The National Basketball Association is a professional men’s basketball league based in North America. It consists of 30 teams and is one of the premier professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada. The league features the best basketball players from around the world. In addition to being an extremely popular sport, it has earned a reputation for being highly competitive.
Each year, the NBA plays host to the NBA Playoffs. These playoffs feature the top eight teams in each conference. The winner of the playoff series receives the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy. Major contributors to the finals also receive championship rings. The MVP of the Finals is awarded to the player who has the most valuable contribution to his team’s success.
The playoffs begin with a play-in tournament following the regular season. The seventy-eighth seed in each conference will play the eighth-seed of the other conference in a game referred to as a “Seven-Eight Game.” The winner will receive the eighth-seed, which will determine the seeding in the Playoffs.
The NBA continues to evolve throughout the decades. During the 1950s, the league was comprised of seventeen franchises. Some were located in large arenas, while others were located in smaller gymnasiums. The league’s composition began to change when the New York Knicks and New York Nets joined the league. In the early 1960s, the NBA expanded to fourteen teams. In 1967, the Los Angeles Lakers and Chicago Bulls moved to larger cities and won their first championships.
The NBA has been evaluating the availability of arenas. Increasing the number of teams will help the league increase its revenue. Currently, NBA teams are rarely sold off, but in the last decade, the average price of a team has tripled. The NBA has taken steps to reduce the number of nights and weeks in which a team plays a game.
The playoffs start in April, after the regular season. The playoffs pit the top eight teams against each other in a battle for the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy. Each team plays 82 games in the regular season, and the playoffs run into June. It is the most lucrative sport in the world, and it pays its players well.
The NBA’s Global Innovation Group is an in-house strategy team that develops long-term growth initiatives in the league. The group works to develop a culture of innovation and equip NBA departments with the necessary skills to be successful in this arena. It also advises the NBA Senior Leadership Team on strategic direction.
The NBA is played on 50-foot basketball courts with rims hanging 10 feet from the floor. The arc extends from 23 feet 9 inches at the basket to 22 feet at the baselines. One of the most popular shots in the league is the corner 3-pointer.