National Basketball Association

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The National Basketball Association (NBA) is an American-based sports league, considered to be the world's premier professional basketball league. It is also one of the four major North American professional men's sports leagues, along with Major League Baseball, the National Football League, and the National Hockey League. The NBA contains 30 professional basketball teams, 29 in the U.S. and one in Canada.

Currently, the NBA teams are subdivided into two conferences (Eastern and Western) of 15 teams each, and each conference is subdivided into three "divisions" of 5 teams each. A complete list of current teams is provided below, along with the conference and division assignment for each team.

In the NBA, games are 48 minutes long, divided into four 12-minute quarters. This is in contrast to the 40-minute game length in other basketball leagues and organizations such as FIBA, the WNBA, and the NCAA.

A player may commit an offensive or defensive personal foul whether or not he or she is on the team handling the ball or guarding the team that is handling the ball. Each player is allowed up to five personal fouls within a game. Upon committing a sixth personal foul, a player is disqualified from playing for the remaining time in the game. This is in contrast to leagues that play 40-minute games, where a player is disqualified upon committing a fifth personal foul within a game.

Acquiring two technical fouls in one game also leads to being kicked out of that game.

Flagrant fouls are a special type of personal foul that is called when the foul is deemed excessively violent by the referees.

Teams, conferences, and divisions[edit]

History[edit]

Early history: the first five seasons[edit]

The NBA was originally known as the Basketball Association of America (BAA) and played its inaugural season in 1946-47. ^[1] At the time, the BAA consisted of 11 franchises, 3 of which are still in existence: The Boston Celtics, the New York Knicks, and the Philadelphia Warriors. The Warriors are currently known as the Golden State Warriors and are located in San Francisco. The Warriors were also the league champions in the league's first season. ^[2]

In the league's second season (1947-48), the BAA was reduced to 8 teams. Teams based in Cleveland, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Toronto the year before had folded, while a new team, the Baltimore Bullets, joined the league. (This Baltimore franchise is not associated with the current Washington Wizards franchise, which was also known as the Bullets from 1963 to 1997).

In the BAA's third season (1948-49), four teams from the rival National Basketball League (NBL) joined the BAA: ^[3]

• Fort Wayne Pistons (the current Detroit Pistons)
• Rochester Royals (the current Sacramento Kings)
• Indianapolis Kautskys/Jets (defunct as of 1949^[4])
• Minneapolis Lakers (the current Los Angeles Lakers)

Starting with the 1949-50 season, the league's fourth, the BAA was rebranded as the NBA. This coincided with the BAA merging with the National Basketball League (NBL), which had begun play in the 1937-38 season. ^[5] The Basketball Reference website indicates that the NBA is a continuation of the BAA, ^[6] with the NBL playing its final season in 1948-49. ^[7]

In the 1949-50 season, the first season it was known as the NBA, the league consisted of 17 teams. These included:

• 10 of the 12 teams that played in the BAA the prior season, though 3 of these teams had moved from the NBL the as noted above
• 6 of the 10 teams that played the prior season in the NBL
• 1 newly established team, the Indianapolis Olympians.^[8]

The newly-named league retained as president the president of the BAA, Maurice Podoloff ^{[9] [10]} , and is considered to be a continuation of the BAA. Teams that moved from the NBL at this time are considered to have joined the NBA at this time, while the teams that had been in the BAA the previous season are considered to have joined the NBA in the year that they joined the BAA.

In its fifth season (1950-51), the NBA was reduced from 17 to 11 teams: 5 former BAA teams, 3 former NBL teams that had moved to the BAA in 1948, 2 former NBL teams that had joined when the BAA and NBL merged in 1949, and the Olympians. ^[11] Of these 11 franchises, 8 still exist, as shown below.

