NBA

While the National Football League and NASCAR racing are increasingly popular sports in the United States, there is no bigger professional league worldwide than the National Basketball Association. The National Basketball Association, or NBA, has had franchises in Toronto and Vancouver, plays preseason games in Latin America and Europe, and has increased the amount of foreign players on rosters every year over the last decade. With increasing appeal among young basketball players across the world, the NBA has created a worldwide sports empire.

However, the NBA has not forgotten its roots in the United States. The league’s commissioner, David Stern, has mused that the NBA may expand to include more international teams. However, the fact that all but one of the league’s teams remains in the continental United States shows how strong the league is in America. As well, the NBA has worked with minor league and college basketball to develop a smooth process for young basketball players with great potential get the attention they need to have successful careers. The NBA also does a lot of work in the thirty-two host cities of its franchises, building a strong relation with the community that makes it possible for the league and individual teams exist.

While names like Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, and Michael Jordan have become synonymous with a golden age in NBA basketball, there is a new generation of superstars that kids are beginning to idolize. Kobe Bryant and LeBron James arguably are the best players in the league, though Tim Duncan and Dirk Nowitzki can be thrown in that mix. The fact that each generation of NBA fans has a select group of superstars to watch and celebrate shows how reliable the league is as a source of sports entertainment.

For those uninitiated to the NBA game who have watched high school and college basketball, there are a few important basics to the NBA version of basketball. The NBA game features four 12 minute quarters, unlike the two halves time keeping of the high school and college game. In this way, NBA coaches have to manage their personnel more efficiently and compartmentalize their game plan. As well, the quarters system in the NBA means that there are more television and end of period time outs for players to rest up. With such high competition to win in the NBA, players need every break they can get.

One of the most important distinctions between the NBA and other leagues is the 24 second shot clock. On each possession, a player must get the ball to contact the rim within 24 seconds in order to reset the clock. The NBA implemented this clock three decades ago in order to ensure that the game moved along at a quick pace. The shot clock requires that offenses get into their sets quickly, pass the ball a few times, and then get a shot off before the clock expires. In this way, the NBA requires teams to stay active and moving on each positions, regardless of score.

Finally, the implementation of the three point shot in the NBA in the 1980s changed the game in a very fundamental way. Every league and level now has the three point shot, but in no league did the ability to get three points on a possession make more of an impact. As teams got used to the three point line as part of the balance of the basketball court, NBA general managers signed three point specialists like Mark Price, Steve Kerr, and Sam Perkins to hit clutch three point shots in tight games. As well, the ability to pull up on the fast break and shoot the three created a new weapon for NBA offenses.

The National Basketball Association is divided into two conferences and six divisions in total. The Eastern and Western Conferences are divided in geographical areas, with the lone exception of the New Orleans Hornets playing in the Western Conference. The Hornets, formerly the Charlotte Hornets, were added to the Western Conference to balance the NBA when the Charlotte Bobcats entered the league in the Eastern Conference. Nonetheless, the geographic balance of the NBA’s conferences has been a model for the NFL to make a similar change in their division system.

Within the Eastern Conference, the three divisions are the Atlantic, Southeast, and Central, with five teams playing within each division. The geographic division of the conferences is reflected well in the Eastern Conference divisions, though the Southeast Division features the Washington Wizards among teams like the Orlando Magic and the Miami Heat. However, the Central Division includes the traditionally Midwestern teams like the Chicago Bulls and the Indiana Pacers. As well, the Atlantic Division features NBA powerhouses like the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks.

The Western Conference also features three divisions, including the five teams in the Southwest, Northwest, and Pacific divisions. While the New Orleans Hornets would not normally fit into the traditional American West, the 2005-2006 NBA season saw the Hornets move to Oklahoma City during the recovery from Hurricane Katrina. However, the rest of the Western Conference teams are fit nicely into regional divisions. The Northwest Division features the Seattle Supersonics and the Portland Trailblazers, while the Pacific Division features the Sacramento Kings, the Golden State Warriors, and the Los Angeles Clippers.

The NBA season begins in October with every team working in training camp to find their final roster of twelve players and get conditioned for the regular season. The NBA preseason gives NBA coaches and general managers an opportunity not only to assess their own talent but look at promising young players on other teams that may be available in free agency or by trade. Following the preseason, NBA coaches determine their fifteen man roster, including three players that are on the inactive list.

The NBA regular season starts in November with an 82 game schedule divided between division, conference, and inter-conference games. Unlike most leagues, the NBA has each team player every other NBA team at least twice in a given season. This allows fans a greater opportunity to see their favorite NBA players while giving the teams a chance to compete against the widest group of players possible. Four games, split between home and away games, are played within the division and two games are played with teams in the opposite conference. The wild cards for the NBA schedule are the intra-conference games, which can range from three to four games per season.

