National Basketball Association

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional American basketball league. The current commissioner of the NBA is Adam Silver.

The NBA is popular not only in the United States and Canada where its franchises are located, but also in Australia, New Zealand, Eastern European countries, and Mediterranean countries as well as in China. It is also growing in popularity in many South American countries, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia.

During its early years, due to lack of competition, it chose to play games on Christmas Day; it now plays up to five games on that day featuring top teams. Also, due to the majority of its players being Black, it plays two games on Martin Luther King Day, always featuring the Atlanta Hawks (Dr. King's hometown) and the Memphis Grizzlies (where he was murdered).

History[edit]

The official formation of the NBA took place in 1949 via a merger of the Basketball Association of America (BAA, founded in 1946 and consisting mainly of teams located in large metropolitan areas) and the National Basketball League (NBL, founded in 1937 and consisting mainly of smaller market teams). However, the NBA considers the BAA to be the official beginning of the league, given that there were more BAA teams than NBL teams at the time of the merger, and as such nearly all NBL records were not recognized by the new league.

By 1954, the League had contracted to only eight professional teams. The NBA was considerably strengthened, however, by the fact that many of its small market franchises moved and expanded to more populated areas. In 1976 the NBA would merge with another competing league, the American Basketball Association (ABA), by absorbing four of its franchises. Otherwise, all other franchises were added via expansion.

Organization[edit]

The NBA consists of 30 franchises, all but one of which (the Toronto Raptors) is located in the United States. The league is organized into two conferences, each of which consists of three, five-team divisions.

NBA Teams	East Atlantic: Boston Celtics New Jersey Nets New York Knicks Philadelphia 76ers Toronto Raptors Central: Chicago Bulls Cleveland Cavaliers Detroit Pistons Indiana Pacers Milwaukee Bucks Southeast: Atlanta Hawks Charlotte Bobcats Miami Heat Orlando Magic Washington Wizards
	West Southwest: Dallas Mavericks Houston Rockets Memphis Grizzlies New Orleans Hornets San Antonio Spurs Northwest: Denver Nuggets Minnesota Timberwolves Portland Trail Blazers Oklahoma City Thunder Utah Jazz Pacific: Golden State Warriors Los Angeles Clippers Los Angeles Lakers Phoenix Suns Sacramento Kings

Beginning with the 2019-2020 season, the divisions exist solely for purposes of reducing travel among nearby teams and determining tie-breakers but no longer does a division champion receive a preferential seeding (in fact it is theoretically possible, though it has never happened and is unlikely, for a division champion to miss the playoffs entirely).

Each team plays 82 games per season, 41 at home and 41 away. The structure of the schedule is as follows:

• Each team plays the other four teams in its division four times per year (two at home and two away) for a total of 16 games.
• Each team will play six of the ten other teams in its conference four times per year (two at home and two away) for a total of 24 games, and will play the remaining four teams three times per year (two of which will be two at home and one away, the others being one at home and two away) for a total of 12 games.
• Finally each team will play the 15 teams in the other conference twice (once at home and once away) for a total of 30 games.

The playoff rounds consist of eight teams from each conference. The top six teams from each conference automatically make the playoffs regardless of divisional success, while the next four teams from each conference enter a "play-in tournament" with the 7-8 seeds and 9-10 seeds playing each other in single games; the 7-8 winner gets the 7 seed, the 9-10 loser is eliminated, and the 7-8 loser plays the 9-10 winner for the 8 seed with the loser of that game being eliminated.^[1] The higher-seeded team, whether in the play-in tournament or the playoffs, has home-court advantage, with the overall #1 seed keeping advantage through the NBA Finals should it make it that far.

After the play-in tournament, the playoff consists of four rounds, each series best-of-seven. The first round is 1-8, 2-7, 3-6, and 4-5, the second round consists of the 1-8 winner playing the 4-5 winner and the 2-7 winner playing the 3-6 winner (there is not re-seeding as in the NFL or NHL playoffs), the third round is the conference finals, and the fourth round is the NBA Finals consisting of the conference champions.

The 14 teams which do not make the playoffs (including the losers of the play-in tournament) qualify for the NBA Draft Lottery. The Lottery was introduced to discourage teams from tanking. However the league has frequently modified the system, at times to discourage tanking, while at other times giving poor-performing teams a better chance at a high selection. Since 2019 the first four picks are determined by lottery using ping pong balls with the number of balls per team generally weighted in order of finish (interestingly, if the lottery chooses the four best-finishing non-playoff teams, that pick is ignored and the lottery restarted) with the remaining ten picks determined by order of regular season finish; thus any of the 14 teams can receive either the first, second, third, fourth, or the pick they would have had absent a lottery; no team can drop more than four positions from where it would have been otherwise. The lottery itself, as is the case with the major entertainment awards shows, is overseen by a major public accounting firm (as accountants generally have a high trust rating among professionals). The 16 playoff teams have their draft position determined by playoff success (with the Finals winner receiving the last pick). The lottery is used only for the first round; selections in the second round are based on the actual order of finish with the worst team having the first pick.

There are only two rounds in the NBA Draft, the fewest of any of the major sports leagues. Unlike other leagues which offer compensatory picks for free agents lost, the NBA does not have any such choices; there are only 60 total selections (30 per round). However, teams can lose choices for violation of NBA rules.

The league has strict rules on when draft choices, especially first round ones, can be traded.

Liberalism in the NBA[edit]

Liberal politics has sent the league spirally downward in recent years. The NBA officially supports Uyghur genocide and slave labor.

NBA vigorously supports BLM arsonists and insurrectionists. LeBron James, leading this movement, is a Joe Biden supporting insurrectionist and domestic terrorist.

The NBA Social Justice Coalition released the following statement after the verdict in the Kenosha riots case:

Of those whose lives were taken in this tragedy", all were attempting to murder Kyle Rittenhouse. One was a 5-time convicted child rapist and the other convicted on multiple counts of domestic abuse and violence against women. A third criminal assailant was illegally in possession of a handgun after being convicted on a firearms charge, which he had pointed at the victim's head, and was subsequently shot in self-defense.

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Official Website of the NBA