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The National Basketball Association (NBA) is North America’s premier professional men’s basketball league, composed of thirty teams. It is an active member^[1] of USA Basketball (USAB), which is recognized by the International Basketball Federation as the National Governing Body (NGB) for basketball in the United States. The NBA is one of the four major North American professional sports leagues, which also includes the NHL, the NFL and MLB.

The league was founded in New York City, on June 6, 1946 as the Basketball Association of America (BAA).^[2] The league adopted the name National Basketball Association in the autumn of 1949 after merging with the rival National Basketball League. The league’s several international as well as individual team offices are directed out of its head offices located in the Olympic Tower at 645 Fifth Avenue in New York City. NBA Entertainment and NBA TV studios are directed out of offices located in Secaucus, New Jersey.

The NBA originated in 1946 with 11 teams, and through a sequence of team expansions, reductions, and relocations currently consists of 30 teams. The United States is home to 29 teams and one is located in Canada. The Boston Celtics have won the most championships, with 16 NBA Finals wins. The next most successful franchise is the Los Angeles Laker, who have 14 overall championships (9 in Los Angeles, 5 in Minneapolis). Following the Lakers are the Chicago Bulls with six championships, all of them over an 8-year span during the 1990s. The San Antonio Spurs, who have won four championships since 1999, are the defending champions.

The current league organization divides thirty teams into two conferences of three divisions with five teams each. The current divisional alignment was introduced in the 2004-05 season.

Shaquille Rashaun O’Neal (pronounced “sha-KEEL”; born March 6, 1972), frequently referred to simply as “Shaq“, is an American professional basketball player, regarded as one of the most dominant in the history of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He starts at centerfor the Phoenix Suns, after previous stints with the Miami Heat, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Orlando Magic. O’Neal has won four NBA Championships, three with the Lakers and most recently in 2006, with the Miami Heat. At 7 ft 1 in (2.16 m), 321 lb (146 kg/22.9 st) and U.S. shoe size 23, he is famous for his physical stature. He has several nicknames, such as “Shaq”, “The Diesel”, “Shaq Fu”, “The Big Aristotle”, “The Big Daddy”, “Superman”, “The Big Agave”, “The Big Cactus”, “The Big Shaqtus” (which, according to SI, “is apparently all the rage in Phoenix”), “Wilt Chamberneezy” (given to him by former teammate Kobe Bryant), “The Big Baryshnikov”, “The Real Deal” and most recently after earning his MBAfrom the University of Phoenix, “Dr. Shaq.”

Kobe Bean Bryant (born August 23, 1978(1978-08-23) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American All-Star shooting guard who plays for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association. Bryant is the only son of former Philadelphia 76ersplayer and former Los Angeles Sparks head coach Joe “Jellybean” Bryant. His parents named him after the famous beef of Kobe, Japan, which they saw on a restaurant menu.

Bryant rose to national prominence in 1996 when he became the first guard in league history to be drafted out of high school. Bryant and then-teammate Shaquille O’Neal led the Lakers to three consecutive NBA championships from 2000 to 2002. Since O’Neal’s departure following the 2003-04 season, Bryant has become the cornerstone of the Lakers franchise, and was the NBA’s leading scorer during the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons. In 2006, Bryant scored a career high 81 points against the Toronto Raptors, the second highest number of points scored in NBA history.^[3] He was awarded the season’s MVP in 2008 after leading his team to the 2008 NBA Playoffs as the first seed in the Western Conference.

In 2003, Bryant made headlines when he was accused of sexual assault at a ski resort in Eagle, Colorado. In September 2004, the judge dismissed all charges on Bryant after the accuser declined to testify.

NBA Most Valuable Player Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers headlines the First Team, as the NBA announced the 2007-08 All-NBA Teams today. Bryant is joined on the First Team by Kevin Garnett of the Boston Celtics, Dwight Howard of the Orlando Magic, LeBron James  of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Chris Paul of the New Orleans Hornets.The lone unanimous selection, Bryant earns First Team honors for the third straight season and fifth time in his career. Winner of the 2007-08 NBA Most Valuable Player, presented by Kia Motors, Bryant ranked second in the NBA in scoring at 28.3 points per game to go along with averages of 6.3 assists and 5.3 rebounds. Bryant led the Lakers to the best record in the Western Conference (57-25, .695), a 15-game improvement over last year (42-40, .512), and the franchise’s 19th Pacific Division title.

