The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams. It is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada and is considered the premier professional basketball league in the world.
The Boston Celtics are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference. Founded in 1946 as one of the league's original eight teams, the Celtics play their home games at TD Garden, which is also the home of the National Hockey League's Boston Bruins. The Celtics are regarded as one of the most successful teams in NBA history and are tied with the Los Angeles Lakers for the most NBA championships with 17. The Celtics currently hold the record for the most recorded wins of any NBA team.
Larry Joe Bird is an American former professional basketball player, coach, and executive in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "the Hick from French Lick" and "Larry Legend", Bird is widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time. He is the only person in NBA history to be named Rookie of the Year, Most Valuable Player, Finals MVP, All-Star MVP, Coach of the Year, and Executive of the Year.
Arnold Jacob "Red" Auerbach was an American professional basketball coach and executive. He served as a head coach in the National Basketball Association (NBA), most notably with the Boston Celtics. Auerbach was also the head coach of the Washington Capitols and Tri-Cities Blackhawks. As a coach, Auerbach set NBA records with 938 wins and nine championships. After his coaching retirement in 1966, he served as president and front office executive of the Celtics until his death. As general manager and team president of the Celtics, he won an additional seven NBA titles for a grand total of 16 in a span of 29 years, the most of any individual in NBA history, making him one of the most successful team officials in the history of North American professional sports.
The NBA conference finals are the Eastern and Western championship series of the National Basketball Association (NBA), a major professional basketball league in North America. The NBA was founded in 1946 as the Basketball Association of America (BAA). The NBA adopted its current name at the start of the 1949–50 season when the BAA merged with the National Basketball League (NBL). The league currently consists of 30 teams, of which 29 are located in the United States and 1 in Canada. Each team plays 82 games in the regular season. After the regular season, eight teams from each of the league's two conferences qualify for the playoffs. At the end of the playoffs, the top two teams play each other in the conference finals, to determine the Conference Champions from each side, who then proceed to play in the NBA Finals. Trophies were given to each conference winner starting in 2001. In 2022, they named them the Bob Cousy Trophy for the Eastern Conference and the Oscar Robertson Trophy for the Western Conference. Also that year, the league started naming an NBA conference finals Most Valuable Player (MVP) for each conference.
The NBA Finals is the annual championship series of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Eastern and Western Conference champions play a best-of-seven-game series to determine the league champion. The team that wins the series is awarded the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy, which replaced the original Walter A. Brown Trophy in 1977, though under the same name.
John Joseph Havlicek was an American professional basketball player who spent his entire career with the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Charles Edward Macauley was a professional basketball player and coach. His playing nickname was "Easy Ed". Macauley played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1949 to 1959 for the St. Louis Bombers, Boston Celtics, and St. Louis Hawks. During his career, Macauley earned seven All-Star selections and won a championship with the Hawks in 1958. He played college basketball for Saint Louis.
John Albert Kundla was an American college and professional basketball coach. He was the first head coach for the Minneapolis Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and its predecessors, the Basketball Association of America (BAA) and the National Basketball League (NBL), serving 12 seasons, from 1947 to 1959. His teams won six league championships, one in the NBL, one in the BAA, and four in the NBA. Kundla was the head basketball coach at the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul for one season in 1946–47, and at the University of Minnesota for ten seasons, from 1959 to 1968. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1995 and the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006.
K. C. Jones was an American professional basketball player and coach. He is best known for his association with the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA), with whom he won 11 of his 12 NBA championships. As a player, he is tied for third for most NBA championships in a career, and is one of three NBA players with an 8–0 record in NBA Finals series. He is the only African-American coach other than Bill Russell to have won multiple NBA championships. Jones was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1989.
The Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy is the championship trophy awarded annually by the National Basketball Association (NBA) to the winner of the NBA Finals. The trophy originally kept the Walter A. Brown Trophy name of its predecessor until being renamed in 1984.
The 1976–77 NBA season was the 31st season of the National Basketball Association. The season ended with the Portland Trail Blazers winning their first NBA Championship in franchise history, beating the Philadelphia 76ers in six games in the NBA Finals.
Walter Augustine Brown was an American sports executive. He was the founder and original owner of the Boston Celtics, operated the Boston Garden-Arena Corporation, and served as president of the Boston Athletic Association. In ice hockey, he coached the Boston Olympics to five Eastern Hockey League championships, owned the Boston Bruins, and served as president of the International Ice Hockey Federation. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1962, the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1965, and IIHF Hall of Fame in 1997.
The 1951 NBA playoffs was the postseason tournament of the National Basketball Association 1950–51 season. The tournament concluded with the Western Division champion Rochester Royals defeating the Eastern Division champion New York Knicks 4 games to 3 in the NBA Finals.
The commissioner of the NBA is the chief executive of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The current commissioner is Adam Silver, who succeeded David Stern on February 1, 2014.
