How many games are in the NBA regular season depends on which team you’re rooting for. A season in the NBA generally lasts twelve months. It features 30 teams, 29 of which are in the United States, plus one team in Canada. In addition to playing 82 regular season games per team, the league plays eight playoff games in each conference. The winner of each conference’s playoff series advances to the NBA Finals.
Once the regular season is complete, the NBA will start the play-in tournament and pick honorary post-season teams. Each conference will select its captains, and the remaining 14 All-Stars will be chosen by the coaches of the teams. In addition, the top vote-getters will also draft their own team from a pool of players. The team with the most votes in each conference is awarded the first pick. Additionally, the Game MVP will be awarded to the player who performs best during the game.
In the first official NBA season, each franchise played eight games against its five conference rivals. The remaining teams would play seven games against each other. Therefore, the NBA regular season is 82 games long. Initially, teams would play three times per week and play three times on Saturdays. This format continued to be the same until the mid-1960s when the league expanded to its present size of 30 teams.
