National Basketball AssociationTickets (NBA): TicketNest

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a basketball league. It is an active member of USA Basketball (USAB), which is recognized by FIBA as the National Governing Body (NGB) for basketball in the United States. The NBA has the honor of being one of the four major U.S. professional sports leagues in North America.

The league was founded as the Basketball Association of America (BAA) in New York City, United States on June 6, 1946. After its merger with the rival National Basketball League , the league adopted the name National Basketball Association in the autumn of 1949. The league's several international and individual team offices are located in the Olympic Tower at 645 Fifth Avenue in New York City. NBA Entertainment and NBA TV studios are directed out of offices located in Secaucus, New Jersey.

The owners of the major sports arenas in the Northeast and Midwest United States founded the Basketball Association of America in 1946 . Madison Square Garden in New York City is one of these notable arenas. The BAA was the first league to attempt to play primarily in large arenas in major cities although there had been earlier attempts at professional basketball leagues, including the American Basketball League and the National Basketball League. The quality of play in the BAA was not better than in competing leagues or among leading independent clubs such as the Harlem Globetrotters during its early years.For instance the 1947 ABL finalist Baltimore Bullets moved to the BAA and won its 1948 title, followed by the 1948 NBL champion Minneapolis Lakers who won the 1949 BAA title. The Toronto Huskies hosted the New York Knickerbockers on November 1, 1946.The NBA now regards it as the first game played in the league's history.

The BAA saw its merge with the NBL on August 3, 1949. It led to the expansion of the National Basketball Association to seventeen franchises located in a mix of large and small cities, as well as large arenas and smaller gymnasiums and armories. The NBA was consolidated to eleven franchises in 1950. The league reached its smallest size of eight franchises till 1954. All of these franchises are still in the league (the Knickerbockers, Celtics, Warriors, Lakers, Royals/Kings, Pistons, Hawks, and Nationals/76ers). Many players rejected the new ball, saying that it was too sticky when dry, and too slippery when wet.On December 11, 2006, Commissioner Stern made an announcement that the NBA would return to the traditional leather basketball in use prior to the 2006-2007 season.

As of 2006, the NBA team jerseys are manufactured by Adidas, which purchased the previous supplier, Reebok .

While contracting, the league also saw its smaller city franchises move to larger cities,. The Hawks shifted from "Tri-Cities" to Milwaukee and then to St. Louis; the Royals from Rochester to Cincinnati, the Pistons from Fort Wayne to Detroit.

The National Basketball Association was originated in 1946 with 11 teams. Currently it consists of 30 team through a sequence of team expansions, reductions, and relocations. Out of these 30 teams, 29 are based in the United States and 1 in Canada. The Boston Celtics are the most successful franchise with 16 NBA Finals wins. The Los Angeles Lakers (http://www.ticketnest.com/sports-tickets/Los-Angeles-Lakers/index.php ), who 14 championships is the next most successful franchise. The Miami Heat are the defending champions. They won their first championship in 2006,.

The current league organization has divided the teams into two conferences. Each conference has three divisions, and each division has five teams. In the 2004-05 season, the current divisional alignment was introduced.

In October, teams hold training camps following the summer break. During the training camps, the coaching staff are able to evaluate players (especially rookies), scout the team's strengths and weaknesses, prepare the players for the rigorous regular season, and determine the 12-man active roster with which they will begin the regular season. Teams have the ability to assign players with less than two years of experience to the NBA development league. A series of preseason exhibition games are held after training camp. The NBA regular season begins in the first week of November.

Each team plays 82 games in the regular season. These are divided evenly between home and away games. Schedules are not identical for all teams. A team faces opponents in its own division four times a year, teams from the other two divisions in its conference either three or four times, and teams in the other conference twice apiece. A team can therefore have a relatively easy or difficult schedule, depending on the division and conference it is located in.

The NBA is now the only major league in North America in which teams play every other team during the regular season. Moreover, each team hosts every other team in at least one home game every season.

The NBA Playoffs always begin in late April. Eight teams in each conference qualify for the playoffs. The top three seeds for each conference are determined by taking the winners of the conference's three divisions and ranking them by regular season record. The remaining five seeds are determined by taking the five teams with the next-best records from among the non-division winning teams in the conference. For more information about NBA visit: http://www.ticketnest.com/NBA.php

Sara grew up in Kansas and after moving to Carlsbad, CA, relates to Dorothy of the "Wizard of Oz" fame. No surprise that she loves theater including "Wicked". Sara is a staff writer for Ticket Nest ( www.ticketnest.com ) and enjoys writing about her travel, theater and concert experiences. She can be reached at sara@ticketnest.com