What is the NBA

By N. Civita

NBA
The NBA (National Basketball Association) is a renowned basketball league, which consists of 30 teams. These teams are all from different parts of USA, except for one that is from Canada (Toronto Raptors), and they are divided into two conferences: East and West. Each team has a maximum of 15 players signed[1] at a time, thus, making it extremely competitive since only the most elite players in the world participate. Consequently, the level of play is remarkable and the margin of quality between teams is minimal, leading to a very balanced league all around.
 
Regular Season
The 2019-2020 NBA season will be the 74th of in its history[2]. In the regular season, each team plays a total of 82 games, 41 at their home city and 41 at the opponent’s stadium[3]. Every team plays against the rest of the league at least twice. It begins at the end of October and may last until May. Multiple games occur almost every day, having a sequence of up to 4 games a night.  Nevertheless, around the middle of the season (February), the teams take a small pause for the celebration of the All-Star weekend. This weekend rejoices NBA by selecting the best players, rookies, dunkers, three-point shooters to participate in different events. Such as, All-star game, rising stars game, dunk contest and three-point contest.
 
Playoffs
The NBA post season is called ‘Playoffs’. It begins soon after the regular season ends and last for around 2 months. The league is divided into the eastern conference and western conference, selecting the top 8 teams in each side. The top ranked team, in each conference, plays against the worst ranked team of the same conference (so on and so forth). Thus, it is now an eliminating tournament. All games are best out of seven (first to 4 win) series, consequently the losing team is removed from the Playoffs. After three stages of the playoffs, there are the conference finals. The two winners will compete against each other in the NBA finals[4]. The winner of this tournament becomes the champion of the NBA for that specific year.
 
Draft
The draft occurs once a year during the NBA off-season. It enables NBA teams to select (draft) qualified players to join their team. [5]The draft has two rounds that contain a total of 30 picks (1 per team) each. Thus, each team supposedly acquires two new young players annually. Moreover, team can trade in-between themselves as soon as a player is drafted. Lastly, the best predicted players are chosen higher up in the rank (foreseen best athlete is normally chosen for the first pick). So, in order for the NBA to balance out the league, the worst ranked teams of the season, have higher probabilities of gaining the earlier picks. Then, the NBA establishes the order of teams by random selection.

Essential Terminology:[6]
Air-ball: When the ball does not hit the rim, after the player shot the ball
 
Field Goal: Ball enters the basket
 
Free-throw: The chance of scoring after a foul, shooting from the free-throw line. 1 point per attempt (1-3)
 
And-one: When player scores while also being fouled and makes the free-throw
 
Bank shot: When ball bounces on the backboard and enters the basket
 
Dunk: When player throws the ball downwards into the basket
 
Assist: When a player passes to a teammate that soon after scores
 
Foul: Violation of player contact rules – opposition ball or free throw
 
Fouled out: When player is forced to leave the court after committing 6 fouls
 
Charge: It is a offensive foul (foul done by player attacking), as the attacker runs into a defender which is statically positioned and still
 
Dribble: When player bounces ball
 
Block: When player prevents opponent from scoring by hitting the ball to a other direction
 
Steal: When player takes ball away from opponent
 
Rebound: When player gets ball after a missed shooting attempt
 
Turnover: When players loses ball, giving the opponents team the possession
 
Travel: When player takes too many steps without bouncing the ball, equals to a turnover
 
Double Dribble: When player dribbles the ball, stops and holds it, then bounces it again. Equals to a turnover
 


[1] https://www.answers.com/Q/How_many_total_players_can_be_on_a_NBA_team_roster

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019–20_NBA_season

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Basketball_Association

[4] http://notasportsguy.com/Sports-Basics-Terms/NBA-Basics-home.html

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBA_draft

[6] https://www.maryboroughbasketball.com/basketball-terminology/ and http://notasportsguy.com/Sports-Basics-Terms/NBA-Basics-home.htm