But Naismith’s game was not the first game in history where the goal was to get a rubber ball into a “hoop”. 1,500-years prior the Meso-Americans of Central-America had a similar game. The Meso-American ball game was used for both sport and religious belief’s.
Naismith’s version of the caught on and by the late 1890’s the game was being played through-out America, and particularly the Western United States, where the game became insanely popular. The game was so popular that a ceremonial basketball game was played in Salt Lake City, when Utah gained statehood in 1896. The late 1890s also seen the first women playing the game of basketball. The very first major college tournament was held in California between the Universities of California, Stanford, Utah and Brigham Young. The tournament had to be cancelled because the sport was deemed too violent after two women suffered fractured skulls.
The first major professional leagues started showing up on the East Coast in 1898. The Interstate League, and the very first National Basketball League (NBL) both begun play in 1898. Most of these leagues where in New England or the Mid-Atlantic. Scores where often very low, with teams rarely scoring over 30-points in a game.
The game of basketball would be almost unrecognizable to fans today. The game was played inside of fenced in netting or cage, and the early players were called Cagers. Until the early 1910’s, most hoops did not have a backboard, and most hoops where peach-baskets or milk cartons. The game was also insanely violently, with injuries, blood and fights being a nightly occurrence.
With the rise of professional leagues in the early part of the 1900’s, lead to the creation of barnstorming teams. Today barnstorming is almost unheard of, except for the most famous barnstormers the Harlem Globetrotters, but until the rise of the National Basketball Association in 1946, most teams would barnstorm.
Barnstorming is where teams would travel around and have no set league or home arena and play other teams for a fee or part of the gate revenue. This model was insanely successful as the most prominent teams of the era like the Buffalo Germans, the Original Celtics, and the Harlem Rens would last decades promoting this model.
The early basketball leagues were having some success in the mid 1910’s, but World War I would change all that. The First World War caused almost all the leagues to disband. Once the War was over, however, the teams and the leagues returned. One new feature of the post World War I era of basketball was corporate sponsored teams and leagues. Corporate sponsored teams and league where owned by major corporations and the players both worked for and played for the company. These teams become ingrained in the community and became a successful draws for the barnstorming teams.
Colleges had also started to pick up basketball, but it was mostly at the Ivy league schools. There were very few cross-country or national tournaments held and schools like Yale, Columbia and Dartmouth claimed most of the early college basketball championships. However, by the 1920’s most colleges had a basketball team, and the teams began forming the conferences we are familiar with today. College players soon successfully transitioned from playing for their local college to working and playing for their local corporate team. The Seagrams alcohol company started a team in 1923 that would become one of the longest lasting teams in American history. That team is now the Sacramento Kings of the NBA. This model also gave way to the Amateur Athletic Union or AAU.
The AAU began working with other unions and groups through-out the world and by the 1920’s some of the first international competitions were being held.
The 1904 Olympic games in St. Louis held an exhibition of basketball, though it was not part of the official games, and only Canada and several Native American tribes fielded teams. But in 1924 during the Paris Olympics, there was an official demonstration of basketball. During its first international exhibition only six countries participated and it was won by of all-nations, the United Kingdom.
By the mid 1920s basketball began being played at almost every high school with a gym. High schools were one of the few places at the time that had women’s basketball. In the 1920s only a handful of colleges offered women’s basketball and there was virtually no professional leagues. However, nearly every major high school in America offered both boys and girls basketball. Women’s basketball at this time was prone to one-sided blowouts and insane scoring numbers. On February 26, 1924, Marie Boyd set one of the most impressive records of early basketball. In a game in Maryland, Marie Boyd scored 156-points in a game. Boyd’s team won 163-3. This was not a one off thing either, Boyd had previously scored 95 points in a game.
As the 1930’s rolled around, the world found itself in a world wide economic depression, but basketball would find its roots and grow. Basketball became a cheap entertainment alternative to the more expensive baseball and football and the promise of steady employment in a company for a corporate team wooed the best players. Indiana became especially important during this time as a hotbed of basketball. Most of the major leagues at the time had to have teams in Indiana, Ohio, and Illinois.
The 1930’s was also the first time that major pro-leagues in America really found success. The American Basketball League, which had started in the 1920’s, than failed, than reemerged, sported teams like the Cleveland Rosenblums, Baltimore Orioles, Detroit Lions, New York Celtics and Philadelphia Warriors.
The Midwest Basketball Conference is probably the most significant of the leagues that emerged at this time. The MBC only lasted two seasons before it reorganized as the NBL. This version of the NBL would go on to become the first true major professional basketball league in the World.
The NBL was a mix between corporate sponsored teams such as the Akron Goodyears and Non-skids; successful barnstormers such as the Warren Penns and Pittsburgh Pirates, and locally sponsored teams such as the Indianapolis Katusky’s and Oshkosh All-stars.
The league struggled at first. In its first season of 1937, the league boasted 14 teams, but 1938 most teams had dropped out. But the NBL was able to always quickly replace teams. In its history only two teams, Sheboygan and Oshkosh, played every season and Indianapolis played in all but one and successful rejoined the league after being out of the league – a rarity for the time.
The NBL was also unique in that it was the first integrated league in American Pro-Sports, allowing black players as early as 1937. The first black superstar was Buffalo Bison forward Hank Williams.
The NBL’s early success was threatened during its 5th season. The NBL’s 5th season was the 1941-42 season, and the league was always through its season when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. As World War II drew man power away from the states, the league suffered. To find more players more and more teams began to integrate, both the Chicago Bruins and Toledo Jim White Chevrolets had black players by 1943.
World War II was a hard time for the NBL, but the end of the war would bring major competition like the league had never seen. The NBL had always stuck to the Midwest, with its furthermost eastern team being the Syracuse Nationals and the furthest it got west was Denver, Colorado. Other than Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, and Indianapolis, the league had always avoided the major cities, and for good reasons. The league suffered in most of those cities. But in 1946 came competition from the big eastern cities in the form the Basketball Association of America, or BAA.
Where the NBL had activity avoided the larger east coast metro’s, the BAA indulged in them. The BAA put teams in cities the NBL had struggled with such as Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, and Pittsburgh, but also in the megalopolis’ of New York, and Philadelphia.
Though the BAA had the money, the NBL had the prestige and scored a major blow to the BAA when it was able to keep Dolph Schayes on the Nationals instead of signing with the BAA’s New York Knicks. But the BAA soon scored a major blow to the NBL when it convinced four of the premiere NBL franchises to defect and join the BAA.
Besides Schayes, the NBL also had the reputation of having the best players in the US. The NBL also had the first basketball superstar in the form of George Mikan. Mikan played for the Chicago American Gears, but when their owner Maurice White did not get his war and formed the Professional Basketball League of America or PBLA, Mikan went with them. This created another hurdle for the NBL, because besides having the BAA to contend with it also had the PBLA. However, the PBLA was an utter failure and lasted only a few months before disbanding. Prior to the season the Detroit Gems had been the worst team ever in NBL history, but had been purchased and moved to Minneapolis and rebranded as the Minneapolis Lakers. Because of their terrible record the Lakers had the first dips on any of the PBLA’s discarded players, and because the NBL was seen as a more competitive league Mikan chose the Lakers.
The BAA began play on November 1, 1946, with a game between the New York Knicks and Toronto Huskies. Yes, the first game in what would become the NBA was played in Canada. Ossie Schectman of the Knicks scored the first two points in NBA history, and the Knicks got a 68-66 victory.
In 1947 the BAA tried something new. It played a game on Christmas Day. Previously, all leagues, specifically the NBL, NFL and NHL, had tried to avoid playing on Christmas day. But on December 25, 1947, the Providence Steamrollers traveled to Madison Square Garden to take on the New York Knicks. The game was a success!
The success of Christmas Day games had lead the NBA to scheduling some of its marquee games on the day, and usually a rematch of the previous years NBA finals. The NBA has held a game on Christmas Day every season from 1947 until the present with the exception of the 1999 lockout season.