The top eight teams from the Western and Eastern Conferences earn berths to the NBA Playoffs, beginning in March and running through June. The division winners in each conference earn the top seedings in the playoffs while the remaining five spots are won by the best five teams remaining as determined by record. While many NBA teams strive for the top seeds in the NBA Playoffs, there have been many teams that have been able to rise from the lower half of the playoff seedings to advance in the playoffs. One great example is the 1991 playoff series between the top ranked Seattle Supersonics and the eighth ranked Denver Nuggets, in which the Nuggets became the first eighth seed to win a series against the top team in the playoffs.

The NBA Playoffs features three rounds of series played in a best-of-seven format. The NBA decided within the last decade to switch their first round from a best-of-five to its current format, in order to add more games to the exciting playoff atmosphere and make more money off of playoff advertising. The fact that teams need to win sixteen games in the NBA playoffs to win the championship puts a premium on deep rosters, playoff experience, and high stamina in players and coaches. The NBA Finals has become one of the great sports institutions in the world, with dozens of nations witnessing the best players and teams in the NBA compete on the largest stage possible. With players like Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson making their mark in the NBA Finals, every player in the NBA today hopes to emulate their big game heroics and give their team a chance at the most prestigious trophy in basketball.

While the average fan may think that NBA teams simply need to put the twelve best players on their roster in order to succeed, they may be surprised to see the complexity of the player personnel process. For NBA scouts, general managers, and coaches, the expansion of the NBA’s player base from the United States to every corner of the globe has required a certain amount of creativity and gambling when it comes to signing new players. The extensive travel, interviews, and thousands of hours of basketball that go into the scouting and personnel management process require creative solutions on the bench and on the court.

The most important aspect of NBA rosters that fans should understand is the specialization of the NBA game over the years. While finding a player with all of the skills necessary to succeed is great, there are not enough of those players to fill NBA rosters. Aside from the superstar players in the NBA, there are few NBA players that are the complete basketball package. NBA general managers and coaches are not worried about having a roster full of great players but one that has at least one player who can do everything on the court. Most NBA rosters feature at least one three-point specialist who can come in and hit three point shots in clutch situations. As well, general managers often sign one or two big centers or power forwards in order to get rebounds and foul poor free throw shooters at the end of games. Other specialized positions include defensive guards, three point shooting big men, and point forwards.

While the NBA has expanded its field of young, talented players to the international level, commissioner David Stern and others still want to cultivate the great talent that exists in the United States. In 2001, Stern and league officials created the National Basketball Developmental League (NBDL), or D-League for short, in order to provide feeder system between the college game and the NBA. The league has developed from an eight-league minor league system sanctioned by the NBA to a twelve-team farm system for NBA teams, with each NBDL team providing players to up to three NBA teams.

The D-League has grown rapidly over the last five years to become a true minor league system for the NBA. In cities like Boise, Sioux City, and Austin, the NBA is making inroads with basketball fans that may not have had a minor league or college basketball team to root for. Even in towns where basketball is present, the D-League offers a higher level of competition, considering that many of these players have the potential to play in the NBA with a year or two of polish. In fact, players like the Lakers’ Smush Parker and the Bucks’ Bobby Simmons have gone from the D-League to starters on the NBA level. D-League rosters feature 10 minor league players and two NBA proven players, with the NBA teams able to bring up players as often as they want during the season.

Following the NBA Finals, scouts and general managers from every NBA team focus their attention on the future of their particular franchise. The most important step for NBA teams to make for a better long term future is to use their selections in the NBA Draft to get some great young talent. Each NBA team starts with two draft picks in every NBA Draft, though many teams use their picks as leverage in trades to get better veteran players. However, young teams that are rebuilding often stockpile draft picks in order to get an infusion of rookie talent.

The NBA Draft features 64 selections over two rounds, with the worst teams in the NBA the previous season entered into a lottery for the top pick. While many teams who are at the bottom of the league strive for the top pick in the NBA Draft, recent selections like center Michael Olowakandi of the Los Angeles Clippers have proven that great scouting and talent assessment are more important than having the top pick. The NBA Draft can often be the difference between a championship and repeated playoff losses in the long run.

Fans of NBA basketball across the world are beginning to see the international nature of the game in terms of NBA rosters and global promotion of the game. Over the last five years, the amount of European players in the NBA has doubled, with many European professional basketball players submitting their names to the NBA Draft. European players get paid well in their home leagues but there is no better place to develop their talent and make their names common in households throughout the world than the NBA. At the beginning of the 2005-2006 NBA season, there were nearly 80 international players on NBA rosters. One of the most international teams in the NBA is the San Antonio Spurs, which currently features 7 players from outside of the United States on their roster.

The NBA has been working hard to promote the professional game on the international level with community service, preseason games, and NBA television. During the NBA off-season, players from the United States and around the world go to foreign countries to promote the game and provide various services to world communities. As well, the NBA has scheduled preseason games over the last two seasons in places like Puerto Rico, Germany, and England. Finally, the NBA-run NBA TV has featured international league play for the benefit of world basketball fans and NBA fans alike who want to watch basketball all the time.