• Three of the original BAA franchises:
  • Boston Celtics^[12]
  • New York Knicks^[13]
  • Philadelphia Warriors (the current Golden State Warriors)^[14]

• Three of the franchises that had moved from the NBL to the BAA in 1948:
  • Fort Wayne Pistons (the current Detroit Pistons)^[15]
  • Minneapolis Lakers (the current Los Angeles Lakers)^[16]
  • Rochester Royals (the current Sacramento Kings)^[17]

• Two NBL franchises that had become NBA teams in the 1949 merger:
  • Syracuse Nationals (the current Philadelphia 76ers)^[18]
  • Tri-Cities Blackhawks (the current Atlanta Hawks)^[19]

ABA and merger with NBA[edit]

A rival professional league, the American Basketball Association (ABA), began play in the 1967-68 season. Following its final season in 1975-76, the ABA folded and the following four ABA franchises became NBA teams: ^[20]

• New York Nets (the current Brooklyn Nets)
• Denver Nuggets
• Indiana Pacers
• San Antonio Spurs

Notable rule changes[edit]

Foul limits[edit]

Starting with the league's second season (1947-48), a player becomes disqualified from further play in a game upon being charged with his sixth personal foul. Previously, players were disqualified when reaching five fouls. ^[21]

Starting with the 1954-55 season, a limit on the fouls committed by a team in each quarter of a game was in place. ^[22]

The shot clock[edit]

The shot clock was adopted starting with the 1954-55 season. Whenever a team gains possession of the ball, a 24-second clock, counting down, indicates how much time is left before the team must attempt a field goal or lose possession. ^[23]

The three-point field goal[edit]

The three-point field goal was adopted by the NBA at the start of the 1979-80 season. ^[24] Field goals made when the shooter was behind the designated three-point line were now worth three points, rather than the normal two. While new to the NBA, three-pointers had been used previously in the ABA.

For most of the time the NBA has had a three-point line, it has been in the form of a partial circular arc of radius 23 feet, 9 inches that is centered on a spot directly below the basket, as well as two straight lines that are parallel to the sidelines and a distance of 22 feet from the same spot.

For three seasons (1994-95 through 1996-1997), the NBA shortened the distance between the basket and the three-point line by making the line an arc of radius 22 feet in every direction. ^[25] For the 1997-98 season, the three-point line was moved back to its original distance.

League structure and playoffs[edit]

Currently, the NBA teams are subdivided into two conferences (Eastern and Western) of 15 teams each, and each conference is subdivided into three divisions of 5 teams each. The names of the divisions are:

• Eastern Conference: Atlantic, Central, and Southeast
• Western Conference: Northwest, Pacific, and Southwest

The playoffs include 8 teams from each conference. Within each conference, the 8 teams are determined as follows.

• The teams with the six best regular-season win-loss records
• Two additional teams, determined from a "play-in" tournament among the 4 teams with the 7th-through-10th best regular-season win-loss records.

There are four playoff rounds, with each playoff series following a best-of-seven format. The first three rounds are played within each conference and determine the two conference champions. For the final round, the series, referred to as "the finals," is played between the two conference champions.

Play-in tournament[edit]

The play-in tournament, started in 2021, is not considered part of either the regular season or the playoffs. Teams in positions 7 through 10 within each conference, as determined by regular-season records, qualify. The format is as follows:

• The teams in positions 7 and 8 play a single game on the home court of the position-7 team. The winner of the game becomes the playoff 7-seed in that team's conference.
• Similarly, the teams in positions 9 and 10 play a single game on the home court of the position-9 team. The loser of the game is eliminated from playoff consideration.
• Finally, the loser of the 7-vs-8 game plays the winner of the 9-vs-10 game in a single game. The game is on the home court of the team in position 7 or 8. The winner becomes the playoff 8-seed in that team's conference.

While not following the more common "first versus worst" seeding format used in many tournaments, its structure does provide an increased advantage to higher-placed teams. To qualify for the playoffs, teams 7 and 8 need only win one game, of a maximum of two, with team 7 enjoying a home-court advantage in each game. Teams 9 and 10 must win two games to qualify, with team 10 playing both its games on the road.

The play-in tournament was designed to increase the importance that teams place on winning games toward the end of the regular season. In seasons prior to the tournament, only teams near positions 8 and 9 in the conference standings were motivated to win in order to make the playoffs. Teams that were eliminated from the playoffs before the season ended had an incentive to lose games in order to increase their likelihood of getting the first pick in the upcoming player draft, or at least to get a higher pick in the draft.

With the tournament in place, teams near positions 6 through 11 are more motivated to win games near the end of the regular season. While not completely eliminating the incentive for lower-placed teams to "tank," this incentive is present for fewer teams than if there were no play-in.

Notes[edit]