NBA

NBA or National Basketball Association is a men’s professional basketball league in North America. It consists of 30 teams (29 from the United States, and 1 from Canada). Some of the teams are Golden State Warriors, Boston Celtics, Toronto Raptors and Houston Rockets.

A few of the most popular NBA players of all time include LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kobe Bryant.

The teams are divided into Eastern and Western conferences. Eastern conference consists of Atlantic, Central, and Southeast divisions, and the Western conference has Northwest, Pacific, and Southwest divisions.

The NBA is a member of USA Basketball (USAB), which is the national governing body for basketball in the United States. The league’s head office is located in the Olympic Tower in New York.

History

The league was founded in New York City on June 6, 1946, and it was called the Basketball Association of America (BAA).

On November 1, 1946, in Toronto, the Toronto Huskies hosted the New York Knickerbockers at Maple Leaf Gardens, which was the first game in NBA history. At this point, the association had 11 teams.

In 1949 the BAA changed its name to National Basketball Association after merging with the competing National Basketball League (NBL).

In 1951 the first All-Star Game was played in Boston. An All-Star Game is a basketball exhibition game hosted every February, starring the league’s star players.

In 1954, the NBA started using the 24-second shot clock, thereby increasing the team scoring averages.

The league added the three-point field goal beginning in 1979 to open up the game. The distance from the basket to the three-point line in NBA is 23 feet 9 inches (7.24 m).

Nowadays an increasing number of international players have moved from playing elsewhere in the world to starring in the NBA. The 2013–14 season had a record 92 international players which were over 20% of the league.

The Championship

Teams begin their training camps in late September. In these camps, the players are evaluated and prepared for the season. The coaching staff determines the 12-man active roster with which begins the regular season.

During the regular season, each team plays 82 games – 41 home and 41 away.

Around the middle of April, the regular season ends and the voting begins for individual awards like The Rookie of the Year Award and The Defensive Player of the Year Award.

The NBA Playoffs begin in late April, with the top 8 teams of each conference competing for the Championship. The playoffs follow a tournament format where each team plays an opponent in a best-of-seven series, with the best team advancing into the next round. The final playoff round is known as the NBA Finals and is held annually in June.

Interesting facts

NBA players are the world’s best-paid athletes by average annual salary per player.

The NBA is the only major professional sports league in the United States and Canada that regularly schedules games on Christmas Day.

7-foot tall American males have a 17% chance of playing in the NBA.

Within five years of retirement, an estimated 60% of former NBA players are financially broke.

In 2012, the price of a ticket for an NBA game ranged from $10 to $3,000, depending on the location of the seat and the success of the teams that were playing.