While having games on Christmas Day has been successful for the NBA, the league has avoided playing NBA games on Christmas Eve. The NBA has only played two games on Christmas Eve in its history: a 1960 game between Detroit and Boston; and a 1967 game between San Francisco and Seattle.
Because of their history hosting the game, the New York Knicks are pretty much guaranteed a Christmas Day home game. The Knicks have played on Christmas Day more than anyone in the league, though the Lakers are coming close. The Charlotte Hornets are, as of 2025, the only team to never play on Christmas Day.
Starting in 1939 the best teams in America got together and decided to play a tournament in Chicago called the World Professional Basketball Tournament. The WPBT took teams from the NBL, the ABL, the Pacific Coast Basketball League, the ECPBL, and barnstormers like the Harlem Globetrotters and New York Rens. There was no real rules on who to could participate, but leagues usually sent their champions and other big draw teams.
The NBL usually dominated the WPBT. In the tournaments 10 year history, the championship was won by an NBL team 7 times, and eight times the tournament MVP was an NBL player.
The Tournament was one of the rare times that teams from the west coast faced the eastern teams. The Portland Indians famously played in the tournament a couple of times. The tournament also showed the disparity of talent between the leagues, with the NBL clearly being the best league in America, followed by the ABL. None of the western teams ever placed better than 7th place and non ever made the playoff tournament.
One league notably absent from the WPBT was the BAA. The BAA flat out prohibited its teams from participating, even though the Boston Celtics petitioned the league to allow them to play. The BAA, however, did not have a problem with stealing teams who did well in the tournament. Several teams who would eventually join the BAA/NBA would play in the tournament before joining, they include: the Pistons, Redskins, Kautskys/Jets, Packers, Blackhawks, Bullets, and Lakers.
Though it was struggling with its on the court product, the BAA had money behind it and this money proved to be its savior. The BAA went from 11 teams in 1947 to Just 8 the next season, it did steal the ABL champion Baltimore Bullets and the Bullets went on to win the BAA championship as well.
The joy of having the best player in the world was shorted lived for the NBL however. In 1948 the Lakers, the Royals, the Pistons and the Kautsky’s all announced that they would leave the NBL for the BAA. The BAA had a unique rule that none of the other teams of the era had, it did not allow corporate sponsored teams. This caused the Pistons, who were called to Fort Wayne Zollner Pistons to rebrand as the Fort Wayne Pistons and the Indianapolis Kautky’s, who had held that name since the 1920’s, to rebrand as the Indianapolis Jets.
Losing it’s four major teams was a death nail to the NBL, the league was in serious trouble, but so was the BAA. Both leagues had lost competing with each other, so a compromised was reached. The 7 remaining NBL teams would join the BAA and the league would be called the National Basketball Association or NBA. Five of the teams found financial backing real quick, but the All-stars and Hammond Pro’s could not and faded out. At the same time the Jets had failed miserably in the BAA and folded, but where quickly replaced by the Olympians – a team owned by college basketball stars.
The 18 league NBA lasted only one season before the big market teams forced the smaller teams to league and join a new league, the National Pro-Basketball League. The NPBL was an AAU league. The merger also killed the World Professional Basketball Tournament as most the best teams and biggest financial backers were no longer allowed to play.
The late 1930’s and early 1940’s also witnessed the first major college tournaments as well. The NIT formed in 1938, and the NCAA the following year. The Tournaments were not huge by any standards and only saw moderate success. At the time the NIT was seen as the bigger of the two tournaments. 1944 witnessed one of the weirdest events in college basketball history. The Arkansas team was involved in a bus-crash and forced to withdraw from the NCAA tournament, but the Utah team had just lost in the NIT and replaced them. Utah went on to win the NCAA championship that year, becoming the only team to play in both tournaments the same year.
For most of the 1950s and 60s the AAU was the biggest rival for the NBA. Players who wanted to maintain the Olympic eligibility would play in the various AAU leagues around the country.
In 1950 the NBA voted to allow black players to play in the league. Earl Lloyd of the Washington Capitols was the first black player in NBA history. Ironically enough, the NBA had allowed the first non-white player to play in any of the major leagues to play 3 years earlier in 1947 when New York Knicks guard Wat Misaka played 3 games for the Knicks to little fan-fair. Misaka was of Japanese decent, making both the first non-white NBA player and first Asian NBA player in history.
One crushing blow for the NBA was gambling involvement in the early games. Several scandals rocked basketball in the 1950s, most notable was the Kentucky point-shaving scandal. Several players while at the University of Kentucky were accused of point-shaving, and those players went on to both own and play for the NBA’s Indianapolis Olympians. The ensuring investigation and indictments effectively caused the Olympians franchise to fold.
The NBA struggled in its early days, but by 1956 had settled into an 8-league team with family franchises such as the Celtics, Knicks, Lakers, Warriors, Pistons, Nationals, Royals and Hawks.
One of the reasons for some of the early struggles for the NBA was that the games would sometimes turn sluggish and became a passing exhibition. This was never more evident than on November 22, 1950, when the Fort Wayne Pistons, in an attempt to end the dominance of the Minneapolis Lakers, held the ball virtually all game. The score ended being 19-18 in favor of Fort Wayne. Fans booed and a lot of people where unhappy with the way the game turned out. The NBA needed a solution, and it got one from Leo Ferris. Ferris, the GM of the Hawks, had been floating the idea of a clock to time possessions. It took Ferris four seasons, but eventually the NBA introduced the shot-clock. The shot-clock limited teams to 24 second per possession. This addition significantly sped up the game and is widely considered the greatest thing to be implemented in basketball history. Though the NBA introduced the clock in 1955, college did not do so until 1979, and some levels of high school basketball still do not use a shot-clock.
Even though it was somewhat unstable at times, the NBA was always looking for establish new roots in new cities. During the early era of the leagues history, the flirted with playing games in all kinds of cities. Most of the cities where medium sized cities such as Fargo, ND, Charlotte, NC, or Indianapolis, but on one occasion the NBA got weird with its game locations. On January 16, 1952, a game between the Milwaukee Hawks and Baltimore Bullets was played in Negaunee, Michigan – a city of about 4,500 people. This marks the smallest city any of the four major American sports leagues have ever played in.
In 1954 the NBA introduced the shot-clock to speed up the game. The shot-clock changed the game for ever. The NBA and all levels of basketball would never look the same. In 1954, the first year of the shot-clock, Neil Johnston lead the NBA in scoring with 22-points per game. Seven years later Wilt Chamberlain averaged 50-points a game.
The 1960’s saw the NBA’s greatest dynasty in the Boston Celtics. The Celtics won 11 NBA titles in 13 season from 1957-1969. The Celtics began hugely popular and brought some much needed focus on the league.
As the 1960s drew on, players began to become involved a social activism, a trend that would continue until this day. NBA players were especially active in the Civil Rights discussion, and Celtics star Bill Russell became a leading celebrity figure in the fight for equality. College players also got involved and several refused to play in various protests in favor of Civil Rights and against the Vietnam war. The NBA refused to play neutral site games in Southern Cities. The Celtics famously cancelled visits to Charlotte, and New Orleans in the late 1960s.
On March 2, 1962, one of the most remarkable scoring feats in NBA history was accomplished. In a game between the Philadelphia Warriors and the New York Knicks, being played in of all-places Hersey, PA, Warriors center Wilt Chamberlain scored an NBA record 100-points in a game. Chamberlain was dominate in a way that was even unfamiliar to him. During the 1962 season Chamberlain average an NBA record 50.4 points per game, while playing 48.5 minutes a game. The 48.5 minutes is astounding considering that an NBA game is only 48 minutes long. Chamberlain played in 80 of the Warriors 82 games, and played in at least 48 minutes in all but one of the games, a 124-123 loss to the Lakers on January 3rd. He played more than 48 minutes in a game 7 times that season. Despite all that, Bill Russell won the MVP award.
Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain had one of the best rivalries in NBA history during the 1960s, but Russell and the Celtics always got the better of Chamberlain. From 1960 until 1966 Russell and Chamberlain met six times in the NBA playoffs with Russell’s Celtics winning every match-up. Finally, though, in 1967, Chamberlain the Philadelphia 76ers ended Boston’s streak of 8 consecutive NBA championships. In 1967 Chamberlain would win his first NBA title. However, Russell and the Celtics continued their dominance the following season and get revenge on the Sixers enroute to their 10th NBA title. Chamberlain would join the Los Angeles Lakers the following season, and once again his dreams of winning a title were crushed by Russell and the Celtics as Russell’s Celtics won their 11th and final NBA championship in 1969.
The NBA had had little competition with other professional basketball leagues since its merger with the NBL in 1949, but that all changed in 1967 with the creation of the American Basketball Association. The ABA formed teams in cities where the NBA was not present, such as Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, Indianapolis, Louisville, New Orleans, Denver, Dallas and Houston. It did also compete directly with the NBA in New York, the Bay area and southern California.
The ABA brought a new style of basketball and immediately wooed fans. The ABA had a three-point line which revolutionized the game. The ABA also allowed several players who had been banned for gambling and other issues by the NBA, to play in its league. The ABA also loved gimmicks. The ABA allowed the first, and thus far only, woman to play in a major men’s professional league when it allowed Kentucky Colonels guard Penny Anne Early to play in a game.
The NBA was more stable than the ABA, but the creation of the league did force the NBA to finally expand. The first new NBA team since the merger was the Chicago Packers who were founded in 1961. The Packers were a failure their first year winning only 18 games, and not drawing a lot of fan support. One reason was because Chicago was a NFL town, and the Bears dominated the Windy City, and the Bears biggest rivals are the Green Bay Packers. The Packers rebranded the following years to the Zephyrs, but they failed too and the team packed up and moved to Baltimore and became the Bullets.
The NBA was not done with Chicago, however. The NBA needed to have a team in the second largest market in the United States, and this time it finally found success with the first true expansion team, the Chicago Bulls. The NBA than quickly expanded to more cities, in 1967 NBA teams were awarded to San Diego and Seattle, in 1968 to Milwaukee and Phoenix, in 1970 to Buffalo, Cleveland and Portland, and in 1974 to New Orleans. The era from 1966 until 1989 is considered the NBA’s golden age of expansion with the league adding 18 new teams in total.
The 1960s also oversaw some of the NBA’s historic teams move west, as the western part of the United States became more and more interested in basketball – especially California. First the Hawks moved from Milwaukee to St Louis in 1955, and the Lakers moved from Minneapolis to Los Angeles in 1960. Two years later the Warriors relocated to San Francisco. Philadelphia, however, would not be without a team for long as the Syracuse Nationals immediately picked up and relocated there and became the Philadelphia 76ers.
The ABA did not just sit back and idly watch the NBA expand and do nothing. The league expanded only once to San Diego, but it moved teams frequently to keep markets open. The ABA would explore markets that the NBA would eventually go to such as Miami, Dallas and Salt Lake City.
The NBA’s stability really kept it afloat during the 1970s, but the 1970s were a rough time for the NBA and the ABA in general. Drugs, especially cocaine, became a problem that would plague basketball for decades. Viewership also started to dwindle as the Celtics dynasty ended. The 1970s were also the biggest era of parody the NBA has ever seen, with the decade producing eight different franchises to win an NBA championship, and no NBA team repeated from Boston in 1968 and 69 until the Lakers in 1986-87.
The 1960s and 1970s were a time of a lot of social, cultural and economic upheavals in American society and the NBA was no different. Players were active in the Civil Rights era, but in other protests as well. The league was expanding its society footprint for the first time in its history and more and more Americans were paying attention.
Women’s rights become a big part of American counterculture during this era, and women’s basketball finally became a thing. The Olympics added women’s basketball for the first time in 1976, and many of the major American colleges began having women’s teams. Women pro-leagues had been a thing since the 1910s, but very few of them lasted beyond a few weeks. In the 1970s the first truly successful leagues began play in the United States. In 1976 the New Orleans Jazz drafted Lusia Harris, making her the first woman to be drafted by an NBA team.
The NBA finally began tracking steals and blocks in 1974. Harvey Pollock and some other NBA statkeepers kept unofficial tally’s of blocks and steal, which lead to some outlandish claims such as Wilt Chamberlains quintouple-double in 1968.
One weird thing about the NBA in the late 1960s and 1970s was its involved in politics and shaping America’s legal system, and not in a way one would thing. The NBA found itself involved in several high profile court cases which ended up all the way to the United States Supreme Court. The first major case that the Supreme Court would hear was the lawsuit filed by Connie Hawkins. Hawkins had been banned by the NBA because his name came up in gambling investigations, and despite never being charged or even implicated the league banned him. Hawkins would go on to play in the ABA, but sued saying that the NBA had violated anti-trust laws. The court ruled in favor of Hawkins and he was allowed to play in the NBA. The second, and similar case involving anti-trust laws, involved Haywood Spencer. The NBA prevented Spencer from playing in the NBA because he had not completed college. Spencer sued, and again the Supreme Court ruled against the NBA.
One weird thing about the NBA in the late 1960s and 1970s was its involved in politics and shaping America’s legal system, and not in a way one would thing. The NBA found itself involved in several high profile court cases which ended up all the way to the United States Supreme Court. The first major case that the Supreme Court would hear was the lawsuit filed by Connie Hawkins. Hawkins had been banned by the NBA because his name came up in gambling investigations, and despite never being charged or even implicated the league banned him. Hawkins would go on to play in the ABA, but sued saying that the NBA had violated anti-trust laws. The court ruled in favor of Hawkins and he was allowed to play in the NBA. The second, and similar case involving anti-trust laws, involved Haywood Spencer. The NBA prevented Spencer from playing in the NBA because he had not completed college. Spencer sued, and again the Supreme Court ruled against the NBA.
The NBA is also slightly involved in two of the largest scandals in American political history. In 1972 the chairman of the Democratic National Committee was Lawrence O’Brien. O’Brien’s office was located in the Watergate hotel, and it was likely his office that associates of President Richard Nixon were trying to break into during their arrest at the hotel and the ensuring Watergate scandal. O’Brien would leave politics in 1975 and become the commissioner of the NBA. The second scandal involved a Saudi arms dealer named Adnan Khashoggi and his attempt to buy the Utah Jazz/ Khashoggi is likely the lynchpin in the Iran-Contra affair.
Starting on November 5, 1971, in a game against the Baltimore Bullets the Los Angeles Lakers went on one of the craziest streaks in sports history. Going into the game vs the Bullets, the Lakers were a respectable 7-3, but would than win their next 33 games in a row, and end u 39-3 following a 44-point win at Atlanta. The Lakers win streak finally came to an end on January 9, 1972 following a 120-104 defeat at Milwaukee. The Bucks were lead by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The Lakers would go on to win a then record 69 games that season and their first NBA championship in 18 years and their first since moving to Los Angeles.
During the late 1970s the NBA had an image problem. A lot of the players had substance abuse problems and that lead to them being suspended or flat out kicked out of the league – Others, had violent tempers. News stories often filled the papers with incidents involving players. The Chicago Bulls famously had multiple fist-fights with fans attending games. One famous incident involved Bulls guard Jerry Sloan charging into the crowd and fighting fans. Sloan was not even ejected from the game, he had to temporarily go to the locker room to change out of his beer soaked uniform.
One of the more famous delinquents of the era was Marvin Barnes. Barnes was a player with a lot of potential, and would sometimes live up to that potential, only to do a serious of stupid things that got him in trouble with the league and the law. Than there is John Brisker, who was constantly in trouble with the law and eventually left the United States to go join Idi Amin’s genocide in Uganda in 1978, and to do this day his disappearance is still a mystery.
