The National Basketball Association Conference Finals are the Eastern and Western championship series of the National Basketball Association (NBA), a major professional basketball league in North America. The NBA was founded in 1946 as the Basketball Association of America (BAA). The NBA adopted its current name at the start of the 1949–50 season when the BAA merged with the National Basketball League (NBL). The league currently consists of 30 teams, of which 29 are located in the United States and 1 in Canada. Each team plays 82 games in the regular season. After the regular season, eight teams from each of the league's two conferences qualify for the playoffs. At the end of the playoffs, the top two teams play each other in the Conference Finals, to determine the Conference Champions from each side, who then proceed to play in the NBA Finals.
Initially, the BAA teams were aligned into two divisions, the Eastern Division and the Western Division. The Divisional Finals were first played in 1949, the league's third season. The first two seasons used a playoffs format where Eastern and Western Division teams would face each other before the BAA Finals, hence there were no divisional finals. In the 1949–50 season, the league realigned itself to three divisions, with the addition of the Central Division. However, the arrangement was only used for one season and the league went back into two divisions format in 1951. The two divisions format remained until 1970, when the NBA realigned itself into two conferences with two divisions each, which led to the renaming to Conference Finals. The finals was a best-of-3 series from 1949 to 1950 to; a best-of-5 series from 1951 to 1956, and a best-of-7 series since 1957. Currently, the Conference Finals are played in a best-of-7 series like the NBA playoffs and Finals. The two series are played in late May each year after the first and second rounds of the Playoffs and before the Finals. At the conclusion of the Conference Finals, winners are presented with a silver trophy, caps, and T-shirts, and advance to the NBA Finals. The trophies had a slightly different base for each conference to help distinguish one from the other; the silver basketball on the Eastern Conference trophy sits on three pegs, while the Western Conference trophy has the basketball sitting on intercrossing circular rings. Starting with the 2022 NBA playoffs, the Eastern Conference champion would receive the Bob Cousy trophy, while the Western Conference champion would receive the Oscar Robertson trophy. The trophies were named after players who were instrumental in developing and advancing the NBA Players Association. In addition, the best performing player of each conference finals would receive either the Larry Bird Eastern Conference Finals Most Valuable Player Award, or the Magic Johnson Western Conference Finals Most Valuable Player Award, with the trophies being named for the two players credited for building the league up to greater popularity in the 1980's. The MVP trophies will follow a design similar to that of the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP trophy, only the ball on each trophy will be silver and would be smaller versions of the Conference Championship trophies in how they sit on the base.
The Los Angeles Lakers have won the most conference titles with 19. They have also made 23 appearances in the Conference Finals, more than any other team. The Boston Celtics have won 11 conference titles, the second most of any team. Twenty-two of the 30 active franchises have won at least one conference title. The Minnesota Timberwolves, Atlanta Hawks, Sacramento Kings, Memphis Grizzlies and Los Angeles Clippers have each played in at least one Conference Finals (Atlanta and Sacramento in two), but they have each failed to win their respective conference title. Two other franchises, the Charlotte Hornets, and New Orleans Pelicans have never appeared in the Conference Finals.
