The NBA conference finals are the Eastern and Western Conference championship series of the National Basketball Association (NBA), a major professional basketball league in North America. The NBA was founded in 1946 as the Basketball Association of America (BAA).[1] The NBA adopted its current name at the start of the 1949–50 season when the BAA merged with the National Basketball League (NBL).[2] The league currently consists of 30 teams, of which 29 are located in the United States and 1 in Canada. Each team plays 82 games in the regular season.[A] After the regular season, eight teams from each of the league's two conferences qualify for the playoffs. At the end of the playoffs, the top two teams play each other in the conference finals, to determine the conference champions from each side, who then proceed to play in the NBA Finals. Trophies were given to each conference winner starting in 2001. In 2022, the league started naming an NBA Conference Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP) for each conference.[3]
Overview
editInitially, the BAA teams were aligned into the Eastern Division and the Western Division. The Divisional Finals were first played in 1949, the league's third season. The first two seasons used a playoffs format where Eastern and Western Division teams would face each other before the BAA Finals. Hence, there were no divisional finals. In the 1949–50 season, the league realigned itself to three divisions, with the addition of the Central Division. However, the arrangement was only used for one season, and the league returned to the two-division format in 1951. The two divisions' format remained until 1970 when the NBA realigned itself into two conferences with two divisions each, which led to the renaming to conference finals.
The finals were a best-of-3 series from 1949 to 1950, a best-of-5 series from 1951 to 1956, and a best-of-7 series since 1957. The conference finals are currently played in a best-of-7 series like the NBA playoffs and Finals. The two series are played in late May each year after the first and second rounds of the Playoffs and before the Finals. After the conference finals, winners are presented with a silver trophy, caps, and T-shirts and advance to the NBA Finals.
The Los Angeles Lakers have won the most conference titles with 19. They have also made 24 appearances in the conference finals, more than any other team, which included eight consecutive appearances in the Western Conference finals from 1982 to 1989. The Boston Celtics have won 11 conference championships, the second most of any team. 23 of the 30 active franchises have won at least one conference title. The Minnesota Timberwolves, Atlanta Hawks, Sacramento Kings, Memphis Grizzlies and Los Angeles Clippers have each played in at least one conference finals, but have failed to win their respective conference title. Two other franchises, the Charlotte Hornets and New Orleans Pelicans, have never appeared in the conference finals.
Conference trophies
editThe NBA first awarded conference championship trophies in 2001.[4] In 2022, both were redesigned, and named the Bob Cousy Trophy for the Eastern Conference and the Oscar Robertson Trophy for the Western Conference, in honor of two men who were instrumental in developing and advancing the players' labor union, the National Basketball Players Association. The two redesigned trophies each feature a silver basketball with its respective conference finals logo on the underside. The trophies also have a slightly different base for each conference to help distinguish one from the other; the silver basketball on the Eastern Conference trophy sits on three pegs, while the Western Conference trophy has the basketball on intercrossing circular rings. The silver basketball is quartered into four sections, representing the winning team first qualifying for the playoffs and then advancing through the three playoff rounds. In that same year, the NBA began awarding Conference Finals MVPs to the best-performing player of each Conference Finals: the Larry Bird Eastern Conference Finals Most Valuable Player Award and the Magic Johnson Western Conference Finals Most Valuable Player Award, named for the two players credited for building the league up to greater popularity in the 1980s. The MVP trophies follow a design similar to that of the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP trophy, only smaller, and the ball on each trophy is silver, instead of gold, and follows the Conference Championship trophies in how it sits on the base.[5]
Key
edit| NBA champion, winner of the NBA Finals | |
| † | Team with the best regular season record, or tie for best |
Conference
editEastern Conference finals
editWestern Conference finals
editResults by team
editStats updated through May 30, 2024
Total number of appearances
editYears of appearance
editIn the sortable table below, teams are ordered first by number of appearances, then by number of wins, and finally by year of first appearance. In the "Season(s)" column, bold years indicate winning conference finals appearances.
See also
edit
Notes
edit- ^ Exceptions include the 1998–99 season, which was shortened to 50 games due to a lockout, the 2011–12 season, shortened to 66 games due to another lockout, the 2019–20 season, shortened to between 63 and 75 games due to the season's suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2020–21 season, shortened to 72 games, also due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
References
edit- ^ Goldaper, Sam. "The First Game". NBA History: NBA Encyclopedia Playoff Edition. NBA Media Ventures (NBA.com). Archived from the original on September 7, 2012. Retrieved August 5, 2010.
- ^ "1949–50 Season Overview: Powerful Lakers Repeat". NBA History: NBA Encyclopedia Playoff Edition. NBA Media Ventures (NBA.com). Retrieved August 5, 2010.
- ^ Feldman, Dan (May 12, 2022). "NBA to name conference finals MVPs". NBC Sports. Retrieved May 27, 2022.
- ^ "NBA redesigns Finals trophy, adds awards named after Magic Johnson, Larry Bird". Washington Post. May 12, 2022.
To complete the postseason collection, the NBA updated its conference championship trophies, first created in 2001
- ^ "NBA introduces new lineup of postseason hardware". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Retrieved May 12, 2022.
External links
edit- NBA History at NBA.com
- NBA and ABA Playoff Index (includes BAA) at Basketball-Reference.com