NBA teams list with most detailed informations
NBA Teams List .com provides list of NBA teams with most detailed informations about NBA general history, logos, playoffs, venues, teams ups and downs through history, most successful players, league MVPs, drafts and more. But first, here are current list of NBA teams sorted by alphabetical order:
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Atlanta Hawks Boston Celtics Charlotte Bobcats Chicago Bulls Cleveland Cavaliers Dallas Mavericks Denver Nuggets Detroit Pistons Golden State Warriors Houston Rockets Indiana Pacers LA Clippers LA Lakers Memphis Grizzlies Miami Heat Milwaukee Bucks Minnesota Timberwolves New Jersey Nets New Orleans Hornets New York Knicks Oklahoma City Thunder Orlando Magic Philadelphia Sixers Phoenix Suns Portland Trail Blazers Sacramento Kings San Antonio Spurs Toronto Raptors Utah Jazz Washington Wizards |
Keep reading and you will find many interesting stuff about nba teams like teams history, divisions, conferences, playoffs, logos, best players through history, etc.
The NBA Conferences
It is a deeply-rooted tradition in American sports that major pro and college leagues be divided into conferences and other sub-divisions. The Major League baseball has its National League and American League, the National Football Association, its NFC and AFC, the National Hockey League its Eastern and Western conferences. The finals traditionally see the champions of each conference compete against each other to decide who should be crowned league Champions. In similar fashion, since its official creation in 1949, the NBA has been divided in two, divisions at first, and then conferences. Even though geographical factors came into play when organizing the League, making sure the teams would primarily play within a certain geographical area and thus avoid having to make too many long trips too often, we’ll see that, in spite of their names, the Eastern and Western Conferences have not always been organized strictly on a geographical basis.
The Eastern Conference
The East is currently made up of 15 teams, roughly based east of the Mississippi – essentially on the East Coast – and include the only team located outside of U.S territory, in Toronto, Canada. Since the 2003-04 Season, the fifteen teams have been further divided into three 5-team partitions: the Atlantic, Central and Southeast Divisions. Here is a look at how the Eastern Conference is currently organized:
| Atlantic | Central | Southeast |
 Boston Celtics |
 Chicago Bulls |
 Atlanta Hawks |
 New Jersey Nets |
 Cleveland Cavaliers |
 Charlotte Bobcats |
 New York Knicks |
 Detroit Pistons |
 Miami Heat |
 Philadelphia 76ers |
 Indiana Pacers |
 Orlando Magic |
 Toronto Raptors |
 Milwaukee Bucks |
 Washington Wizards |
The East is often viewed as an overall more defense-oriented conference than its Western counterpart, with a tougher, hard-nosed kind of image, best impersonated by the 1960s Boston Celtics and the Detroit Pistons from the famous 1980s Bad Boys era.
It has also recently been an overall less competitive conference, with only 7 out of 15 teams finishing the 2010-11 Season above .500, against 9 in the West. On the other hand, the best team record of the season belonged to the Chicago Bulls, with 62 wins, surpassing the West’s San Antonio Spurs by one game.
A little bit of history
When in 1949 the BAA (Basketball Association of America) absorbed the rival NBL (National Basketball League) to officially become the NBA, incorporating the new teams called for some realignment. The League therefore decided to divide the seventeen teams into three divisions: Eastern, Central and Western Divisions. The ancestor of the Eastern Conference was born. Six of the original teams were assigned to it: the New York Knicks, Boston Celtics, Syracuse Nationals (now Philadelphia 76ers), Washington Capitols (1946-51), Philadelphia Warriors (now Golden State Warriors) and Baltimore Bullets (1944-54). The following season, the number of NBA teams dropped to eleven and the Central Division disappeared altogether. In the East, the Bullets and Capitols folded, leaving only 4 teams to compete for pretty much the whole of the 1950s.
