The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada and is considered the premier basketball league in the world. The league is headquartered in New York City and Secaucus, New Jersey.NBA Office Locations
The NBA was created on August 3, 1949, with the merger of the Basketball Association of America (BAA) and the National Basketball League (NBL). The league later adopted the BAA's history and considers its founding on June 6, 1946, as its own. In 1976, the NBA and the American Basketball Association (ABA) merged, adding four franchises to the NBA. The NBA's regular season runs from October to April, with each team playing 82 games. The league's playoff tournament extends into June, culminating with the NBA Finals championship series.
The NBA is a member of USA Basketball (USAB), which is recognized by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) as the governing body for basketball in the United States. The NBA is the second-wealthiest professional sports league in the world by revenue after the National Football League (NFL). , NBA players are the world's highest paid athletes by average annual salary per player. In 1996, the NBA created a women's league, the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The NBA also operates the NBA G League, NBA 2K League, and the Basketball Africa League.
The Boston Celtics have the most NBA championships with 18, winning most recently in 2024. The New York Knicks are the reigning league champions, having defeated the San Antonio Spurs in the 2026 NBA Finals.
History
Creation and BAA–NBL merger (1946–1956)
The NBA began as the Basketball Association of America (BAA), which was founded in 1946 by owners of the major ice hockey arenas in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States and Canada. On November 1, 1946, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the Toronto Huskies hosted the New York Knickerbockers at Maple Leaf Gardens, in a game the league now calls the first game played in NBA history. The first basket was made by Ossie Schectman of the Knickerbockers.
Although there had been earlier attempts at professional basketball leagues, including the American Basketball League (ABL) and the National Basketball League (NBL), the BAA was the first league to attempt to play primarily in large arenas in major cities. During its early years, the quality of play in the BAA was not significantly better than in competing leagues or among leading independent clubs such as the Harlem Globetrotters. For instance, the 1947 ABL finalist Baltimore Bullets moved to the BAA and won that league's 1948 title, and the 1948 NBL champion Minneapolis Lakers won the 1949 BAA title.
Before the 1948–49 season, the BAA lured away several NBL teams—the Fort Wayne Pistons, Indianapolis Kautskys, Minneapolis Lakers, and Rochester Royals—with the prospect of playing in major venues such as Boston Garden and Madison Square Garden. The NBL hit back by outbidding the BAA for the services of several players, including Al Cervi, rookie Dolph Schayes and five stars from the University of Kentucky, while also gaining the upper hand in Indianapolis with the creation of the Indianapolis Olympians while the Kautskys folded. With several teams facing financial difficulties, the BAA and the NBL agreed to merge on August 3, 1949, to create the National Basketball Association. BAA president Maurice Podoloff became the president of the NBA while NBL chairman Ike Duffey became the chairman. The NBA later adopted the BAA's history and statistics as its own but did not do the same for NBL records and statistics.
The new league had 17 franchises located in a mix of large and small cities, as well as large arenas and smaller gymnasiums and armories. In 1950, the NBA consolidated to 11 franchises, then in 1954–55 shrank to eight: the New York Knicks, Boston Celtics, Philadelphia Warriors, Minneapolis Lakers, Rochester Royals, Fort Wayne Pistons, Milwaukee Hawks, and Syracuse Nationals. All of these teams remain in the league today, albeit the latter six in new cities. During the contraction, the league's smaller-city franchises moved to larger cities. The Hawks shifted from the Tri-Cities to Milwaukee in 1951, then to St. Louis in 1955. In 1957, the Rochester Royals moved from Rochester, New York, to Cincinnati and the Pistons moved from Fort Wayne, Indiana, to Detroit.
Japanese-American Wataru Misaka is considered to have broken the NBA color barrier in the 1947–48 season, when he played for the New York Knicks in the BAA. He remained the league's only non-white player until the first African-American, Harold Hunter, signed with the Washington Capitols in 1950. Hunter was cut from the team during training camp, but several other African Americans played in the league later that year, including Chuck Cooper with the Celtics, Nathaniel "Sweetwater" Clifton with the Knicks, and Earl Lloyd with the Washington Capitols. During this period, the Minneapolis Lakers won five NBA championships and established themselves as the league's first dynasty; their squad was led by center George Mikan, the NBA's first superstar. In 1954, the league introduced the 24-second shot clock to encourage shooting and discourage stalling.
Celtics' dominance, league expansion and competition (1956–1979) In 1957, rookie center Bill Russell joined the Boston Celtics, which already had guard Bob Cousy and coach Red Auerbach, and went on to lead the franchise to 11 NBA titles in thirteen seasons. Center Wilt Chamberlain entered the league with the Warriors in 1959 and became a star of the 1960s, setting single-game records in scoring (100) and rebounding (55). Russell's rivalry with Chamberlain became one of the greatest rivalries in the history of American team sports.
