Get to Know NBA Basketball
When you hear the word basketball, the first thing that probably comes into your mind is NBA basketball. And why not? The NBA or the National Basketball Association is the most popular basketball league all over the world. That’s many thanks to Michael Jordan who’s been an instrument in popularizing NBA both in 1990s and in 1980s.
Basically, the NBA is the premier men’s basketball league in the United States in the professional level, particularly in North America. It is also the top league when it comes to salaries, game popularity, level f competition and talent. At present, there are thirty teams in the NBA coming from both the United States and Canada.
History of NBA
The NBA started out as the Basketball Association of America or the BAA in 1946. Its aim was to organize the top teams in the professional category as well as to make them more popular. The first game of the league was played between the Toronto Huskies and the New York Knickerbockers in Toronto, Canada. In 1949, the name National Basketball Association was adopted.
From this year hereon, NBA continued to evolve along with the addition of more teams. Notable players also started to emerge. It featured famous players like George Mikan who is known in the NBA as the first “big man;” Bob Cousy, the most celebrated point guard; Bill Russell, considered as the genius in defense. Other notable players include;
• Wilt Chamberlain
• Oscar Robertson
• Jerry West
• Karl Malone
• Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
• Julius Erving
• Larry Bird
• Magic Johnson
• Michael Jordan
There are lots of notable NBA players fro the United States. However, not all of the players considered to be among the greatest are from the USA. International players have also made their own marks in the history of NBA. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is among them. Others include;
• Leandro Barbosa – He was from Brazil and was awarded the Sixth Man Award in 2007.
• Pau Gasol – received the NBA Rookie of The Year award in 2002 and became the World Championships MVP in 2006.
• Manu Ginobili – this San Antonio Spurs man is from Argentina and won the Sixth Man Award in 2008. He was also the Olympic Tournament MVP in 2004.
• Dirk Nowitzki – He is German and won awards like 2007 NBA MVP, 2002 World Championships MVP and Eurobasket 2005 MVP.
• Tony Parker – Also playing for San Antonio Spurs; he was the NBA Finals MVP in 2007.
• Peja Stojakovic – this Serbian won the Eurobasket 2001 MVP award.
• Andrei Kirilenko – this Russian is also known as the AK-47 in NBA; he won the Eurobasket 2001 MVP award.
Aside from the list above, many international players have been doing great jobs in NBA. Yao Ming and Andrea Bargnani were both first picked in 2002 NBA Draft by Houston Rockets and 2006 NBA Draft by Toronto Raptors respectively.
The Teams in NBA
Basically, there are 29 teams from the US and 1 from Canada playing in the NBA. All these themes were divided into two conferences with three divisions each.
Eastern Conference
• Atlantic Division – includes teams such as the Boston Celtics, New Jersey Nets, New York Knicks, Philadelphia 76ers and the Toronto Raptors.
• Central Division – includes the Chicago Bulls, Cleveland Cavaliers, Detroit Pistons, Indiana Pacers and Milwaukee Bucks.
• Southeast – includes Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Bobcats, Miami Heat, Orlando Magic and the Washington Wizards.
Western Conferences
• Northwest Division – teams included are Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves, NBA Oklahoma City which is set to replace the now defunct Seattle SuperSonics, Portland Trailblazers, and Utah Jazz.
• Pacific Division – teams like Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Clippers, Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns and the Sacramento Kings are included in this division.
• Southwest Division – this division includes teams like the Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets, Memphis Grizzlies, New Orleans Hornets and San Antonio Spurs.
For the 2007-2208 NBA season, the San Antonio Spurs from the Southwest Division of the Western Conference played against the Los Angeles Lakers of the Pacific Division of the same conference. The San Antonio Spurs, which is the depending champion, lose in the game.
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The NCAA Basketball and Its Distinction from NBA
Some years after the invention of the game basketball, several schools and associations have sought to emulate the game, and thus made their own rules for the game. The fame of the game has led for associations to be organized not just in the US or in Canada but as well as in other neighboring countries. As proof to this, the FIBA or the International Basketball Federation was established.
In the US, there are two primary leagues that are considered as cornerstone and foundation of the game. One is the NBA or National Basketball Association and the second is the NCAA or the National Collegiate Athletic Association. The NBA is specifically focused to basketball while the NCAA has is responsible for other sports that involves college students from different schools in the US. NCAA basketball is just one division of the NCAA but because of the popularity of the game, the association gained the tag as a sole basketball league.
Though quite similar, the NCAA and NBA have differences. These range from different disciplines and specification of the game. Here are some of the differences of the NCAA basketball from the NBA:
• Attendees – The attendees or the athletes in the NBA are considered professional players. Most often they are no longer connected with any collegiate school. The NCAA basketball players, however, are full time athletes that represent their school in the Division conference.
• Rules – In terms of the size of the court, the NBA rules and that of the NCAA basketball are somewhat alike. However, there are smaller details in the game that these two leagues completely differ from each other. One example for this is the number of personal fouls allowable before a player may be expelled from the game; in NBA 6 allowable personal fouls while in the NCAA, it’s only 5 personal fouls. Other rules that differ from each other can be checked and compared at their respective websites.
• Conferences – Though both of these leagues are divided into conferences – NBA: East and West and NCAA basketball: Division I, Division II, and Division III – the places the leagues are representing are very much different. In the NCAA, the teams represent their respective school. In NBA on the other hand, teams represent a specific city of a particular state.
The differences stated above are simply the most observable between the two leagues. However, specifically, one can see many other differences when he looks closely on how the games of both leagues are played. The NCAA is divided with two 20 minutes game while the NBA is divided into 4 quarters which make it exceed 8 minutes in the whole duration of the game from the NCAA.
The NBA’s shot clock is set to 24 seconds as compared to35 seconds on the NCAA. There are other distinctions in these two games and as the years pass by, expect that more and more changes and variation between these two will be made by their respective committees.
The NCAA basketball is sometimes considered as the training ground of players who wish to be part of the NBA. Over the years, there had been several players from the NCAA who made it to the NBA.
So no matter how different these two are there are just things that make both leagues connect from each other.
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