 New York Knickerbockers |
 Washington Capitols |
 Boston Celtics |
 Philadelphia Warriors |
 Syracuse Nationals |
 Baltimore Bullets |
The 1960s saw a few more adjustments. The Warriors relocated to San Francisco in 1962 and became part of the West, while the Cincinnati Royals took their place in the East. In 1966, to balance out the number of teams in the East and West, the new Baltimore Bullets (now Washington Wizards, with no connection to the previous team of the same name) were reallocated to the East, the division now boasting a total of 5 teams. In 1967, it was the Detroit Pistons who came to play in the Eastern Division, while the West welcomed two expansion teams, the Seattle SuperSonics and San Diego Rockets. In 1968, it was the East’s turn to welcome its very first expansion team: the Milwaukee Bucks.
 New York Knickerbockers |
 Baltimore Bullets |
 Boston Celtics |
 Detroit Pistons |
 Philadelphia 76ers |
 Milwaukee Bucks |
 Cincinnati Royals |
Finally, it is before the start of the 1970-71 Season, with the arrival of three new franchises that the NBA was reorganized into conferences. The newly-created Eastern Conference, now with 8 teams, was further divided into the Atlantic and Central divisions and included three new teams: the Atlanta Hawks (formally in the West), the Buffalo Braves and Cleveland Cavaliers (expansion teams), while the Milwaukee Bucks, the Detroit Pistons and Kansas City/Omaha Kings (formally Cincinnati Royals) were shifted to the West. In 1973, the Baltimore Bullets relocated to Washington, becoming the Capital Bullets and were reassigned to the West, while the Houston Rockets (formerly from San Diego) come to the East. In 1974, the conference welcomed a new franchise, the New Orleans Jazz, while the Capital Bullets officially became the Washington Bullets.
New York Knicks |
 Cleveland Cavaliers |
Boston Celtics |
 Houston Rockets |
Philadelphia 76ers |
 New Orleans Jazz |
 Washington Bullets |
 Atlanta Hawks |
 Buffalo Braves |
1976 marked the merger of NBA with the rival league ABA. As a result, 4 new teams were absorbed by the League: the New York Nets (who would relocate to New Jersey the following year), the Indiana Pacers, the San Antonio Spurs and the Denver Nuggets. Both the Spurs and Nets were assigned to the East.
In 1978, the Buffalo Braves relocated to the West Coast, becoming the San Diego Clippers, while the Detroit Pistons came to the East. In 1979, the New Orleans Jazz relocated to Salt Lake City as the Utah Jazz and became part of the Western Conference. The Indiana Pacers took their place in the East.
 New York Knicks |
Cleveland Cavaliers |
 Boston Celtics |
Houston Rockets |
 Philadelphia 76ers |
 Indiana Pacers |
Washington Bullets |
Atlanta Hawks |
 Detroit Pistons |
 San Antonio Spurs |
 New Jersey Nets |
The 1980s and 1990s were a period of extensive development for the League and the arrival, in 1980, of the 23rd franchise, the Dallas Mavericks, called again for some reorganization. The San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets were reallocated to the West, while The Milwaukee Bucks and Chicago Bulls came east. In 1988 and ‘89, the NBA welcomed four expansion franchises, the Miami Heat, the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Charlotte Hornets and the Orlando Magic. After a few seasons of bouncing around, The Magic, Hornets and Heat were permanently assigned to the East. 1995, the first two teams to be located outside of U.S territory, the Toronto Raptors and Vancouver Grizzlies (they would relocate to Memphis in 2001), joined the NBA. The Raptors became part of the East.
 New York Knicks |
 Indiana Pacers |
 Boston Celtics |
 Atlanta Hawks |
 Philadelphia 76ers |
Chicago Bulls |
 Washington Bullets |
 Milwaukee Bucks |
 Detroit Pistons |
 Miami Heat |
 New Jersey Nets |
 Orlando Magic |
 Cleveland Cavaliers |
 New Orleans Hornets |
 Toronto Raptors |
Finally, in 2004, the Charlotte Bobcats were the 30th and latest expansion franchise to join the NBA, (the Hornets having relocated to New Orleans two years before). As a result, the league realigned the Conferences, sub-dividing each of them into 5-team divisions.
Most successful teams and players
Over the course of its 70+ year long history, the Eastern division/conference has seen many teams, players and coaches leave their marks on the game.
The most titled franchise of the East, and of NBA as it turns out, are the legendary Boston Celtics, who hold a record 17 NBA championships and 21 Eastern Conference championship titles. They are well ahead of any other team in the Conference, the Syracuse Nationals/Philadelphia 76ers having been champions only 9 times, the New York Knicks, 8 times and the Chicago Bulls, 6 times.