One of the most violent incidents in NBA history game came on December 9, 1977, when Los Angeles Lakers forward Kermit Washington punched Houston Rockets guard Rudy Tomjanovic in an incident know as “The punch”. The punch shattered Tomjanovic’s face and left him in a pool of blood. The incident became a top news story in the NBA with CBS and the New York times calling for severe sanctions against the league. The newly established Saturday Night Live also frequently lampooned the incident. One of the problems with the whole incident was that the video footage shown, did not havethe initial fight just Washington punching Tomjanovich, so it made it looked like the punch was unprovoked. In the end Washington was fined $10,000 and suspended a then record 26 games. Tomjanovich missed the rest of the season.
The late 70s brought economic hardship to Americans everywhere, and it killed the ABA. In 1975 the Utah Stars and San Diego Sails both disbanded before the end of the season, and at the end of the season the Spirits of St. Louis announced that they were moving to Salt Lake City and becoming the Utah Rockies. However, during the last months of the season members of the ABA met with NBA leaders and decided that the ABA would merge with the NBA. The ABA wanted to take its six remaining teams, the Kentucky Colonels, Utah Rockies, Indiana Pacers, San Antonio Spurs, Denver Nuggets and New York Nets and merge them. The NBA wanted only four teams, so one of the most bizarre compromises in sports history was devised. The Colonels owner would get a lump sum of money, and buy the NBA’s Buffalo Braves. The Rockies would get 1/7th of the TV revenue of the remaining four ABA teams in perpetuality. The remaining four teams would join the NBA.
The merger between the NBA and ABA would finally end any real competition for the NBA, as no league has challenged the NBA since. The merger also stabilized he NBA as the league finally started to get major TV deals and games would start to be broadcast in prime time – right as a new generation of superstars would the NBA to the forefront of pop culture.
Oddly enough however, the NBA ascension to pop culture dominance began in college basketball. The NCAA tournament and March Madness really rose to prominence during the 1960s and 1970s with John Wooden and the UCLA Bruins. From 1964 until 1975, UCLA won 10 National championships including a record 8 in a row. Wooden would run teams with legendary centers like Lew Alcindor and Bill Walton. But the pinnacle of the golden age of college basketball would be in 1979, when Indiana State lead by Larry Bird faced of with Michigan State and Magic Johnson.
The Indiana State vs Michigan State game, played in Salt Lake City, had the highest ratings of any basketball game ever, not just college but NBA as well. Michigan State would win 75-64.
The game had massive repercussions throughout basketball. The NCAA would expand the tournament from 40 teams in 1979 to 48 in 1980 and to the 64 model in 1985. The NBA was successfully able to maneuver Bird and Johnson into two of its marquee franchise with Bird going to the Celtics and Johnston to the Lakers. Salt Lake City showed that it could be a major player for a professional basketball team, and just weeks after hosting the National Championship game the New Orleans Jazz announced a plan to relocate to Salt Lake City and become the Utah Jazz.
The 1980s began what many consider to be the golden age of the NBA. The Magic vs Bird rivalry really got fans interested in the game of basketball and for the first time the NBA began to turn a significant profit. Following 1980, relocations of teams also dropped dramatically. From 1955 until 1980, 13 NBA franchises relocated, from 1981 until 2025 only five teams relocated. This dramatic increase in stabilization allowed the NBA to begin to focus more on marketing and promotion of the game of basketball.
The rivalry of Magic and Bird that started in 1979 at first did not appear like it was going to pay off for the NBA. The two players where the biggest stars in the game, and both had reached the NBA and won NBA championship but they had not met in the finals – that would all change in 1984.
By the 1983-84 season Magic and the Showtime Lakers had won two titles, one in 1980 and another in 1982. The Lakers had also lost to the 76ers in 1983. The 83 Sixers had actually defeated the Boston Celtics in the 1983 Eastern Finals, and despite not playing each other in the NBA finals for 14 years, the Celtics fans at Boston Garden famously chanted “Beat LA!”. The Celtics meanwhile had only won one title with Larry Bird (1981). But the two historic franchises met in one of the best NBA finals in history, with the Celtics coming out on top in 7-games.
The Lakers and Celtics rivalry of the 1980s would go on to define the era. Colloquially, a lot of people assume that the Lakers and Celtics met almost every year in the NBA finals, but the two teams only met 3 times during the 1980s. The Celtics won in 7 games in 1984, the Lakers beat Boston in six games the following year, and the Lakers won their final series in 6 games in 1987. However, Boston or LA appeared in every NBA finals from 1980 until 1989, with the Lakers winning 5 NBA championships and Boston winning 3.
The Celtics and Lakers were not alone as being dominate teams in the 1980s. The Philadelphia 76ers made four NBA finals in 7 season between 1977 and 1983, winning the title in 1983 behind Moses Malone and Julius Erving. The Milwaukee Bucks actually finished the decade with the most wins of any NBA teams, but failed to ever make the NBA finals. The Houston Rockets are also the only western team besides the Lakers to make the NBA finals between 1980 and 1989 – but came up short in both 1981 and 1986.
Prior to the 1980s the NBA draft had always been an after thought for the fans. Usually the draft was conducted with little fan fair by team executives over the course of several days. The early era of the draft would go on as long as teams wanted to make picks. But with the rise of college basketball, fans wanted to see where their favorite college players would play next. This lead to the NBA broadcasting the draft on cable news networks. One of the first to be broadcasted live as the 1984 NBA draft.
The 1984 draft had a lot more fan fair than most drafts, this was due to the 1984 Summer Olympics being held in Los Angeles. The players had become household names and fans were really interested in seeing where they would play next.
The 1984 draft featured a lot of top big-men and it was thought that they would all revolutionize the game and be amongst the greatest players ever. The top two bigs and players in the 1984 draft was Hakeem Olajuwon from the University of Houston and Sam Bowie of Kentucky. The early cable sports showed debated over who the Houston Rockets should take first overall. The Rockets took Olajuwon first overall and Bowie fell to the Portland Trail Blazers at two. The Chicago Bulls ended up drafted North Carolina’s Michael Jordan third. Philadelphia, who had acquired the 5th pick from the Clippers years prior, took Auburns Charles Barkley. The Utah Jazz took Gonzaga point guard John Stockton at 16th. The quartet of Olajuwon, Jordan, Barkley and Stockton often times gives the 1984 draft class the distinction of being the great NBA draft class of all-time.
The addition of Michael Jordan to the NBA could not have come at a better time. The league was taking off and Jordan, with his nightly highlight reels was the fuel the NBA needed to dominate pop culture. Jordan became not just the greatest player in league history, but arguably the greatest icon in sports in history.
Jordan did not see much success in his early days with the Bulls, as the Bulls were terrible. Jordan would frequently pup up 40-points in a game but the Bulls would lose. In his first three years in the NBA, the Bulls won a total of 108 games. In 1996, if you include the Playoffs, Jordan and the Bulls would win 87 games in that season alone. Things changed for the Bulls when they added Scottie Pippen and Phil Jackson in the late 1980s.
One major reason for the Bulls struggles was the dominance of other eastern teams. Up until 2000, the Eastern Conference was always better than the Western Conference and the East had 3 absolute juggernauts playing in it. The Boston Celtics had won 3 NBA titles by the late 1980s, the Bucks where winning on average 55 games a year, and than there was the Detroit Pistons – a team who brought a ferocity and tenacity never witnessed in basketball before or after.
The NBA had foresight enough to try and avoid having all the talent in the league concentrated into just a few teams. The Lakers, Pistons and Celtics had deep rosters and several players who were good enough to be starters buried deep on their bench. This lead the NBA to created the NBA draft lottery in 1985, where the teams who failed to make the playoffs would have a better chance at getting a high draft pick. This solution came about as a way to try and prevent tanking, or losing games intentionally at the end of year. The first ever NBA draft lottery was won by the New York Knicks who selected Patrick Ewing. The draft lottery has been tweeked several times in the decades since, but it has thus far failed to prevent tanking.
