NBA, the acronym for National Basketball Association is basketball’s governing body in America. NBA, founded in 1946, is USA’s foremost men’s basketball team. Among the four major North American sports leagues, NBA is one. The USA Basketball (USAB), which is the National Governing Body of Basketball in United States, considers NBA as its active member.

NBA came into being on June 6 1946 in New York. Its former name was the Basketball Association of America (BAA). In the autumn of 1946, after collaborating with the rival, National Basketball League, the league adopted the name of National Basketball Association. Its head office is located in the Olympic Tower in New York. NBA’s television partners are ABC, ESPN, TNT and FOX Sports Net.

When NBA was founded, it had 11 teams in it. With the passage of time the team sequence expanded. Now NBA comprises of 30 teams namely; Atlanta Hawks, Chicago Bulls, Detroit Pistons, Boston Celtics, New Orleans Hornets, Charlotte Bobcats, LA Clippers, LA Lakers, Dallas Mavericks, Indiana Pacers, Toronto Raptors, Portland Trail Blazers,Sacramento Kings, New Jersy Nets, Dunver Nuggets, New York Knicks, Cleveland Cavaliers, Golden State Warriors, Seattle Super Sonics, Minnesota Timberwolves, Philadilphia 76ers, Houstons Rockets, Phoenix Suns, Milaukee Bucks, Memphis Grizzlies, Utah Jazz, Miami Heat, Washington Wizards and San Antonio Spurs.

After the summer break, the teams hold their training camp in October. The training camp enables the coaching staff to evaluate the players, to gauge their potentials, detect their strengths and weaknesses and to prepare them for much harder season of regular games. Here it is also determined the 12-man active roster and 3-man inactive roster with which they will begin the regular gaming season. A series of preseason exhibition games is held after the training camo finishes. And so NBA regular season begins in the first weak of November. Each team plays 82 games in the regular season. These games are evenly divided in home and away. After the recent changes in the National Hokey League’s schedule, NBA is the only major league in North America in which each team plays every other team in a regula season. Game MVP Award is given to the player who shows the best performance during the regular season. In Feburaray the annual All Star Game is celebrated. Fans from America and canada vote for their favourite players through internet. Top vote-getters get the prime positions at the All Star Team. Then the coaches vote and choose the remaining 14- All Star. The All Star game break includes Rookie Challenge Game, Skills Challenge, Three Point Contest and the NBA Slam Dunk Contest. The other attraction have varios names which include the names of the different sponsors. Immediately after All Star’s break, there comes the league’s dead line. After this dead line teams cease to exchange any player during the rest of the season. The regular season ends around the end of April. During the end of the regular season, voting begins for the individual awards. These awards include Sixth Man of the Year award, Rookie of the year award, Most Improved Player award, Defensive Player of The Year award, Coach of the Year award, Valuable Player of The Year award, The Sporting News of The Year award, J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship award and The Executive award.

NBA Playoffs start in the late April in which eight teams in each conference qualify for the playoffs. The top four seeds are given to the three division winners along with the team with the nwxt best record from the conference. The lower four seeds are given to the next four teams in the terms of record. There are several advantages of having higher four seeds. Because the first seed plays with the eighth seed. Similarly the second seed plays with the seventh and the third with the sixth. If a team has a higher seed it means that it is going to play with the weaker team. The other advantage is that the team with a better record hhas home court including the First Round. The Playoffs follow the for mat of a tournament. Each team plays in a best-of-seven-series with a rival. The first team which wins four games enters into the next round, while the other team is eliminated from the playoffs. The successful team plays with the other advancing team of the same conference in the next round. In each round, execpt the NBA Finals, the best-of-seven-series follows 2-2-1-1-1 pattern. It means that one team will have the home court in games 2,4 and 5 and the other team will have the home court in games 1,3 and 6.

Every year NBA produces a NBA Champion. According to the statistics the championship leaders are Boston Celtics (16 Championships), LA Lakers (14 Championships), Chicago Bulls (6 Championships), San Antonio Spurs (4 Championships), Golden State Warriors (3 Championships), Philadalphia 76ers (3 Championships), Detriot Pistons (3 Championships), New York Knicks (2 Championships), Houstan Rockets (2 Championships), Baltimore Bullets (1 Championship), Sacramento Kings (1 Championship), Atlanta Hawks (1 Championship), Milaukee Bucks (1 Championship), Portland Trail Blazers (1 Championship), Washington Wizards (1 Championship), Seattle Super Sonics (1 Championship) and Miami Heat (1 Championship).

The 50 great players in the history of NBA are Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Nate Archibald, Paul Arizin, Charles Barkley, Rick Barry, Elgin Baylor, Dave Bing, Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlain, Bob Cousy, Dave Cowens, Billy Cunningham, Dave DeBusschere, Clyde Drexler, Julius Erving, Patrick Ewing, Walt Frazier, George Gervin, Hal Greer, John Havlicek, Elvin Hayes, Magic Johnson, Sam Jones, Michael Jordan, Jerry Lucas, Karl Malone, Moses Malone, Pete Maravich, Kevin McHale, George Mikan, Earl Monroe, Hakeem Olajuwon, Shaquille O'Neal, Robert Parish, Bob Pettit, Scottie Pippen, Willis Reed, Oscar Robertson, David Robinson ,Bill Russell, Dolph Schayes, Bill Sharman, John Stockton, Isiah Thomas, Nate Thurmond, Wes Unseld, Bill Walton, Jerry West, Lenny Wilkens and James Worthy.