
and 8th seeded teams playing the winner of the series
matching the 4th and 5th seeded teams, and the winner
of the series matching the 2nd and 7th seeded teams
playing the winner of the series matching the 3rd and
6th seeded teams. In every round except the NBA Finals,
the best of seven series follows a 2-2-1-1-1 pattern,
meaning that one team will have home court in games
1, 2, 5, and 7, while the other plays at home in games
3, 4, and 6. For the final round (NBA Finals), the series
follows a 2-3-2 pattern.
The final playoff round, a best-of-seven series between
the victors of both conferences, is known as the NBA
Finals, and it is held annually in June. The victor
in the NBA Finals wins the Larry
O'Brien Championship Trophy. Each player and major
contributor, including coaches and the general manager,
on the winning team receive a championship ring. In
addition, the league awards an NBA
Finals Most Valuable Player Award, which nearly
always goes to a member of the winning team, though
not by rule. There has been only one exception to date:
Jerry
West won the award in 1969 (the award's first season)
even though his Los
Angeles Lakers did not win the championship.
History
- Further information: List
of NBA seasons,
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The Basketball Association of America was founded
in 1946 by the owners of major sports arenas
in the Northeast
and Midwest,
most notably Madison
Square Garden in New
York City. Although there had been earlier attempts
at professional basketball leagues, including the American
Basketball League and the National
Basketball League, the BAA was the first league
to attempt to play primarily in large arenas in major
cities. During its early years, though, the quality
of play in the BAA was not obviously better than those
other leagues or among leading independent clubs such
as the Harlem
Globetrotters. For instance the 1947 ABL
finalist Baltimore
Bullets moved to the BAA and won its 1948 title,
followed by the 1948 NBL
champion Minneapolis
Lakers who won the 1949 BAA title.
Following the 1949 season, the BAA agreed to merge
with the NBL,
expanding the rechristened National Basketball Association
to seventeen franchises located in a mix of large and
small cities, as well as large arenas and smaller gymnasiums
and armories. In 1950, the NBA consolidated to eleven
franchises, a process that continued until 1954, when
the league reached its smallest size of eight franchises,
all of which are still in the league (the Knickerbockers,
Celtics,
Warriors,
Lakers,
Royals/Kings,
Pistons,
Hawks,
and Nationals/76ers).
While contracting, the league also saw its smaller
city franchises move to larger cities. The Hawks
shifted from "Tri-Cities" to Milwaukee
and then to St.
Louis; the Royals
from Rochester
to Cincinnati,
the Pistons
from Fort
Wayne to Detroit.
1950 also saw the NBA integrate, with the addition
of African
American players by several teams including Chuck
Cooper with the Boston
Celtics, Nat
"Sweetwater" Clifton with the New
York Knicks, and Earl
Lloyd with the Washington
Capitols.
During this period, the Minneapolis
Lakers, led by center George
Mikan, won five NBA
Championships and established themselves as its
first dynasty.
To liven up play, the league introduced the 24 second
shot
clock in 1954.
In 1956, rookie center Bill
Russell joined the Boston
Celtics, who already featured guard Bob
Cousy and coach Red
Auerbach, and went on to lead the club to eleven
NBA titles in thirteen seasons. Center Wilt
Chamberlain entered the league in 1959 and became
the dominant individual star of the 1960s,
setting new records in scoring and rebounding. Russell's
rivalry with Chamberlain became one of the great individual
rivalries in the history of team sports.
Through this period, the NBA continued to strengthen
with the shift of the Minneapolis
Lakers to Los
Angeles, the Philadelphia
Warriors to San
Francisco, and the Syracuse
Nationals to Philadelphia,
as well as the addition of its first expansion franchises.
In 1967, the league faced a new external threat with
the formation of the American
Basketball Association. The leagues engaged in a
bidding war for talent. The NBA landed the most important
college star of the era, Kareem
Abdul Jabbar (then known as Lew Alcindor), who together
with Oscar
Robertson led the Milwaukee
Bucks to a title in his second season, and who later
played on five Laker
championship teams.
However, the NBA's leading scorer, Rick
Barry jumped to the ABA, as did four veteran referees
-- Norm
Drucker, Earl
Strom, John Vanak and Joe Gushue.
The ABA
also succeeded in signing a number of major stars, including
Julius
Erving, in part because it allowed teams to sign
college
undergraduates. The NBA expanded rapidly during this
period, one purpose being to tie up most viable cities.
Following the 1976
season, the leagues reached a settlement that provided
for the addition of four ABA franchises to the NBA,
raising the number of franchises in the league at that
time to 22.
The league added the ABA's innovative three-point
field goal beginning in 1979
to open up the game. That same year, rookies Larry
Bird and Magic
Johnson joined the Boston
Celtics and Los
Angeles Lakers, respectively, initiating a period
of significant growth in fan interest in the NBA throughout
the country and the world. Bird went on to lead the
Celtics to three titles, and Johnson went on to lead
the Lakers to five.
Michael
Jordan, entered the league in 1984
with the Chicago
Bulls, providing an even more popular star to support
growing interest in the league. By 1989, further expansion
had raised the number of teams in the league to 27.
During the 1990s,
Jordan went on to lead the Bulls to six titles.
The 1990s also saw greater globalization. The 1992
Olympic basketball Dream
Team, the first to use current NBA stars, featured
Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, and Magic Johnson. A growing
number of NBA star players also began coming from other
countries. Initially, many of these players, such as
1994 NBA
MVP Hakeem
Olajuwon of Nigeria,
first played NCAA
basketball to enhance their skills. An increasing number,
though, have moved directly from playing elsewhere in
the world to starring in the NBA, such as 2002 NBA
Rookie of the Year Pau
Gasol of Spain,
2002 first pick in the NBA
Draft Yao
Ming of China,
and 2004
Olympic Tournament MVP Manu
Ginobili of Argentina.
The NBA is now televised in 212 nations in 42 languages.
In 1996 the NBA created a women's league, the Women's
National Basketball Association, and in 2002 created
an affiliated minor
league, the National
Basketball Development League.
Today, the NBA has reached 30 franchises and continues
to evolve as one of the premier sports leagues in the
world.
Teams
Current teams
Defunct teams
Important people
Presidents and commissioners
Players
Awards
See also
External links
Official sites
Statistics
News/rumors
Discussion
Draft information
Miscellaneous
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