Out of the 62 official NBA Finals played since 1949, the Eastern Division/Conference won 32, while the West only triumphed 28 times. The last Eastern Conference team to be crowned NBA champions were the Boston Celtics in 2008.
From 1955 to 1970, the East put together an amazing streak of victory, winning all NBA titles but one. The Boston Celtics claimed 11 of them, the Syracuse Nationals/Philadelphia 76ers, 2 and the New York Knicks and Philadelphia Warriors, one each.
The 1990s, again, saw the NBA being dominated by two Eastern teams, first the Detroit Pistons, during their infamous Bad Boy Era, and then Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls who garnered six titles in eight years.
Few players play with the same team or even within the same conference their whole career through so it is often abusive to label players as exclusively “Eastern Conference players” but some of them, like Michael Jordan, Moses Malone, Larry Bird or Wilt Chamberlain, through the special bond they developed with one team or the role they played in helping their organization win titles have earned that distinction.
Since the MVP Award was implemented in 1956, it’s been awarded 32 times to a player from the Eastern Conference, while the West only claimed 24. Among the multiple winners are Michael Jordan (5 times with the Chicago Bulls), Bill Russell (5 times with the Boston Celtics), Wilt Chamberlain (once with the Philadelphia Warriors and 3 times with the 76ers), Larry Bird (3 times with the Celtics), Moses Malone (3 times with the Sixers) and LeBron James (twice with the Cleveland Cavaliers). The last 3 MVP awards have been awarded to players from the East (James and Derrick Rose, from the Bulls).
| 1957. – Bob Cousy (Boston Celtics) | 1981. – Julius Erving (Philadelphia 76ers) |
| 1958. – Bill Russell (Boston Celtics) | 1982. – Moses Malone (Houston Rockets) |
| 1960. – Wilt Chamberlain (Philadelphia Warriors) | 1983. – Moses Malone (Philadelphia 76ers) |
| 1961. – Bill Russell (Boston Celtics) | 1984. – Larry Bird (Boston Celtics) |
| 1962. – Bill Russell (Boston Celtics) | 1985. – Larry Bird (Boston Celtics) |
| 1963. – Bill Russell (Boston Celtics) | 1986. – Larry Bird (Boston Celtics) |
| 1964. – Oscar Robertson (Cincinnati Royals) | 1988. – Michael Jordan (Chicago Bulls) |
| 1965. – Bill Russell (Boston Celtics) | 1991. – Michael Jordan (Chicago Bulls) |
| 1966. – Wilt Chamberlain (Philadelphia 76ers) | 1992. – Michael Jordan (Chicago Bulls) |
| 1967. – Wilt Chamberlain (Philadelphia 76ers) | 1996. – Michael Jordan (Chicago Bulls) |
| 1968. – Wilt Chamberlain (Philadelphia 76ers) | 1998. – Michael Jordan (Chicago Bulls) |
| 1970. – Willis Reed (New York Knicks) | 2004. – Kevin Garnett (Minnesota Timberwolves) |
| 1973. – Dave Cowers (Boston Celtics) | 2009. – LeBron James (Cleveland Cavaliers) |
| 1975. – Bob McAdoo (Buffalo Braves) | 2010. – LeBron James (Cleveland Cavaliers) |
| 1979. – Moses Malone (Houston Rockets) | 2011. – Derrick Rose (Chicago Bulls) |
Best scorer of the league:
The NBA Scoring champion has been from the East 37 times (thanks, especially to Michael Jordan’s 10 titles), for 20 for the West.
Other Hall of Famers attached to the Eastern Conference include Bob Cousy (six titles with the Boston Celtics), Dolph Scheyes (12 times all-star with the Syracuse Nationals/Philadelphia 76ers), Paul Arizin (Philadelphia Warriors), Oscar Robertson (MVP with the Cincinnati Royals and NBA Champion with the Milwaukee Bucks), Hal Greer (Nationals), Willis Reed (NY Knicks), John Havlicek (Celtics), Clyde Frazier (Knicks), Julius Erving (76ers), Kevin McHale (Celtics), Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars (Detroit Pistons), Dominique Wilkins (Atlanta Hawks), Patrick Ewing (NY Knicks), Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman (Chicago Bulls).