The NBA was also a league of haves and have nots in the 1980s. While stability was an overall theme in the NBA, it was not sometime every fan base enjoyed. The Cleveland Cavaliers had probably < ahref=https://nbahoopsonline.com/teams/ClevelandCavs/articles/Stepien.html>the worst owner in sports in Ted Stepien. Stepien took over the Cavaliers in 1980 and immediately believed he was the greatest general manager in sports and began to give away future first round draft picks like they were candy. One such trade allowed the World Champion Los Angeles Lakers to select first overall where they took James Worthy. In 1982 the NBA stepped in and prevented the Cavs from trading any more picks, but Stepien complained and the league relented. The deals made by the Cavs unfairly balanced the league and he nearly drove the Cavs to move to Toronto. But eventually the NBA sent in its legal counsel David Stern to force the sale of the franchise.
David Stern became one of the most powerful people in the NBA and in sports by the early 1980s acting as NBA legal counsel. In that time frame he saved the Cavaliers from moving to Toronto, and the Jazz from moving to Minnesota, and helped facilitate the Clippers and Kings relocations to their current cities. With the rise of the NBA in society it was clear the league needed a strong figure at the helm of the league, so Stern was selected to replace Larry O’Brien as the NBA’s commissioner.
The Detroit Pistons became known as the bad boys, as their core of Isaiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, Dennis Rodman, Vinnie Johnson Bill Laimbeer, Rick Mahorn and John Salley where notorious for hard defense that bordered on foulings, and sometimes straight up muggings. The Pistons rose to prominence as the Celtics declined and went to three straight NBA finals, and winning two of them.
The Pistons brand of basketball, while successful, was not something the NBA wanted to see every night as many white collar fans despised it ESPN calling it an afront to civility. The league began putting in stiffer penalties for some of the Pistons antics, such as automatic suspensions for fighting, and ejections for rougher play. This coupled the Pistons getting older started their quick decline. Than there was the issue of the guy in Chicago.
In 1991 Michael Jordan and the Bulls finally got over the hump that was the Pistons and made their first NBA finals. The 1991 NBA finals put the new face of the NBA, Jordan, against the old face of the NBA Magic Johnson. At first it looked as if the old guard was not giving up their throne as the Lakers took game 1 in Chicago, but Jordan did what he always did in these situations, he put the Bulls on his back and willed them to four-straight wins and the franchises first NBA championship. The Jordan era was here!
Going into the fall of 1991 the basketball world would get two pieces of news that would reverberate around not just the sports world but society as well. First, the International Olympic Committee announced that for the first time ever it would allow professional athletes to compete in the Olympics and the World Basketball Championships. Previously, only amateurs could compete, but after the United States loss to professional basketball players playing for the Soviet Union in the 1988 Olympics, the IOC decided to even the playing field a little.
The second and far more shocking news was that NBA superstar, and one of the faces of the league announced in 1991 that he had contracted HIV. HIV had been a problem in American society for most of the decade of the 1980s, and was seen as a disease only gay men contracted. But when a seemingly healthy and popular 31 year old heterosexual superstar announced he had the virus, it sent shock waves through the world. Most of the NBA was highly supportive of Magic Johnson, but some players such as Utah’s Karl Malone were extremely vocal about not wanting Johnson to play in the NBA. Because the virus can be contracted through body fluids, including blood, a lot of players were apprehensive about playing with Johnson.
HIV/AID was poorly understood at that time, and despite doctors saying there was minimal risk involved with Magic playing, he stepped away from the NBA. He did return to the NBA for the NBA all-star game, where Detroit’s Isaiah Thomas kissed him on the forehead in a great display of humanitarianism.
The loss of Magic and several other key players in the years following spelt doom for the Lakers, as they fell from the tops of the league. In 1994 they went 33-49 and failed to make the playoffs for the first time since 1976. Magic Johnson even coached the team for 16 games during that season.
As Johnson, Bird, and Thomas fell by the way side the 1990s quickly became Jordan’s era. He was everywhere. He was in commercials for McDonalds, in music videos with Michael Jordan, meeting with Presidents Bush and Clinton, and with the rise of basketball trading cards in the late 80s and early 90s he was one of the most collected and valuable cards out there. And of course, he was named to the 1992 Olympic Mens basketball team.
Everyone knew that when the IOC allowed professional players to play that the United States wanted to make a statement and a splash. Going into the 1991 season USA Basketball announced ten of the 12 players who were going to play on the team. Obviously, Jordan was the top choice, as was his teammate Scottie Pippen. Jazz teammates Karl Malone and John Stockton were added. San Antonio’s David Robinson, who had been on the 1988 team, joined as did fellow center Patrick Ewing. Golden State Warriors forward Chris Mullin and Philadelphia’s Charles Barkley also made the team. The two old faces of the league in Boston’s Larry Bird and Lakers Magic Johnson were added. The final two spots were left open.
The February 18, 1992, edition of Sports Illustrated labeled the roster “The Dream Team” and the moniker stuck. This was the greatest roster ever assembled, and fans could not get enough. Everyone also wanted to know, who the last two players would be and what would happen with Magic Johnson?
The IOC announced that Johnson would be allowed to play, and Team USA’s coach Chuck Daily said Magic would be the starting point guard.
Since 1936 USA basketball had been controlled by the AAU, and the AAU was not happy about losing its status, even going as far as saying it would sue. The AAU demanded that the final two roster spots be filled with amateur players.
In May 1992 the final two roster spots were filled, with Portland’s Clyde Drexler and Duke’s Christian Laettner. This created a controversy as LSU’s Shaquille O’Neal was seen as the better player and Detroit’s Isaiah Thomas felling as if Jordan had pushed the USOC from selecting him.
The Dream Team began play shortly after the NBA finals and they lived up to their name. The USA crushed everyone they played in both the Tournament of the Americas competition and the 1992 Olympic games.
The roster form the 1992 Dream Team seemingly defined the NBA for the next decade. At least one player from that team was on a team that made the NBA finals from 1980 until 2000, with the exception of 1995. The rivalries of Jordan and Pippen vs Stockton and Malone would also come to dominate the late 1990s.
The NBA got shocking news in 1993 when Michael Jordan abruptly retired from the NBA. Jordan was at the peak of his career and had just come off winning his third straight NBA championship. Jordan retired and went to play baseball.
The void opened by Jordan’s retirement allowed the Houston Rockets lead by Hakeem Olajuwon to win a pair of NBA championships. First the Rockets defeated the Ewing lead Knicks, and than the Shaquille O’Neal lead Orlando Magic. In 1994 Hakeem Olajuwon became the first player to win the NBA’s MVP award and not be born in the United States.
The 1994 Rockets were one of the best teams in history and easily won an NBA championship, the 1995 Rockets were plagued by injuries an internal division. The Rockets made a shocking trade and acquired Clyde Drexler mid-season from the Portland Blazers, but it all looked for naught as the Rockets struggled to end the season.
The 95 Rockets finished the season 47-35 and in sixth place in the west. In the first round they had to face the 60-win Jazz. The Rockets took the Jazz to 5-games, which was the maximum number of games in the first round that year, and shocked the Jazz to advance. Next the Rockets faced the 59-win Phoenix Suns. After falling behind 3 games to 1 in the best of 7 series, the Rockets cam roaring back to win the series in 7 games. The Rockets had no time to rest as they than had to face the best team in the NBA, the David Robinson lead 62-win San Antonio Spurs. The Rockets and Spurs did not win a home game in any of the first 5-games of the series, but with the Rockets leading 3-2 they won game 6 in Houston and advanced to their 2nd straight NBA finals.
The Rockets faced the 57-win #1 seed in the Eastern Conference Orlando Magic. This Magic team, lead by Shaquille O’Neal and Penny Hardaway, are the only team in the 1990s to beat Michael Jordan in a playoff series. But the Rockets made easy work of the Magic, winning the NBA title in a four-game sweep of the Magic. Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovic famously said following the game 4 victory “Never underestimate the heart of a champion”. The 1995 Rockets are the lowest seed to ever win an NBA title.
