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The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America and is universally regarded as the most prestigious in the world.
The competition consists of 30 clubs, 29 from the US and one from Canada competing in an 82-game regular season.
NBA teams are divided into two conferences, East and West. Conferences are further split into three divisions comprising five teams each.
The season culminates in the playoffs, followed by the NBA Finals series.
All matches in the playoffs and The Finals are best-of-seven game knockout series. The top eight teams in each conference qualify, with conference quarterfinals, conference semi-finals and conference finals being played to determine who qualifies for the NBA finals.
The most recent NBA champions are the Los Angeles Lakers, who defeated the Miami Heat 4-2 to claim their record-equaling 17th NBA title.
The NBA, originally the Basketball Association of America (BAA), was founded in 1946. In 1949, after merging with the rival National Basketball League (NBL), the NBA was established under its current moniker.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the league’s leading point scorer of all time (38,387), Wilt Chamberlain has the most rebounds (23,924) and John Stockton has the most assists ever recorded (15,806).
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America and is universally regarded as the most prestigious in the world.