The All-Star game
Since 1951, the best players from the Eastern and Western conferences meet in an exhibition game, the NBA All-Star Game. It is traditionally held in February and opposes players voted in both by the public (the starting line-up) and the coaches (7 bench players for each team). The Eastern All-Stars traditionally wear blue uniforms although from 1997 to 2002, players were allowed to wear their usual team jerseys.
The East won 36 of the 61 matches played (1999 All-Star Game was cancelled due to lockout). The last time the Eastern Conference triumphed was in the 2010 edition, when they beat the West 141-139 in Dallas.
League development
The NBA is currently studying the possibility of adding franchises in Europe as part of the Eastern Conference. Cities as Paris and London have already been considered as potential hosts. In 2011, the first NBA regular season games played outside of North America saw the New Jersey Nets meet the Toronto Raptors in London’s 02 Arena.
The Western Conference
The West also boasts 15 teams, hosted by cities roughly located west of the Mississippi. Just like in the East, the fifteen teams are divided into three 5-team divisions, the Northwest, Pacific and Southwest Divisions (sorted in alphabetical order), as shown below:
| Northwest | Pacific | Southwest |
 Denver Nuggets |
 Golden State Warriors |
 Dallas Mavericks |
 Minnesota Timberwolves |
 Los Angeles Clippers |
 Houston Rockets |
 Oklahoma City Thunder |
 Los Angeles Lakers |
 Memphis Grizzlies |
 Portland Trail Blazers |
 Phoenix Suns |
 New Orleans Hornets |
 Utah Jazz |
 Sacramento Kings |
 San Antonio Spurs |
The Western Conference is often considered as more flashy and more offence-oriented than the East, as best illustrated by the L.A Lakers “Showtime” Era. Still today, seven out of the ten teams with the most points per game in the League are part of the West.
The West has also recently been an overall more competitive conference, with 9 out of 15 teams finishing the 2010-11 Season over .500 in winning percentage, against 7 in the East. But the best team record belonged to the Chicago Bulls, with 62 wins, surpassing the West’s San Antonio Spurs by one game.
A little bit of history
The Western Division, ancestor of the Western Conference, was born in 1949 with the NBA, and originally included 6 teams: The Indianapolis Olympians (1949-1953), the Anderson Packers (1946-1951), the Tri-Cities Blackhawks (now Atlanta Hawks), the Sheboygan Red Skins (1938-1950), the Waterloo Hawks (1948-1950) and the original Denver Nuggets (1948-1950). In 1950, the overall number of teams in the League dropped from 17 to 11 and the Central Division disappeared, absorbed by the Western division who had already lost most of its own teams. The West now included 5 franchises:
 Rochester Royals |
 Fort Wayne Pistons |
 Minneapolis Lakers |
 Milwaukee Hawks |
 Indianapolis Olympians |
Unlike in the East, where things were rather stable for the whole of the 1950s, the West saw many changes on the period. In 1953, the Olympians folded, leaving the division with only 4 teams. In 1955, the Hawks left Milwaukee and relocated – to St Louis, Missouri – imitated in 1957 by the Pistons and the Royals. The Pistons moved to Michigan where they became the Detroit Pistons and the Royals to Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1960, it was the Lakers’ turn to leave Minnesota and relocate to sunny California to become the Los Angeles Lakers. In following year, the newly-created Chicago Packers made their debut into the League as part of the Western Division, which now consisted of 5 teams. In 1962, the Warriors relocated to San Francisco and traded with the Cincinnati Royals for a spot in the West. The Chicago Packers briefly became the Chicago Zephyrs.
 San Francisco Warriors |
 Detroit Pistons |
 Los Angeles Lakers |
 St. Louis Hawks |
 Chicago Zephyrs |
In 1963, the Chicago Zephys left the Windy City, becoming the new Baltimore Bullets (with no relation to the previous team of the same name). Chicago got itself a brand new Western Division team in 1966 with the creation of the Bulls and as a consequence, the Baltimore Bullets got reassigned to the East. In 1967, it was the Detroit Pistons who started to play in the Eastern Division, while the West welcomed two expansion teams, the Seattle SuperSonics and San Diego Rockets. In 1968, the Hawks relocated again, this time to Atlanta where they are still today, and the Phoenix Suns make their debut in the league, playing in the West.
