# National Basketball Association (NBA)
> The US-based NBA is the world's top professional basketball league, with 30 teams, a US$76 billion media deal, and growing influence across Africa, Asia, and Europe.

**Meta:** type: reference · date: 2026-07-03 · heads:  · 4 takes · 4 lenses · 1 regions

## What it is

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is the premier professional men's basketball league in the United States and Canada, governing 30 franchises: 29 in the US and one in Canada, the Toronto Raptors. It is administered from New York City by commissioner Adam Silver, who has held the role since 2014. By total franchise revenue, the NBA ranks third among North American professional sports leagues after the NFL and MLB. The league's 82-game regular season runs from October through April, followed by a playoff bracket concluding with the NBA Finals in June. Broadcast rights are sold across more than 200 countries and territories, making the NBA the most globally distributed US team-sport league by territory count.

## History

Walter Brown, owner of Boston Garden, founded the Basketball Association of America (BAA) in New York City in 1946, reasoning that major ice hockey arenas sat empty most nights and could host professional basketball. The first game was played November 1, 1946, when the Toronto Huskies hosted the New York Knickerbockers. On August 3, 1949, the BAA merged with the rival National Basketball League, which had been founded in 1937, and adopted the name National Basketball Association. The league expanded across US markets through the 1960s and 1970s. A rivalry between the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers built a mass US television audience in the 1980s. Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls won six championships between 1991 and 1998, a run that turned the NBA into a global brand. The 1992 US Olympic men's basketball team, the so-called "Dream Team," fielding Jordan, Magic Johnson, and Charles Barkley, is credited with accelerating basketball's spread across Europe, Latin America, and Asia.

## Current state

As of early 2026, 30 NBA franchises compete across 29 US cities and Toronto. Combined franchise revenue reached US$11.3 billion in the 2023-24 season. In July 2024, the NBA signed an 11-year, US$76 billion media rights deal covering the 2025-26 through 2035-36 seasons: Disney (ABC/ESPN) at US$2.6 billion per year, NBCUniversal (NBC/Peacock) at US$2.5 billion per year, and Amazon Prime Video at US$1.8 billion per year. The deal ended Turner Sports' decades-long broadcast partnership and marked Amazon's entry into major live US sports. The current labor framework is a seven-year collective bargaining agreement between the league and the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA), ratified in April 2023 and effective through the 2029-30 season. For the first time since the salary cap was introduced in 1983, the deal added team and league licensing revenue to the Basketball Related Income (BRI) pool, generating an estimated US$250 million in additional player compensation in its first year.

## Relationships

The NBPA is the NBA's collective bargaining counterpart and one of the most active players' unions in US professional sport. The NBA G League, with 30 affiliated teams, functions as the official player development circuit and primary pathway to NBA rosters. The Basketball Africa League (BAL), launched in 2021 as the NBA's first professional competition operated outside North America, holds games across multiple African countries and serves as the main talent-identification vehicle on the continent. NBA Africa was incorporated as a separate commercial entity to manage the league's sub-Saharan business interests. The league maintains 17 international offices and has hosted regular-season games in Paris, London, and Abu Dhabi. In India, the NBA Academy program trains youth players, targeting a market where cricket is the dominant sport.

## What to watch

The US$76 billion media deal takes full effect from the 2025-26 season, shifting a substantial portion of the NBA's US audience toward streaming platforms for the first time. The seven-year CBA includes a mutual opt-out after the 2028-29 season; maximum-salary escalation and BRI mechanics will be the central flashpoints in the next round of negotiations. NBA Africa and the BAL are expanding competition formats and pursuing dedicated arena infrastructure; their commercial performance will determine how aggressively the NBA commits capital outside North America. The league's relationship with China has been under commercial strain since a 2019 tweet by a Houston Rockets executive in support of Hong Kong protests; market normalization has been incremental as of early 2026. Expansion to 32 teams, with Las Vegas and Seattle frequently cited as candidates, was under active league consideration as of early 2026.

## Regional takes (batched by bias / lens)

### official history
- **NBA Careers** (United States, en) — NBA's official corporate history page covering the league's 1946 founding as the Basketball Association of America, the 1949 merger creating the NBA, and its global growth programs including the G League and Jr. NBA.
  Source: https://careers.nba.com/history/

### official record
- **National Basketball Players Association** (United States, en) — NBPA's CBA portal documenting the current agreement ratified April 2023, effective July 1, 2023, through the 2029-30 season, with mutual opt-out after 2028-29, plus prior 2017 and 2011 agreements.
  Source: https://nbpa.com/cba

### official announcement
- **NBA Communications** (United States, en) — NBA's July 2024 press release announcing the 11-year, US$76 billion media rights deal with Disney (ABC/ESPN), NBCUniversal (NBC/Peacock), and Amazon Prime Video covering the 2025-26 through 2035-36 seasons.
  Source: https://pr.nba.com/nba-walt-disney-company-nbcuniversal-amazon-prime-video-media-agreements/

### sports business
- **Sportico** (United States, en) — Covers the April 2023 CBA ratification, detailing the US$250 million in additional first-year player compensation and the historic inclusion of licensing revenue in the Basketball Related Income pool.
  Source: https://www.sportico.com/leagues/basketball/2023/nba-players-union-ratify-collective-bargaining-agreement-1234720869/

## Across the graph
- Entities: Nba, Nbpa, Adam Silver, Nba Africa

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