Garnett, winner of the 2007-08 NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award, presented by Kia Motors, led the Celtics with 9.2 rebounds per game to go along with averages of 18.8 points and 3.8 assists. In Garnett’s first season in Boston, the Celtics had the league’s best record (66-16) and enjoyed a 42-game turnaround from the previous season, the largest single-season turnaround in NBA history. This is Garnett’s fourth First Team selection.

Howard, an All-NBA Third Team selection last season, led the league in rebounding (14.2 rpg), and paced the Magic in scoring (20.7 ppg) and blocked shots (2.2 bpg). He recorded an NBA-high 69 double-doubles, including eight 20-20 games. Howard led the Magic to its first division title since 1995-96.

James won his first scoring title (30.0 ppg) and became one of only three players in NBA history – joining Michael Jordan and Oscar Robertson — to average at least 30.0 points, 7.5 rebounds and 7.0 assists in a season. This season, James became the youngest player to score 10,000 career points. He earned First Team honors for the second time in his career.

Paul earns his first All-NBA selection after leading the New Orleans Hornets to their first Southwest Division title and the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference. Paul paced the league in assists (11.6 apg) and steals (2.7 spg), becoming the first player since John Stockton in 1992 to lead the NBA in both categories the same season. He also averaged a team-high 21.1 points per game.

The San Antonio Spurs’ Big Three congregated around the scorer’s table during a timeout in the fourth quarter, not long before they put the game away for good.The NBA’s defending champions were not going into an 0-3 hole against the New Orleans Hornets.

Parker and Ginobili scored 31 points each and Duncan added 16 points and 13 rebounds as the Spurs beat the Hornets 110-99 in Game 3 of the Western Conference semifinals on Thursday night.

“We know that going 3-0 - it’s never been done to come back like that,” said Ginobili, who along with Parker consistently got to the rim. “Today, for us, it was a Game 7. We knew if we didn’t win today, it was almost over. So we had a different approach. We played with more passion, more edge.”

The Hornets still have a 2-1 series lead. Game 4 is Sunday night in San Antonio.

Chris Paul,still almost unstoppable, led the Hornets with 35 points and nine assists. David West had 23 points and 12 rebounds for New Orleans, which was dominant in the first two games of the series.

With the Spurs’ win, the home teams are 10-0 in the four conference semifinal series.

“You got to give them a lot of credit,” Hornets coach Byron Scott  said. “I thought they played a lot more aggressive tonight. A lot more physical. Basically kind of took us right out of our game. I thought we lost our composure tonight a little bit as well.”

After trading leads all night, the Spurs led 83-78 entering the fourth quarter.

Ginobili, the league’s top sixth man, started for the first time this postseason and led a Spurs charge early in the final quarter. Left alone, he hit a wide-open 3 and was fouled by Bonzi Wells, who scrambled at him to guard the shot. Ginobili’s free throw put San Antonio up 87-82, and another 3 by Ginobili 38 seconds later made it 90-84.

New Orleans got within 90-88 before the Spurs took over, playing out the fourth quarter better than they have played all series.

“They made a lot more shots,” Paul said. “We got away from our defensive game plan somewhat. We didn’t defend as well as we did the first two games.”

San Antonio went on an 11-0 burst to take a 101-88 lead with 5:57 to play.

The Spurs couldn’t stop Paul, but West missed three of four free throws and the Hornets got no closer than 10 points in the latter half of the quarter.

The Spurs outscored the Hornets 27-21 in the fourth with Parker and Ginobili combining for 17 points.

They hired an Italian manager to run the national team and now the FA wants to scour the world for ideas to revive the English game. The FA revealed yesterday what it called its Vision for the next four years, a wish list of objectives designed to put an England team into a World Cup final and reverse the flood of foreign players swamping the national game.

Who will fulfil the role is a mystery, though, possibly even to Lord Triesman, the FA chairman, and Brian Barwick, the chief executive. Triesman wants an Englishman, but even he must be daunted by the prospect of a trawl through English football’s bare crop of talent when there are so few with the authority and credentials the job would appear to demand.