nba is a world-class sports league with a long history of game-changing plays and storied rivalries, personal sagas and team dynasties. The NBA is more than a series of games; it’s an organization that seeks to bring people together and build commonality around the sport of basketball.
The NBA consists of 30 teams from across North America and Europe, and its players are some of the most talented and exciting athletes in the world. The teams compete in a regular season and the playoffs to determine the best team in each conference. The best two teams then meet in the Finals to decide the champion of the NBA.
In addition to the regular season and Playoffs, the NBA also hosts several other events during the year: the All-Star game in mid-February (just an exhibition), summer league in July, and pre-season games in October. Pre-season games don’t count in the standings, but they can be a great way for new players to get used to the tempo of the NBA game before the regular season starts.
Each NBA team can have up to 15 players, with 12 active for each game. Each quarter lasts 12 minutes, and each overtime period lasts five minutes. Players are grouped into five playing positions: the tallest player is the center, the second-tallest and strongest is the power forward, the shortest but fastest is the small forward, and the most agile players or ball handlers are the shooting guard and point guard. Each team has a coach, who manages the execution of offensive and defensive plays. The coach may call a limited number of timeouts, which are clock stoppages requested by a team’s coach and generally last no longer than one minute (100 seconds in the NBA) unless, for televised games, a commercial break is needed.
Once the regular season ends, the top eight teams in each conference qualify for the Playoffs. Those eight teams are then seeded, with the first-seeded team playing the eighth-seeded team (1 vs. 8). The higher the seed, the more advantages a team has in a playoff matchup – for example, home court advantage.
Every spring, the NBA holds a draft lottery to determine which team gets first pick in the Draft. The other 14 teams choose in reverse order of their regular season finish, so that the team with the worst record chooses last. The NBA also allows teams to move up and down the draft order through trades. Some of the most famous NBA players include George Mikan, the first dominating “big man”; legendary all-around stars Bill Russell and Oscar Robertson; ball-handling wizards Isiah Thomas and Steve Nash; crowd-pleasing centers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain, Shaquille O’Neal and Hakeem Olajuwon; European superstars Dirk Nowitzki, Pau Gasol and Tony Parker; and star shooting guards Kobe Bryant and Stephen Curry.