The 1960s were dominated by the Celtics. Led by Russell, Cousy, and Auerbach, Boston won eight straight championships from 1959 to 1966—the longest championship streak in American professional sports. They did not win the title in 1966–67, but regained it in the 1967–68 season and repeated in 1969, earning nine of the decade's championship banners.
Through this period, the NBA continued to evolve with the shift of the Minneapolis Lakers to Los Angeles, the Philadelphia Warriors to San Francisco, the Syracuse Nationals to Philadelphia to become the Philadelphia 76ers, and the St. Louis Hawks moving to Atlanta, as well as the addition of its first expansion franchises. The Chicago Packers (now Washington Wizards) became the ninth NBA team in 1961. From 1966 to 1968, the league expanded from 9 to 14 teams, introducing the Chicago Bulls, Seattle SuperSonics (now Oklahoma City Thunder), San Diego Rockets (who moved to Houston four years later), Milwaukee Bucks, and Phoenix Suns.
In 1967, the league faced a new external threat with the formation of the American Basketball Association (ABA). The leagues engaged in a bidding war. The NBA landed the most important college star of the era, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (then known as Lew Alcindor), who went on to become the league's best player of the 1970s. However, the NBA's leading scorer, Rick Barry, jumped to the ABA, as did four veteran referees—Norm Drucker, Earl Strom, John Vanak, and Joe Gushue.
In 1969, Alan Siegel, who oversaw the design of Jerry Dior's Major League Baseball logo the previous year, created the modern NBA logo inspired by the MLB's. It incorporates the silhouette of Jerry West, based on a photo by Wen Roberts. The NBA would not confirm that a particular player was used because, according to Siegel, "They want to institutionalize it rather than individualize it. It's become such a ubiquitous, classic symbol and focal point of their identity and their licensing program that they don't necessarily want to identify it with one player." The logo debuted in 1971 (with a small change to the typeface on the NBA wordmark in 2017) and would remain a fixture of the NBA brand.
The ABA signed a number of major stars in the 1970s, including Julius Erving of the Virginia Squires, in part because it allowed teams to sign college undergraduates. From 1966 to 1974, the NBA grew from nine franchises to 18. In 1970, the Portland Trail Blazers, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Buffalo Braves (now the Los Angeles Clippers) expanded the league to 17. The New Orleans Jazz (now in Utah) came aboard in 1974. After the 1976 season, the leagues reached a settlement that would add four ABA franchises to the NBA—the San Antonio Spurs, Denver Nuggets, Indiana Pacers, and New York Nets (now the Brooklyn Nets)—bringing the number of NBA teams to 22. Some of the biggest stars of this era were Abdul-Jabbar, Barry, Dave Cowens, Erving, Elvin Hayes, Walt Frazier, Moses Malone, Artis Gilmore, George Gervin, Dan Issel, and Pete Maravich. The end of the decade saw declining television ratings, low attendance, and drug-related player issues – both perceived and real – that threatened to derail the league.
Surging popularity and Bulls' dynasty (1979–1998)
The league added the ABA's three-point field goal in 1979. That same year, rookies Larry Bird and Magic Johnson joined the Boston Celtics and Los Angeles Lakers respectively, helping to draw fans to the league. The two had faced each other in the 1979 NCAA Division I Basketball Championship Game, and they later played against each other in three NBA Finals (1984, 1985, and 1987). In the 10 seasons of the 1980s, Johnson led the Lakers to five titles while Bird led the Celtics to three titles. Also in the early 1980s, the NBA added another expansion franchise, the Dallas Mavericks, bringing the league to 23 teams. Later, Bird won the first three three-point shooting contests. On February 1, 1984 David Stern became commissioner of the NBA; he would lead the league to new heights of popularity and profitability.
Michael Jordan entered the league in 1984 with the Chicago Bulls, spurring more interest. In 1988 and 1989, the Charlotte Hornets, Miami Heat, Orlando Magic, and Minnesota Timberwolves made their NBA debuts, bringing the league to 27 teams. The Detroit Pistons won back-to-back NBA championships in 1989 and 1990, led by coach Chuck Daly and guard Isiah Thomas. Jordan and Scottie Pippen led the Bulls to two three-peats in eight years during the 1991–1998 seasons. Hakeem Olajuwon won back-to-back titles with the Houston Rockets in 1994 and 1995.
The 1992 Olympic basketball Dream Team, the first to use current NBA stars, featured Jordan as the anchor, along with Bird, Johnson, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Scottie Pippen, Clyde Drexler, Karl Malone, John Stockton, Chris Mullin, Charles Barkley, and star NCAA amateur Christian Laettner. The team was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, while 11 of the 12 players (along with three out of four coaches) have been inducted as individuals in their own right.
In 1995, the NBA expanded to Canada with the addition of the Vancouver Grizzlies and the Toronto Raptors. In 1996, the NBA created a women's league, the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA).
Lakers' and Spurs' dynasties (1998–2014)
In 1998, the NBA owners began a lockout that suspended all league business until a new labor agreement could be reached, which led to the season being shortened to 50 games.