Just as shockingly as he retired, in 1995, Michael Jordan announced he was coming back to the NBA. Because the Bulls had retired his iconic #23 number, Jordan was forced to wear #45. This was not the first time Jordan had worn a number other than #23, in a game in 1990 at Orlando someone stole his uniform and he was forced to wear #12.
Jordan’s returned ushered in a dominance like the league had never seen before. The Bulls won 203 regular season games between 1996 and 1998, and 45 playoff games and 3 NBA titles. The 1996 Bulls went 72-10, becoming the first team to ever win 70 games in a season, and they nearly did it again in 1997 winning 69. They may have won it again in 1998, winning 62, because Scottie Pippen missed a lot of games due to injuries.
The 1996 Summer Olympics were being held in Atlanta, an American city and many NBA players wanted to play. Several players from the 1992 team joined the 1996 team, they included Barkley, Pippen, Robinson, Stockton and Malone. Other veteran NBA stars added were Reggie Miller, Mitch Richmond, and Hakeem Olajuwon. Youngsters Grant Hill, Glenn Robinson, Penny Hardaway and Shaquille O’Neal also joined the team. Due to injuries Glenn Robinson was replaced by Gary Payton. The team was coached by Lenny Wilkens.
Like its 1992 counterpart, the 1996 team also crushed its opponents but not in as dominating fashion. But like 1992, the 1996 also captured the gold medal to the delight of the American home crowd.
The 1996 Olympics were also a big moment for women’s basketball. The US Women’s team was loaded with talented stars like Jennifer Azzi, Ruthie Bolton-Holifield, Teresa Edwards, Venus Lacy, Rebecca Lobo, Mikki McCray, Carla McGhee, Dawn Staley, Sheryl Swoops and Lisa Leslie. Like the men, the women also dominated and were often seen as more entertaining than the men’s team.
The success of the 1996 Olympic women’s basketball team lead to the creation of the WNBA the following season. The WNBA was closely associated with the NBA, with many NBA teams also owning WNBA teams and the WNBA teams using the NBA arenas.
The WNBA started off with just 8 teams in 8 NBA cities. All 8 cities were seen to have NBA fans who would likely attend WNBA games, but as of 2025 only the New York Liberty, Los Angeles Sparks and Phoenix Mercury remain. The Utah Starzz moved to San Antonio and than Las Vegas and are now the Las Vegas Aces.
In both the 1997 and 1998 NBA finals Jordan and the Bulls took on the Utah Jazz. The 1997 NBA finals featured Jordan’s infamous flu game. Game six of the 1998 finals is the most watched NBA game in history. The game’s iconic ending ended with Jordan’s famous last shot and the Bulls winning their sixth NBA finals.
The NBA looked like it was on top of the world in 1998. It had a dynasty, a rival for that dynasty, the biggest icon in sports and a new icon in Los Angeles named Shaquille O’Neal, but than things fell apart quickly. The NBA and the players union could not come to an agreement, so in July 1998 the league had its first ever lockout.
The lockout lasted until February on 1999, and during that time Michael Jordan announced he would again retire from the NBA. The Bulls coach Phil Jackson also announced he was stepping away, and Scottie Pippen decided to sign with the Houston Rockets. Fans also stepped away, the NBA ratings have never fully recovered and the leagues image took a hit. The NBA had hoped that the Shaq and Kobe Bryant lead Lakers would take over from the Jordan Bulls, but that did not happen right away. Instead, it was David Robinson and Tim Duncan who guided the Spurs to their first title during the 1999 lockout year.
Shaq and Kobe would respond in 2000 though, and bring the NBA a much needed Lakers dynasty. The Lakers would win 3 NBA titles from 2000-02, and as of 2025 they are the last three-peat champion in any of the major American sports leagues.
The NBA began having problems off the court too, especially with its image. New stories of players getting arrested filled the airwaves. The Portland Trail Blazers especially had a problem with criminal conduct – it was so bad in Portland that many fans and commentators started calling them the Portland Jailblazers or Jail Breakers.
The problems also leaked onto the court. Officiating in the early 2000s was terrible, a lot of bad calls that seemingly favored the big markets and the big stars began to turn fans off of the game. This really came to a head in game six of the 2002 Western Conference Finals between the Sacramento Kings and the Los Angeles Lakers. The Kings lead the series 3-2 and were poised to send the two-time champion Lakers home. But a series of bizarre and terrible calls sent the Lakers to the free-throw line 40 times. In game 7 a series of no-calls helped the Lakers win the series and eventually the NBA title.
Going into the morning of September 11, 2001, the top news story was if Michael Jordan was coming back to the NBA?. Obviously, that news story got buried behind the tragedies of that infamous day, but Jordan did return to the NBA one final time in 2001, but this time with the Washington Wizards. Jordan’s time with the Wizards was anything less than stellar. The team never made the playoffs and Jordan was often injured.
There is an old saying it is always darkest before the light, well in the NBA’s case that was partially true. The NBA got a huge infusion of likable talent in the 2003 NBA draft. The 03 draft is considered one of the top 3 drafts in NBA history. This draft saw the Cleveland Cavaliers select home town product Lebron James. The Toronto Raptors would select Chris Bosh, the Denver Nuggets Carmelo Anthony and the Miami Heat Dwayne Wade. All four stars would bring new life to the league.
But James, Melo and Wade were still rookies, and same players who had oversaw the decline of the NBA were still in charge. In 2003 the Lakers dynasty ended as Duncan and Robinson and the Spurs went on to win their second NBA title. This loss forced the Lakers to go and try to assemble a super team by adding Gary Payton and Karl Malone.
Super Teams were not new to the NBA, but the 2004 Lakers were different. This was the best player in the NBA, Kobe Bryant; the most physically dominating player in the NBA, Shaq; teaming up with a two time MVP, Malone; and one of the greatest defensive players in NBA history, Payton.
The Lakers were projected to win anywhere from 60-70 games, with one publication famously stating that they may go 82-0. But off the court issues mired the team. In July 2003 Kobe Bryant was accused of sexually assaulting a woman in Colorado. The case hung heavy over the Lakers locker room and frequently brought Shaq and Kobe to near blows. Karl Malone also made several disparaging comments about it as well. Malone, who had been the poster child for not missing games, ended up with an injury and missed half the season. Despite all this, the Lakers won 56 games and made their fourth trip in five seasons to the NBA finals.
In the NBA finals the Lakers met a hardnosed Detroit Pistons team, a team that harkened back to the Bad Boy Pistons of the 1980s. The Pistons, who did not have a single all-star on their team, shocked the Lakers and the world and won the 2004 NBA title.
The finals loss was the straw that broke the camels back for the Lakers. The Lakers traded Shaq to the Miami Heat, Gary Payton joined the Boston Celtics and Karl Malone retired. Phil Jackson, who had joined the Lakers as head coach in 2000 and was dating the team president Jennie Buss, also quit.
The NBA’s image problem came to a head the following season in a game in Detroit between the Pistons and Indiana Pacers. The two teams had the best records in the Eastern conference and had met in a brutal playoff series the season before, and it was clear they did not like each other. The Pistons had put the game away and were leading 97-82 with 46 second to go, when Pistons center Ben Wallace was fouled hard by Pacers forward Ron Artest. The brouhaha the followed immediately after was for the most part unremarkable. That is until a fan threw a cup at Artest, who was laying on the scorers table, and Artest charged the fan and physically assaulted him. Soon other Pacers players ran into the stands as did Pistons players and players and fan began to fight. The ensuring incident became known as the Malice and the Palace, and resulted in Artest receiving an 86 game suspension, Pacers forward Stephen Jackson getting 30 games, Pacers center Jermaine O’Neal getting 15 games, Ben Wallace getting suspend for 6 games, Pacers guard Anthony Johnson getting 5 and Reggie Miller, Chauncey Billups, Elden Campbell and David Harrison getting a one game suspension.
