Culture Question:

I want to know something about NBA, NCCA

(posted: April 2010)

Well let’s start with the NBA.
The NBA, or National Basketball Association, is the top professional basketball league in North America. There are 30 teams in the NBA. 29 are based in American cities, and one in a Canadian city.

The league has been around since 1946. It started on June 6 of that year in New York City by the owners of the major ice hockey arenas in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States. Initially it was known as the Basketball Association of America (BAA). Though there were other basketball leagues running at that time, the BAA (later NBA) was the first league to play mostly in major cities, making use of the large skating arenas in the off-season. The first game played in the league took place at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, Canada, with the Toronto Huskies taking on the New York Knickerbockers.

In 1949 the BAA merged with the National Basketball League (NBL) and took on its current name of National Basketball League (NBA). The NBA started with 17 teams. The number of teams has varied over the years, from a low of 8 to its current 30.

Now on to the NCCA

NCCA stands for National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).  According to Wikipedia it is an association of “1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States and Canada.” Through the NCCA the universities and colleges of North America manage all of their different sports and athletics programs and competitions.

The NCCA’s own website stresses that their aim is to make sure that post-secondary sport competitions are governed in a “fair, safe, equitable and sportsmanlike manner”. They also try to keep the focus on what is best for the “student-athlete” on campus and throughout their “educational experience”.

Basically, the NCCA sets the rules for amateur sports (at the collegiate and university level) in the USA. They try to ensure that injuries are kept to a minimum and that good behaviour prevails.

Sources:

  1. Wikipedia, “National Basketball Association”; (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Basketball_Association), 26-Apr-2010.
  2. National Collegiate Athletic Association; (http://www.ncaa.org/wps/portal/ncaahome?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/ncaa/ncaa/about+the+ncaa), 26-Apr-2010.
  3. Wikipedia, “National Collegiate College Athletic Association”; (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Collegiate_Athletic_Association), 26-Apr-2010.

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