The NBA Finals is the championship series for the National Basketball Association (NBA) held at the conclusion of its postseason. All NBA Finals have been played in a best-of-seven format, and are contested between the winners of the Eastern Conference and the Western Conference (formerly Divisions before 1970), except in 1950 when the Eastern Division champion faced the winner between the Western and Central Division champions. From 1946 through 1949, when the league was known as the Basketball Association of America (BAA), the playoffs were a three-stage tournament where the two semifinal winners played each other in the finals.[1][2][3] The winning team of the series receives the Larry O'Brien Championship Trophy, which is awarded since 1977 (between 1947 and 1976 the winning team received the Walter A. Brown Trophy).[4]
The current home-and-away format in the NBA Finals is 2–2–1–1–1 (the team with the better regular season record plays on its home court in games 1, 2, 5, and 7), which has been used in 1947, 1948,[5] 1950–1952,[6][7][8] 1957–1970, 1972–1974, 1976, 1977, 1979–1984, and since 2014. It was previously in a 2–3–2 format (the team with the better regular season record plays on its home court in games 1, 2, 6, and 7) during 1949, 1953–1955, and 1985–2013,[9][10] in a 1–1–1–1–1–1–1 format in 1956 and 1971,[11][12] and in a 1–2–2–1–1 format in 1975 and 1978.[13][14]
As of 2024[update], the Eastern champions have a 41–36 advantage in NBA titles over the Western champions, with their most recent being the Boston Celtics who have won 18 titles, the most of any team in the league.[15] The 1949–50 Minneapolis Lakers, who won the NBA Finals, are not counted in the Eastern versus Western champions record above as they played in the Central Division.
Champions
- The first parentheses in the Western champions and Eastern champions columns indicate the teams' playoff seed. The second parentheses indicate the number of times that teams have appeared in an NBA Finals as well as each respective team's NBA Finals record to date.
Bold | Winning team of the BAA/NBA Finals |
Italics | Team with home-court advantage |
Italics | Finals MVP was on losing team |
† | Only defunct team to win championship |
Results by team
- Includes record as Seattle SuperSonics
- Not affiliated with the present-day Washington Wizards, known as the Baltimore Bullets from 1963 to 1973.
Consecutive championships
Eight consecutive
Three consecutive
- Minneapolis Lakers (1952–1954)
- Chicago Bulls (1991–1993)
- Chicago Bulls (1996–1998)
- Los Angeles Lakers (2000–2002)
Two consecutive
Frequent matchups
See also
- List of ABA champions
- List of National Basketball Association longest winning streaks
- List of National Basketball League (United States) champions
- List of NBA championship head coaches
- List of NBA franchise post-season droughts
- List of NBA franchise post-season streaks
- List of NBA G League champions
- WNBA Finals
- List of NBA players with most championships
- NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award
Notes
- Minneapolis was the Central Division (now defunct, no relation to the current Central Division) playoff champion, while the Anderson Packers were the Western Division playoff champion.[19] Due to the NBA's realignment into three divisions,[20][21] the team with the best regular season record after the Divisional Finals advanced automatically to the NBA Finals, while the other two teams faced off in the NBA Semifinals to determine the other finalist. Eastern Division playoff champion Syracuse had the best regular season record among the division playoff champions, causing Minneapolis to face Anderson in the NBA Semifinals.[19][22]
- The trophy was renamed for Walter A. Brown.
- The trophy was renamed for Larry O'Brien.
- The 2019–20 NBA season was delayed and shortened due to the COVID-19 pandemic and finished in October 2020 with a bubble tournament.[98]
References
External links
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