The incident at the Palace forced the NBA to start taking stricter steps to limit fan and player interactions like this. Beer sales were curtailed, and the caps of all bottles sold are taken away. The following season the NBA implemented a dress code for players.
The brawl did not hamper the Pistons however, as they went on to win the eastern conference finals again, but would lose to the Spurs in the 2005 NBA finals.
The NBA got another blackeye when in August of 2007 the FBI indicted referee Tim Donaghy for fixing games. Donaghy eventually pleaded guilty to fixing games from 2003-2007. Oddly enough Donaghy was involved in two other scandals where his betting was not the issue. He was one of the officials during the Malice at the Palace, and in 2003 he was confronted by Portland’s Rasheed Wallace following the game after Donaghy called a technical foul on Wallace. Wallace was suspended for seven game – that is the longest suspension in league history not involving drugs, gambling or violence.
Donaghy also stated that the NBA wanted to extend series and was actively encouraging officials to make bad calls, and he specifically pointed to Game six of the 2002 Western Conference between the Kings and the Lakers as a game the league fixed.
The NBA was in the need for a new face for the league. Kobe Bryant had been the face to replace Michael Jordan, but Kobe was often seen as distant, cold and moody, and his rape allegations soured a lot of people on him. Still, he was the best player the league had, but he played for a terrible team. So the league started to try and market a new face in Lebron James and it worked. James was able to guide the Cavs to their first NBA finals in 2007, where they lost to Duncan and the Spurs.
Kobe Bryant had one trait that he is famous for, and that is his desire to be better than anyone else. With the help of Pau Gasol the Lakers got good again and made the playoffs.
Like the Lakers the Boston Celtics had struggled for most of the early decade, but after some crazy trade during the 2007 NBA draft where they landed Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett, the Celtics looked poised for a title run. In the 2008 NBA finals the Celtics took on the Los Angeles Lakers, it was the first time the two historic franchises had met since 1987 and the Celtics avenged the 1987 loss with their first title since 1986. The Lakers would win back-to-back titles in 2009 and 2010, but in 10 they would do it over the Celtics. As of 2025 this is the last time to two historic franchises have met in the NBA finals.
By the late 2000s the Lebron James era had begun, he had become almost became as big of a pop icon as Michael Jordan. But unlike Jordan, Lebron had issues winning. He could not get the Celtics into the finals, which is something Jordan also could not do in the late 80s with the Bulls, but unlike Jordan and sticking with it, James left the Cavaliers.
In 2010 Lebron James and ESPN hosted “The decision” to see where James would go to play. He chose Miami to team up with Wade and Chris Bosh joined Lebron to form the NBA’s newest super team. James, Bosh and Wade were quoted during a celebration as saying that the Heat would win 7 NBA championships with easy.
One of the fallouts from the 1992 Olympics was the rise in international interest in basketball. The Soviet Union had always been able to challenge the United States at the amateur level, but nothing beyond that. In 1987 the Milwaukee Bucks played a scrimmage game against the Soviet Union and won easily. In 1989 and 1990 the Atlanta Hawks played games in Moscow as well. The NBA hosted its first international game in 1990 when the Jazz and Suns played a pair of games in Tokyo. By the 1990s more and more international players began to join the league. In 2003 the United States men’s basketball team got an awaking when it lost multiple games and finished with the Bronze medal.
By 2010 the international game had taken hold in the NBA and more and more of the top players where not born in the US. One such player was Dallas Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki. Dirk had been loyal to the Mavs and that paid off as in 2010 they built a really solid team around him as he was able to lead the Mavs to the 2011 NBA finals to face Lebron James and the Miami Heat. This was the second time the Heat and Mavericks had faced each other in the NBA finals, in 2006 the two faced off and poor officiating doomed the Mavs. But this time it was Dirk’s turn to hurt the Heat, and he and the Mavs stunned the heavily favored Heat 4 games to 2.
In the late 2000s a new method of sharing NBA and sports news began to take fold. Twitter, now called X, became a quick and easy way for fans to share news and information regarding the NBA. Starting in the mid 2010s, reporters Shams Charania and Adrian Wojnarowski became as important to the NBA as any player, coach or executive. Wojnarowki was the first to start Tweeting news and stories about the NBA, especially trades and signings. These Tweets became known as Wojbombs and were highly anticipated by fans especially during the off-season.<p>
Another lockout hit the NBA in 2011, as once again the league and the players could not agree on salaries. However, unlike the 1999 lockout where the general consensus of the fans was that the players were blame, this time the fans blamed the owners. When the lockout ended and games started again, the league also did a better job of keeping the season intact compared to the previous lockout. In 2012 there was an all-star game, a decent trade deadline and 66 games compared to just 50.
The Heat dominated the 66 game season, and would go on to win their second NBA title and Lebron’s first. They got even better the following year winning 66 games and a second title. The Heat tried to make it three straight, but their rematch with the Spurs in 2013 ended with Tim Duncan getting his 5th and final NBA title.
Lebron would return to Cleveland the following season, the fans in Cleveland seen it as somewhat of a home coming and were hoping he would deliver them to the promise land.
While the attention had been focused on Lebron in the East a new force had arises out west – Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors had been one of the worst franchises in sports from their last title in 1975 until 2015. But a new ownership and some of the best drafting in NBA history built a core of Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. The Warriors had a few seasons before 2015 where the core was good, but not elite, they became elite when they hired Steve Kerr to coach them.
The Warriors dominated the west in 2015 and Curry got his first MVP award, the Warriors also made their first NBA finals in 30 years where they faced Lebron James and the Cavaliers. The Warriors bested James in 6 games.
The following season the Warriors looked unstoppable, and in the regular season they were. In 2016 the Warriors finished with the best regular season record in NBA history going 73-9 and becoming only the 2nd team in NBA history to win 70 games. However, they would faulter in the NBA finals as Lebron James had probably his most memorable moment blocking a shot as the Cleveland Cavaliers won their first NBA title
The best got even better though, as in the off-season the Warriors added former MVP Kevin Durant to their roster. Its rare for an already established team like the Warriors to add a talented player in their prime like Kevin Durant, but the ability for Durant to sign with the Warriors was created by a series of weird and unique circumstances. First, the NBA salary cap jumped dramatically. This didn’t just cause the Warriors signing Durant, but many teams signed players during the 2016 off-season to bloated contracts. Second, the Warriors had signed both Klay Thompson and Steph Curry to smaller extensions due to both players having an injury history prior to their success.
The Durant-Curry-Thompson-Green Lakers once again dominated the NBA, but this time winning only 67 games, they did however beat Lebron James and the Cavs in the finals. Injuries were an issue the following season as the Warriors only won 58 games, but got healthy come the playoffs and once again beat Lebron James and the Cavs in the NBA finals.
Following the defeat to the Cavs, James once again packed his bags and left the Cavs, this time signing with the Lakers. James had no were near the success he had with the Cavs with the Lakers. The West was much too strong and James suffered multiple injuries. The 2019 season ended eight straight seasons with James making the NBA finals, its the longest streak of a non-Celtic in NBA history.
The Warriors suffered no such set backs, as they once again quickly plowed through the west and made it back to the NBA finals. But East was left wide open for another team to make the finals, and that team was the Toronto Raptors.
The Raptors had been a diehard fan base, and in 2016 became the first non-US city to host an NBA all-star game. In 2019 they became the first non-US city to host an NBA finals game. Finally, the Raptors became the first non-US team to ever win an NBA championship by defeating the Golden State Warriors 4-2.
Following the victory both the Raptors and Warriors fell apart. Durant left Golden State to sign with the Brooklyn Nets, and Kawhi Leonard left the Raptors to sign with the Los Angeles Clippers. Curry and Thompson both suffered multiple injuries and missed most of the 2020 season.
