The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a men's professional basketball league in North America; composed of 30 teams. It is widely considered to be the premier men's professional basketball league in the world. The NBA is an active member of USA Basketball (USAB), which is recognized by FIBA as the national governing body for basketball in the United States. The NBA is one of the four major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada. NBA players are the world's best paid athletes by average annual salary per player.
The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is a professional basketball league in the United States. It is currently composed of twelve teams.
The league was founded on April 24, 1996, as the women's counterpart to the National Basketball Association (NBA), and league play started in 1997. The regular season is played from May to September with the All Star game being played midway through the season in July and the WNBA Finals at the end of September until the beginning of October.
The National Basketball League (NBL) was a professional men's basketball league in the United States established in 1937. After the 1948–49 season, its twelfth, it merged with the Basketball Association of America (BAA) to create the National Basketball Association (NBA).
An all-star game is an exhibition game that purports to showcase the best players of a sports league. The exhibition is between two teams organized solely for the event, usually representing the league's teams based on region or division, but sometimes dividing the players by an attribute such as nationality. Selection of the players may be done by a vote of the coaches and/or news media; in professional leagues, fans may vote on some or all of the roster. An all-star game usually occurs at the midpoint of the regular season. An exception is American football's Pro Bowl, which occurs at the end of the season.
Allen Ezail Iverson, nicknamed "The Answer", is an American former professional basketball player. He played for fourteen seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA) at both the shooting guard and point guard positions. Iverson was an eleven-time NBA All-Star, won the All-Star game MVP award in 2001 and 2005, and was the NBA's Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 2001. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016.
The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) official minor league basketball organization. The league was known as the National Basketball Development League (NBDL) from 2001 to 2005, and the NBA Development League from 2005 until 2017. The league started with eight teams until NBA commissioner David Stern announced a plan to expand the NBA D-League to fifteen teams and develop it into a true minor league farm system, with each NBA D-League team affiliated with one or more NBA teams in March 2005. At the conclusion of the 2013–14 NBA season, 33% of NBA players had spent time in the NBA D-League, up from 23% in 2011. As of the 2018–19 season, the league consists of 27 teams, all of which are either single-affiliated or owned by an NBA team.
The National Basketball League that was based in Canada lasted only one and a half seasons in 1993 and 1994. It rose from the ashes of the World Basketball League which folded after the 1992 season, which had teams in various Canadian and American cities. The NBL's first game was played on May 1, 1993 when the Cape Breton Breakers visited the Halifax Windjammers. The Breakers won the regular season championship with a 30-16 record, but they lost the championship finals to Saskatoon three games to one.
Moses Eugene Malone was an American basketball player who played in both the American Basketball Association (ABA) and the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1974 through 1995. The center was named the NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) three times and was a 12-time NBA All-Star and an eight-time All-NBA Team selection. Malone won his only NBA championship in 1983, when he was both the league and Finals MVP with the Philadelphia 76ers. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility in 2001.
The First Federal Basketball League was the name of the top-tier level professional basketball league that was played in SFR Yugoslavia, from 1945 to 1991–92, and run by Basketball Federation of Yugoslavia. The First Federal League was the top-tier level league in Yugoslavia, and the Second Federal League was the second-tier level league in Yugoslavia. With a total of 16 European-wide trophy winners and 11 finalists, the Yugoslav First Basketball League was one of the strongest European national domestic basketball leagues of all time.
Donald Neil Johnston was an American basketball player at the center position who played eight years in the National Basketball Association (NBA), from 1951 to 1959. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in 1990.
The ABA All-Time Team were chosen in 1997 on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of the founding of the American Basketball Association (ABA). It comprised the thirty best and most influential players of the ABA during its ten years and nine full regular seasons of operation, with respect not only to performance at the professional level but in consideration of sportsmanship, team leadership, and contributions to the growth of the league basketball, and irrespective of positions played. Only players to have played at least a portion of their careers in the ABA were eligible for selection, although performance in other leagues, most notably the National Basketball Association was ostensibly considered. Selected and announced beside the all-time team were a most valuable player and top head coach.
The National Basketball League, or NBL for short, is a league competition representing professional, semi-professional and amateur basketball clubs from England and Wales. It forms levels 2 to 5 on the British Basketball pyramid, in line with the Scottish Basketball Championship, sitting directly below the top tier British Basketball League.
The State Basketball League (SBL) is a semi-professional basketball league in Western Australia. The league comprises both a women's and men's competition and is run by the state's governing body, Basketball Western Australia.
The Swiss Basketball League, also known as SB League or SBL, is the top-tier professional club basketball league in Switzerland. It is organized by Swiss Basketball. The winners of the SBL are crowned Swiss national basketball champions. Currently, twelve teams compete in the league. Historically, Fribourg Olympic is the league's most successful team, as it has won a record 16 championships. Until 2017, the league was known as the Championnat LNA.
The history of basketball began with its invention in 1891 in Springfield, Massachusetts by Canadian physical education instructor James Naismith as a less injury-prone sport than football. The game became established fairly quickly and grew very popular as the 20th century progressed, first in America and then throughout the world. After basketball became established in American colleges, the professional game followed. The American National Basketball Association (NBA), established in 1946, grew to a multibillion-dollar enterprise by the end of the century, and basketball became an integral part of American culture.
The All-EuroLeague Team is an award for Europe's premier level league, the EuroLeague, that is given to the league's top ten basketball players for each season, since the 2000–01 season. During the FIBA era of the EuroLeague, players were honored first by being a part of the FIBA Festival, and later by being selected to the FIBA EuroStars. Under FIBA, the EuroLeague also originally featured a EuroLeague Final Four Team selection, which was a forerunner of the All-EuroLeague Team award, and which consisted of the five best players of the EuroLeague Final Four.
The Super League is the top tier men's basketball league in Ireland. The league has 11 teams, and is an active member of Basketball Ireland, which is recognized by FIBA as the national governing body for basketball in Ireland. Neptune hold the record for most league titles, having won the competition 11 times.
The NBA G League All-Star Game is an annual exhibition basketball game held by the NBA G League. The G League was founded in 2001 as the National Basketball Development League (NBDL) and later as the NBA Development League (D-League). The league adopted its current name at the start of the 2017–18 season. The league serves as the National Basketball Association's official minor league basketball organization. In 2018, the All-Star Game was replaced by the NBA G League International Challenge, and the league's top players were instead named to its Midseason All-NBA G League Team.
The National Basketball League of Canada is a Canadian professional men's basketball league. The NBL was founded in 2011, when three teams formerly of the Premier Basketball League joined with four new franchises to form the NBL's "Original Seven". By 2017, the league had grown to ten teams, with six located in the Atlantic provinces and four in Ontario. The current champions are the London Lightning, having defeated the Halifax Hurricanes 4–3 in the 2017 NBL Finals. The league's season begins in November and ends in April of the following year.
