NBA (United States) 2026/27

No club is promoted into it and none is relegated out: the league runs as a closed franchise system, in which the 30 teams hold their places permanently. That structure sets it apart from European competitions, and it comes with tools designed to keep the field level — a soft salary cap with exceptions such as the Larry Bird exception, and a weighted draft lottery that hands the best odds of the top pick to the weakest teams.

The teams are split into the Eastern and Western Conferences, each holding three divisions of five. Every team plays 82 regular-season games. Sixteen then reach the postseason — the top eight from each conference — with a Play-In Tournament deciding the seventh and eighth seeds, and every round settled over a best-of-seven series. The winner takes the Larry O'Brien Trophy, renamed in 1984.

The competition began on 6 June 1946 as the Basketball Association of America, set up by the owners of major ice hockey arenas in the north-eastern and midwestern United States and Canada, with Maurice Podoloff as its first president. It took its present name on 3 August 1949 after merging with the National Basketball League. A second merger, with the American Basketball Association in 1976, brought the three-point line into the league.

Entry is restricted: players must be 19 and at least one year removed from high school. That marks the line against the NCAA, where the players are amateur student-athletes, and the G League, the developmental tier below. The Boston Celtics hold the record of 18 championships and are the reigning champions from 2024.