The National Basketball Association is the world’s premier professional basketball league. It features 30 American and 1 Canadian teams competing for the championship each year. Organising a league with 30 teams, dozens of locations and millions of fans is no easy task. But the NBA does an excellent job at facilitating basketball across North America.
The NBA’s official website offers a number of tools for fans. These include team and player stats, video highlights, game schedules, and other information. The league also broadcasts games on television and in movie theaters. It is available in more than 200 countries and territories, in more than 50 languages.
Founded in 1946, the NBA was originally called the Basketball Association of America (BAA). It merged with the National Basketball League (NBL) in 1949. Its headquarters are located in New York City. The organization has offices worldwide, including Los Angeles and London.
NBA teams are split into two 15-team conferences each with three divisions of five teams. Each team plays the other teams in their conference twice during the regular season. Depending on their record, each team may play as few as 30 games or as many as 56 during the regular season.
In addition to the regular season, there are the playoffs. The top eight teams in each conference qualify for the playoffs. The higher-seeded team has home-court advantage throughout the first round of the playoffs.
The Finals are a best-of-seven series between the winners of each conference. The winner of the Finals is awarded the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy. The team’s coach and general manager receive a Bill Russell NBA Championship Ring, and each player on the winning team is given the Bill Russell Most Valuable Player Award.
The NBA has several other rules that help ensure the fairness of a game. For example, a player is not allowed to touch an opposing player during a defensive possession. Moreover, the ball must be dead on the sidelines and in a player’s control to be legally replaced during a timeout.
In order to play in the NBA, players must be at least 19 years old and have completed one year of secondary or high school. In order to qualify for the draft, a person must complete an application. The league also reserves the right to refuse to sign a player who has committed certain offenses. In the past, this has included a number of drug-related offenses and sexual assault allegations. However, the NBA has made some changes to its rules in recent years. These include lowering the shot clock to 24 seconds and changing when the clock resets from when the ball touches the rim of the basket. These changes have improved the game’s flow and excitement. In addition, the NBA has introduced instant replay for a variety of situations, including illegal contact and traveling violations. These changes have helped to improve the quality of the game and increased its popularity around the globe.