National Basketball Association (NBA) is the world’s leading men’s professional basketball league. The NBA consists of 30 teams in the United States and Canada. The teams are divided into the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference. Each conference has three divisions of 5 teams each.
NBA teams play an 82-game schedule that begins in late October and runs through mid-April. After the regular season ends, the league holds “play-in” tournaments to determine the last two playoff teams in each conference. A total of eight teams in each conference qualify for the championship playoffs. The conference winners compete for the NBA title.
The league sponsors the NBA Gatorade League (NBA G-League), a minor league. The league was formerly known as the NBA Development League (NBA D-League). The NBA G-League provides experience for players, coaches, and referees hoping for a career in the NBA.
The forerunner of the National Basketball Association was founded in 1946 as the Basketball Association of America (BAA). The NBA was formed in 1949 after the BAA merged with the National Basketball League, another professional league. The 1949 NBA consisted of 17 teams in three divisions, mostly representing the eastern and midwestern United States. In 1960, the Minneapolis Lakers, one of the league’s most successful teams, moved to Los Angeles, giving the NBA teams on both coasts. After eight years of competing with the NBA, the American Basketball Association (ABA) ceased operations in 1975. Four ABA teams were merged into the NBA.
Since the late 1900’s, the NBA has grown in popularity internationally. Many players from other countries have become stars in the NBA. NBA teams have played exhibition games throughout the world.
In March 2020, the NBA suspended its 2019-2020 season because of the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19, a sometimes-fatal respiratory disease, first emerged in China in late 2019. The NBA suspended play on March 11, 2020, after a Utah Jazz player tested positive for the disease. In July, the top 22 teams in league standings resumed play under a shortened schedule to compete for a place in the playoffs. The season, which concluded in October, took place under enhanced safety measures at a sports complex at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida.
The league’s 2020-2021 season began in December 2020 with a shortened, 72-game schedule. The regular season was the first to be followed by 3-game play-in tournaments, featuring teams ranked 7 through 10 in each conference. Teams advancing from the tournaments became the 7th and 8th playoff teams in each conference. In earlier seasons, the eight teams in each conference with the best records had qualified for the championship playoffs. The league later approved the use of play-in tournaments to follow subsequent regular seasons. The NBA returned to an 82-game regular season schedule for the 2021-2022 season.
The league introduced a new tournament called the NBA In-Season Tournament during the 2023-2024 regular season. All the tournament’s games, except for its championship game, count toward a team’s regular season record. The team that wins the tournament’s championship game receives a trophy called the NBA Cup.
