All Rights Reserved. During the regular season, each team plays 82 games, 41 each home and away. Although Denver won its much weaker division, the Clippers had home-court advantage and won the series in 5. [33][34] Hakeem Olajuwon won back-to-back titles with the Houston Rockets in 1994 and 1995. Because the NAB represents the interests of free over-the-air broadcasters, it has sought to protect the industry from the inroads made by cable and satellite television. By the 1948-49 season, the BAA had begun to attract some of the country’s best players, and four NBL franchises—Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Minneapolis and Rochester—moved to the BAA, bringing their star players with them. [50] After the first few weeks of the season were canceled, the players and owners ratified a new collective bargaining agreement on December 8, 2011, setting up a shortened 66-game season. The Miami Heat, led by their star shooting guard, Dwyane Wade, and Shaquille O'Neal, who had been traded from the Lakers during summer 2004, won the series over the Dallas Mavericks. Through this period, the NBA continued to evolve with the shift of the Minneapolis Lakers to Los Angeles, the Philadelphia Warriors to San Francisco, the Syracuse Nationals to Philadelphia to become the Philadelphia 76ers, and the St. Louis Hawks moving to Atlanta, as well as the addition of its first expansion franchises. Current teams that have no NBA Finals appearances: As one of the major sports leagues in North America, the NBA has a long history of partnerships with television networks in the United States. The 2008 Finals saw a rematch of the league's highest profile rivalry, the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers, with the Celtics winning, for their 17th championship. The NBA's regular season runs from October to April, with each team playing 82 games. The Warriors won the 2017 and 2018 Finals against the Cavaliers. [90] Games played on this day have featured some of the best teams and players. The leagues engaged in a bidding war. Winners of the National Basketball Association championship are provided in the table. [88] The league has been playing games regularly on the holiday since 1947,[89] though the first Christmas Day games were not televised until 1983–84. Aside from Lobbying and bringing legal actions, the NAB provides members with other benefits. It is during this time that voting begins for individual awards, as well as the selection of the honorary, league-wide, post-season teams. Russell's rivalry with Chamberlain became one of the greatest rivalries in the history of American team sports. 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. From 2005 to 2008, the NBA had the distinction of being the only one of the four major leagues in which all teams play every other team. The league added the ABA's three-point field goal beginning in 1979. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). [74] According to an independent study by Ronald Beech of Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Sacramento Kings, although the refs increased the Lakers' chances of winning through foul calls during the game, there was no collusion to fix the game. ), Donald Sterling, who was then-owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, received a lifetime ban from the NBA on April 29, 2014 after racist remarks he made became public. The NAB seeks to maintain a favorable legal, governmental, and technological climate for free over-the-air broadcasting. The resulting company was subsequently renamed National Australia Bank Limited. Introduction National Australia Bank (NAB) was founded in 1982 by the merger of National bank of Australia and the Commercial banking company of Sydney. It now reckons the arrival of the NBL teams as an expansion, not a merger, and does not recognize NBL records and statistics. Therefore, the team with the best regular season record in the league is guaranteed home court advantage in every series it plays. He led the team to their second Finals appearance with the help of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. Before the league changed its playoff determination format for the 2006–07 season, this meant that, for example, if the team that received the sixth seed had a better record than the team with the third seed (by virtue of a divisional championship), the sixth seed would have home court advantage, even though the other team had a higher seed. [citation needed], In 2020, ticket prices for the NBA All Star Game became more expensive than ever before, averaging around $2,600, and even more on the secondary market. This means that: The league has a global social responsibility program, NBA Cares, that is responsible for the league's stated mission of addressing important social issues worldwide. The Lakers/Spurs dominance continued in 2007 with a four-game sweep by the Spurs over the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers. [21] 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. He remained the only non-white player in league history prior to the first African-American, Harold Hunter, signing with the Washington Capitols in 1950. Opens Its 20th Season, Key Figures Recall the First Game", "BASKETBALL; It's Their Ball, and N.B.A. [14] To encourage shooting and discourage stalling, the league introduced the 24-second shot clock in 1954. Finally, each team plays all the teams in the other conference twice apiece (30 games). From 1966 to 1968, the league expanded from 9 to 14 teams, introducing the Chicago Bulls, Seattle SuperSonics (now Oklahoma City Thunder), San Diego Rockets (who moved to Houston four years later), Milwaukee Bucks, and Phoenix Suns. After the breakup of the Chicago Bulls championship roster in the summer of 1998, the Western Conference has dominated. The Hornets temporarily moved to Oklahoma City in 2005 for two seasons because of damage caused by Hurricane Katrina. [33][34] Hakeem Olajuwon won back-to-back titles with the Houston Rockets in 1994 and 1995. ", "The NFL Isn't the Only Divisive Sport in America", "Every NBA Team's Biggest Conspiracy Or Controversy", "The NBA Spurs Controversy Is a Controversy Over the Purpose of Sports", "The Darkest Moments in the History of the NBA", "Leandro Barbosa Makes NBA History as Golden State Warriors Defeat Cleveland Cavaliers in Finals", "NBA Cares, coaches clinic to take place ahead of weekend matches", NBA & ABA Basketball Statistics & History, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=National_Basketball_Association&oldid=984419827, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Cameroonian Joel Embiid (NBA All-Rookie First Team, 2 time All-Defensive Second Team, 2 time All-Star), Players born in U.S. possessions such as Puerto Rico and the, U.S.-born players are not counted as "international" even if they were born with citizenship in another country and represent that country internationally, such as, The league also has an official English-language website with a, This page was last edited on 20 October 2020, at 00:49. [22] In the 10 seasons of the 1980s, Johnson led the Lakers to five titles[23] while Bird led the Celtics to three titles. Some of the biggest stars of this era were Abdul-Jabbar, Barry, Dave Cowens, Erving, Elvin Hayes, Walt Frazier, Moses Malone, Artis Gilmore, George Gervin, Dan Issel, and Pete Maravich. The Rochester Royals moved from Rochester, New York, to Cincinnati in 1957 and the Pistons moved from Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Detroit in 1957. ", "The NFL Isn't the Only Divisive Sport in America", "Every NBA Team's Biggest Conspiracy Or Controversy", "The NBA Spurs Controversy Is a Controversy Over the Purpose of Sports", "The Darkest Moments in the History of the NBA", "Leandro Barbosa Makes NBA History as Golden State Warriors Defeat Cleveland Cavaliers in Finals", "NBA Cares, coaches clinic to take place ahead of weekend matches", NBA & ABA Basketball Statistics & History, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=National_Basketball_Association&oldid=984419827, Professional sports leagues in the United States, Multi-national professional sports leagues, Wikipedia pages semi-protected against vandalism, Wikipedia indefinitely move-protected pages, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2019, Articles slanted towards recent events from July 2020, Articles needing additional references from August 2020, All articles needing additional references, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2019, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2020, Official website different in Wikidata and Wikipedia, Wikipedia articles with CANTIC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with MusicBrainz identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Cameroonian Joel Embiid (NBA All-Rookie First Team, 2 time All-Defensive Second Team, 2 time All-Star), Players born in U.S. possessions such as Puerto Rico and the, U.S.-born players are not counted as "international" even if they were born with citizenship in another country and represent that country internationally, such as, The league also has an official English-language website with a, This page was last edited on 20 October 2020, at 00:49.