 San Francisco Warriors |
 Phoenix Suns |
Los Angeles Lakers |
 Atlanta Hawks |
Chicago Bulls |
 Seattle SuperSonics |
 San Diego Rockets |
Finally it is before the start of the 1970-71 Season, with the arrival of three new franchises that the NBA was reorganized into conferences. The Western Conference, now with 9 teams was divided into the Midwest and Pacific divisions. The Atlanta Hawks became part of the East, while the Milwaukee Bucks and Detroit Pistons came back to the West, which was rounded up by the addition of expansion franchise Portland Trail Blazers. In 1971, the Rockets left Southern California and settled in Houston, Texas. The Warriors moved across the Bay to Oakland and were renamed the Golden State Warriors. In 1972, the Cincinnati Royals relocated to Kansas City and Omaha, Nebraska and became the Kansas City-Omaha Kings (and later the Kansas City Kings) playing with the Western Conference, while the Houston Rockets take their place in the East.
 Golden State Warriors |
Los Angeles Lakers |
Milwaukee Bucks |
 Portland Trail Blazers |
 Seattle SuperSonics |
 Kansas City Kings |
Phoenix Suns |
Chicago Bulls |
 Detroit Pistons |
1976 was the year the NBA absorbed its rival league ABA. As a result, 4 new teams joined the league, the New York Nets, the Indiana Pacers, the San Antonio Spurs and the new Denver Nuggets (with no connection to the original team). Both the Pacers and Nuggets started playing in the West.
In 1978, the Buffalo Braves relocated to the West Coast, and Conference, and became the San Diego Clippers, while the Detroit Pistons once again went back to play in the East. In 1979, the New Orleans Jazz relocated to Salt Lake City and started playing in the Western Conference under the name Utah Jazz. The Indiana Pacers took their place in the East.
The arrival of the 23rd NBA franchise, the Dallas Mavericks, in 1980, called for some realignment. The San Antonio Spurs and Houston Rockets were shifted to the West, while The Milwaukee Bucks and Chicago Bulls became part of the East.
Golden State Warriors |
 Los Angeles Lakers |
 Utah Jazz |
Portland Trail Blazers |
Seattle SuperSonics |
 Kansas City Kings |
Phoenix Suns |
 San Diego Clippers |
 Denver Nuggets |
Houston Rockets |
San Antonio Spurs |
 Dallas Mavericks |
In 1984, the Clippers left San Diego to settle in Los Angeles, sharing duties with the Lakers in the City of Angels. In 1985, it was the Kings’ turn to move to California and find a home in Sacramento. The creation, in 1988 and 1989, of four new franchises, the Miami Heat, the Charlotte Hornets, the Orlando Magic and the Minnesota Timberwolves had limited impact on the Conference, as after a few seasons of bouncing around, only the Timberwolves would be permanently assigned to the West. In 1995, the conference welcomed its last expansion franchise to date, the Vancouver Grizzlies who have since then relocated to Memphis.
 Minnesota Timberwolves |
 Memphis Grizzlies |
 Golden State Warriors |
Los Angeles Lakers |
 Utah Jazz |
 Portland Trail Blazers |
 Seattle SuperSonics |
Sacramento Kings |
Phoenix Suns |
 Los Angeles Clippers |
 Denver Nuggets |
 Houston Rockets |
San Antonio Spurs |
Dallas Mavericks |
Finally, in 2004, the Charlotte Bobcats, 30th and last to date expansion franchise joined the NBA. As a result, the league realigned the Conferences, dividing each one of them into three 5-team divisions. In 2008, the Seattle SuperSonics left the West Coast for Oklahoma and started playing as the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Most successful teams and players
The most titled franchise in the West is the Minnesota/Los Angeles Lakers, with a record 31 Western Conference championship rings, to which you can add 16 NBA titles, second only to the Boston Celtics’ 17 Larry O’Brien trophies. Their domination of the conference over the years has been total as the next teams, the San Antonio Spurs, the Houston Rockets and the St Louis/Atlanta Hawks each compile no more than 4 titles.
