National Basketball Association: Everything You Need to Know About the Basketball League

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The NBA (National Basketball Association) is said to be a professional basketball league in parts of North America. The league, however, originated in the city of New York around 76 years ago, on June 6, 1946, as the Basketball Association of America. Later on, the name changed to the “National Basketball Association” on August 3, 1949, after collaborating with NBL (National Basketball League). 

Further, in the year of 1976, the “National Basketball Association” and “American Basketball Association” collaborated with the addition of four franchises to the NBA. The league is said to be composed of teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada. As per reports, the regular season of the NBA runs from October to April, with each team playing 82 games, and the league’s playoff tournament extends into June. 

Moreover, the NBA upon its inception has featured 17 separate franchises. Also, several teams folded over the subsequent years due to a lack of revenue, as regular- fan enthusiasm couldn’t be maintained. In the year of 1955, there were only eight remaining NBA teams, and in that year, the Association implemented a 24-second shot clock.

Moreover, the league is said to be dominated by a handful of superstars, which include the names of Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, LeBron James, and Kobe Bryant. The NBA has always been incredible, even more than any other professional sports league. The rules of the league are mentioned below:

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• Each team’s players can have not more than 17, and less than 8 members at a given time.
• At any given time, there is the necessity of a total 15 players on the court (5 players for each team).
• The dimensions of the court need to be 94 feet in length, 50 feet in breadth, and 10 feet in height.
• Duration of Game: 48 minutes (12 quarters of 4 minutes), 2 halves of 16 minutes each, the 24-second shot clock.

Moreover, each NBA team is given a starting line-up of five players, which includes a point guard, shooting guard, the small forward, power forward, and centre. In order to start the game, the referee is required to toss the ball in between the two tallest players, down the middle of the court. As soon as the game begins, the possession of the ball is awarded to the team whose player successfully tips it back to their own team. Also, each team is said to have 24 seconds for scoring points or making contact with the basket when they have possession, further known as the shot clock. 

Furthermore, this is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada. It is also the premier men’s professional basketball league in the world. 

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