The NBA had high hopes for the 2019-20 season. For the first time, officially, the league set up a legal tamper period before free agency. The free agency season was hyped and ESPN aired a show announcing all the first hour free agency signings. Later in the off-season the New Orleans Pelicans traded their star Anthony Davis to the Los Angeles Lakers to set up a super team with Lebron James.
The Davis-James duo took the league by storm, as during the first few weeks of the season the Lakers looked unstoppable, but what always happened to Anthony Davis happened to Anthony Davis and he got injured part way through the season. Still, the Lakers persevered.
In the middle of February rumors around the world about a deadly virus began to spread. The virus dubbed COVID-19 would hit the world worse than any other illness in modern history leaving about 7 million people dead world wide. In Early March the PAC-12 conference cancelled its conference tournament, and soon the ACC, Big12 and Big10 followed suit until the NCAA announced it was considering postponing March Madness. Than the Oklahoma City incident happened.
On March 11, 2021, the 7 PM tip off in a game between the Utah Jazz and Oklahoma City Thunder was delayed. Fans became restless as the referees told both teams to go back to their locker rooms. Than it was announced that there would be no game and that the President Donald Trump was about the address the nation. As Trump finished his announcement that the US would not allow travelers from Europe and China to enter the US, NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced that the NBA was halting its season.
In the aftermath of the Jazz-Thunder game being cancelled, it was announced that two Jazz players, Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell, had tested positive for the virus.
The COVID-19 pandemic was a surreal time in modern history, for the first time there was no NBA, No March Madness, No spring baseball, no NBA summer league, all people had was Netflix’s Tiger King, and civil unrest. The NBA became embroiled in the George Floyd protests. Many players were seen at vigils and protest and many American conservatives took their frustration out on the league.
In July of 2020 the NBA announced that it would continue its season, with most teams still in playoff positioning playing games on ESPN’s campus at the Disney resorts in Orlando, Florida. The so called NBA Bubble started on July 31st.
The team many people accused of starting the pandemic and ending the NBA season, was also the team that first played in the bubble. The Jazz took on the New Orleans Pelicans in the first game. The Pelicans even being in the bubble upset a lot of fans. The Pelicans had gotten the first pick in the 2019 draft and selected Duke’s Zion Williamson, and many people felt the NBA unfairly gave them Williamson because they traded Anthony Davis to the Lakers. The Pelicans also did not have the best record and saying they were a playoff contender was a stretch.
The NBA bubble saw moderate success, but actions of the players again angered the American right. First, most players wore warmups with pro-black slogans on them, than following the Jacob Blake shooting the players threatened to end the bubble and stop playing as a protest.
The first round of the NBA bubble had some great series and most notable was the Jazz-Nuggets. In Game 1 Donovan Mitchell scored 57 points, and than in game 3 both Mitchell and Nuggets guard Jamal Murray had 50-point games. It was the first time two-players had 50 point games in the same NBA playoff game. The Nuggets won the series in 7, and than beat the Clippers in a 7 game series.
The NBA Finals were held in October of 2020, going up against the NFL regular season, the World Series and a presidential debate. The 2020 NBA finals saw some of the worst rating in NBA history.
The WNBA too had its entire season in the bubble, though unlike the NBA, many WNBA players did not play in their season. The WNBA, despite being a more left-wing league than the NBA, and protested more, did not face the same level of backlash as the NBA and had some of its best ratings in its history.
The 2020 NBA season ended in October, and the NBA began its 2021 season in November. The short break angered some players but were a relief to many others. Some players had not played since March and were angsty to get back on the court. The NBA draft was held in November and is the only NBA draft not held in June.
Fans were allowed back into arenas for the first time, but for the first few months all arena’s played at minimum capacity. Because Canada had stricter enforcement of the COVID-19 protocols, the Raptors played their home games in Tampa Bay, Florida, though they were still called the Toronto Raptors. By mid April most teams were allowing more and more fans into the games, and the 2021 NBA finals between the Bucks and Suns was at full capacity.
The 2020 Olympics were also cancelled, and eventually moved to August of 2021. For the first time ever Team USA was not favored to win the gold medal in men’s basketball, and after an exhibition loss to Nigeria and an opening game beat down to the favorited French, it looked like the US may not even medal. However, the 2021 USA basketball team made one of the biggest turn arounds in basketball history. After dropping their first game the Americans reeled off 7 wins in a row and in a rematch with the French it was the Americans who came out on top. USA center JeVale McGee became the first 2nd generational basketball player to win a gold medal, his mother Pamela McGee had won a gold in Atlanta in 1996.
Following the Olympics the NBA schedule got back on track. When the NBA kicked off its 2022 season in October, all 29 American teams allowed 100% capacity and the Raptors returned to Canada but did have restrictions. These restrictions would cause many teams not to send their stars to play in Toronto and created a mess for the entire league. But the following season the Raptors returned to normal with no restrictions.
The early to mid 2020s saw some of the best parody in NBA history. From 2019-2025, seven different teams won an NBA title with none repeating, and only Golden State, Boston and Miami made multiple trips to the NBA finals.
The 2020s where an era dominated by non-US born players. From 1956 until 2018, only four non-American born players won the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award: Olajuwon in 1994; Steve Nash in 2005 and 2006; Dirk Nowitzki in 2007. From 2019- until 2025, No American born player won MVP. The Bucks Giannis Antetokounmpo won it twice, Denver’s Nikola Jokic won it thrice, and Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid and Oklahoma City Thunders Shai Gilgeous-Alexander both won it once. Other awards were also won by non-US players such as Frances Rudy Gobert winning 4 Defensive Player of the Year Awards between 2018 and 2024, and Antentokounmpo winning one as well. NBA Most Improved Player was won by Greeces Antentokounmpo, Cameroon’s Pascal Siakam, Finland’s Lauri Markkanen, and Australia’s Dyson Daniels during this period as well.
Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid became MVPs in an era where the game was mostly a guards game. Both players were highly versatile and capable of putting up insane numbers besides scoring and rebounding. In 2025 Jokic became just the third player, and first non-PG, to average a triple-double for the season.
The early 2020s was also an era of high scoring, matching the 60s-80s in scoring output, and in some ways even out pacing those eras. From 2020-25 every NBA team had at least one 50-point scorer.
In 2023 the NBA introduced the NBA cup, or in-season tournament. All 30 teams participate in a four game conference round-robin style game play, with 2 games at home and 2 games on the road. The four games count towards a teams final record. The top 4 teams from each conference advance to a knock-out round, which also counts towards a teams season record. The final two play in Las Vegas for a chance to win the NBA cup, this game however, does not count against a teams final standings.
The Los Angeles Lakers won the first NBA in-season tournament in 2023 with Lebron James being named MVP. The Milwaukee Bucks won the next season, defeating the eventually NBA champion Oklahoma City Thunder.
The NBA cup has been met with mixed reviews. A lot of fans really dislike the whole concept, but most fans think its a good concept just that it is being poorly executed by the NBA.
On February 2, 2025, Shams Charania tweeted out a tweet that stopped the NBA world, the Dallas Mavericks had traded their superstar Luka Doncic to the Lakers for Anthony Davis – there were other pieces and the trade also involved Utah. But the trade was one of the most shocking trades in NBA history. Many fans claimed that the NBA colluded with the Lakers and Mavericks to get a new superstar to the struggling Lakers to pair with Lebron James, this allegation became worse when Jazz GM Danny Ainge said he was not told the full extent of his teams involvement in the deal. Mavericks GM Nico Harris made things worse by making some crazy comments about how this trade made the Mavericks better. The conspiracy theorists got more ammunition when the Mavs, despite having a 3% change, landed the #1 pick in the 2025 and got the highly coveted Cooper Flagg.
Despite the Mavericks drama, the Oklahoma City Thunder had one of the best seasons in their history lead by Gilgeous-Alexander. The Thunder went on to face the Indiana Pacers in the NBA finals, in the NBA’s first small-market finals match up since 1955 when Syracuse beat Fort Wayne. The series went 7 games and drew respectable ratings.