Out of the 62 official NBA Finals played since 1949, the Western division or Conference has emerged a winner 28 times, while the East did so 32 times. The reigning champions Dallas Mavericks, a Western Conference team, defeated the Miami Heat in the 2011 Finals. Out of the 28 championships claimed by the West, 16 of them belong to the Lakers and 4 to the Spurs.
While the Spurs’ victories all came between 1999 and 2007, with David Robinson and Tim Duncan as team leaders, the Lakers have always remained contenders: in the 50s while still in Minneapolis, in the 70s behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, in the 80s with Magic Johnson, at the turn of the millennium with Shaquille O’Neal and again recently behind Kobe Bryant.
Most players having played with several teams throughout the course of their careers, it might be hard to describe them as purely Western conference players, but we can certainly count players like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant among the ones who have earned that distinction.
Since the MVP Award was implemented in 1956, it went 25 times to a Western Conference player against 32 times to the East. Among the multiple winners are Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (3 times with the Milwaukee Bucks and 3 with the L.A Lakers), Magic Johnson (3 times with the Lakers), Tim Duncan (twice with the Spurs), Karl Malone (twice with the Jazz), Steve Nash (twice with the Suns).The last player from the Western Conference to be voted League MVP was Kobe Bryant in 2008.
| 1956. – Bob Pettit (St Louis Hawks) | 1990. – Magic Johnson (L.A Lakers) |
| 1959. – Bob Pettit (St Louis Hawks) | 1993. – Charles Barkley (Phoenix Suns) |
| 1964. – Oscar Robertson (Cincinnati Royals) | 1994. – Hakeem Olajuwon (Houston Rockets) |
| 1971. – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Milwaukee Bucks) | 1995. – David Robinson (San Antonio Spurs) |
| 1972. – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Milwaukee Bucks) | 1997. – Karl Malone (Utah Jazz) |
| 1974. – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Milwaukee Bucks) | 1999. – Karl Malone (Utah Jazz) |
| 1976. – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (L.A Lakers) | 2000. – Shaquille O’Neal (L.A Lakers) |
| 1977. – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (L.A Lakers) | 2002. – Tim Duncan (San Antonio Spurs) |
| 1978. – Bill Walton (Portland Trail Blazers) | 2003. – Tim Duncan (San Antonio Spurs) |
| 1980. – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (L.A Lakers) | 2005. – Steve Nash (Phoenix Suns) |
| 1987. – Magic Johnson (L.A Lakers) | 2006. – Steve Nash (Phoenix Suns) |
| 1989. – Magic Johnson (L.A Lakers) | 2007. – Dirk Nowitzki (Dallas Mavericks) |
| 2008. – Kobe Bryant (L.A Lakers) |
Other Hall of Famers having primarily played in the Western Conference include Bob Pettit (Milwaukee/St Louis Hawks), Elgin Baylor (Lakers), Jerry West (Lakers), Rick Barry (Golden State Warriors), Pete Maravich (Hawks and Utah Jazz), Bill Walton (Portland Trail Blazers and Clippers), Alex English (Denver Nuggets), George Gervin (San Antonio Spurs), James Worthy (Lakers), Clyde Drexler (Portland Trail Blazers and Houston Rockets), Charles Barkley (Phoenix Suns and Houston Rockets), Hakeem Olajuwon (Houston Rockets), John Stockton (Utah Jazz) and Chris Mullin (Golden State Warriors).
The All-Star game
Since 1951, the Western All-Stars have traditionally worn red uniforms although from 1997 to 2002, players were allowed to wear their usual team jerseys.
The West has only won 25 of the 61 All-star games played (1999 All-Star Game was cancelled due to lockout) but won the last two contests in 2011 and 2012.
The 2011-2012. resume
The best record of the League currently belongs to Eastern Conference team Chicago Bulls, two games ahead of Western Conference’s Oklahoma City Thunder. Among the ten teams with the best records of the NBA, seven are from the Western Conference, while only three are from the East, but these three franchises, namely the Chicago Bulls, the Miami Heat and the Orlando Magic, make up most of the top 5.