The National Basketball Association (NBA) is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America, and is widely considered to be the premier men's professional basketball league in the world. It has thirty franchised member clubs (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada), and is an active member of USA Basketball (USAB), which is recognized by FIBA (also known as the International Basketball Federation) as the national governing body for basketball in the United States. The NBA is one of the four major North American professional sports league. NBA players are the world's best paid sportsmen, by average annual salary per player.
The league was founded in New York City on June 6, 1946, as the Basketball Association of America (BAA). The league adopted the name National Basketball Association in 1949 after absorbing the rival National Basketball League (NBL). The league's several international as well as individual team offices are directed out of its head offices 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 Syracus, New Jersey.
Eastern Conference
The Eastern Conference of the Nationl Basketball Association is made up of fifteen teams, organized in three divisions of five teams each.
The three division winners and the non-division winner with the best record are seeded 1 through 4 for the playoffs in order of their records, with all remaining non-division winners seeded 5 through 8. This leaves open the possibility that a #2 or #3 seed could be a non-division winner. Home court-advantage in a playoff series is decided by record, not by seeding, so if the #4 and #5 teams meet in a playoff series in which the #5 team has the better record, the #5 team would have home-court advantage.
The reasoning behind this seeding arrangement is because a non-division winner could have a better record than the winners of the two divisions other than the non-division winning team in question. If the three division winners were seeded 1 through 3 for the playoffs in order of their records, and all non-division winners seeded 4 through 8, it would be possible for the two best teams of the conference to meet in the Conference Semifinals. This actually happened in the 2006 NBA Playoffs when the two best teams in the Western Conference, the San Antonio Spurs and the Dallas Mavericks, both from the Southwest Division, faced one another in the Western Conference Semifinals while the 3rd seed, the Northwest Division -leading Denver Nuggets, had fewer wins than the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th seeds.The NBA proposed and approved of the current format to ensure that the best two teams of a conference can meet no earlier than the Conference Finals.
The Eastern Conference playoffs are divided into two preliminary rounds followed by the Eastern Conference Finals, with the winner of the Conference Championship facing the Western Conference champion in the NBA Finals to determine the champion. All playoff series are best-of-sseven.
The current divisional alignment was adopted at the start of the 2004-05 season, when the Charlotte Bobcats began play as the NBA's 30th franchise. This necessitated the move of the New Orleans Hornets from the Eastern Conference's Central Division to the newly-created Southwest Division of the Western Conference. - For more informaion click on this link below.
Roster
A roster is a list of names of people involved with some organization or assignment. It can be a list of people and additional information, like the times when they are required to work or a list of students in a classroom.
The term roster is often used to describe participants of an event. The term is most commonly associated with Sports.
Examples are a team roster or depth chart in which the person's place on the team would be decided. The names of the places on a roster can be such terms as Starter or Backup, or for American football, First String, Second String, or Third String.
A "railway roster" refers to a detailed list of the types and wheel arrangements of steam, diesel or electric locomotives based at a particular shed, or of model locomotives on a particular model railway.
A roster is also used in video games. It is usually the amount of characters in the game. Most games have small rosters but fighting games may have large ones.
Roster is also the name of the contact list for the Instant Messaging Protocol XMPP.
A "Martin Roster" is based on the TV advertisement for the drink with the same name: "Anytime, Anyplace, Anywhere." This means management can make staff work whenever they want. - For more information click on this link below.
Western Conference
The Western Conference of the National Basketball Association is made up of fifteen teams, and organized in three divisions of five teams each.
Since 2006, the three division winners and the non-division winner with the best record are seeded 1 through 4 for the playoffs in order of their record, with all remaining non-division winners seeded 5 through 8. This leaves open the possibility that a #2 or #3 seed could be a non-division winner. Home-court advantage in a playoff series is decided by record, not by seeding, so if a #4 and #5 team met in a playoff series in which the #5 team had the better record, the #5 team would have home-court advantage.
The reasoning behind this seeding arrangement is because a non-division winner could have a better record than the winners of the two divisions other than the one that produced the non-division winner in question. If the three division winners were seeded 1 through 3 for the playoffs in order of their record, and all non-division winners seeded 4 through 8, it would be possible for the two leading teams of the conference to meet in the Conference Semifinals. This actually happened in the 2006 NBA Playoffs when the two best teams in the Western Conference, the San Antonio Spurs and the Dallas Mavericks, both from the Southwest Division, faced one another in the Western Conference Semifinals while the 3rd seed, the Northwest Division-leading Denver Nuggets, had fewer wins than the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th seeds. The NBA proposed and approved of the current format to ensure that the best two teams of a conference can meet no earlier than the NBA Conference Finals.
The Western Conference playoffs is divided into two playoffs rounds, and The NBA Conference Finals with the winner of the Conference Championship facing the Eastern Conference champion in the NBA Finals to determine the champion. All playoff series are best-of-seven.
The current divisional alignment was adopted at the start of the 04–05 season, when the Charlotte Bobcats began play as the NBA's 30th franchise. This necessitated the move of the New Orleans Hornets from the Eastern Conference's Central Division to the newly-created Southwest Division of the Western Conference. - For more information click on this link below.