How Many Games Are In An NBA Season?
How many games are in an NBA season? Simple: There are 82 regular season games. With a nice easy split of 41 games at home and 41 away. Nevertheless, where some of the confusion stems from for some; is that there are 4 different groups of games that add up to the 82 regular season games for each of the 30 NBA teams. Here’s a breakdown of what we mean:
- Each team plays 16 games against other teams in it’s own division.
- Each team plays 4 games against 6 of the teams in the other 2 divisions in their conference, totaling 24 games.
- Each team then plays the remaining 4 teams in the other 2 divisions in their conference 3 times, totaling 12 games.
- Each team plays 2 games against all the teams in other conference, totaling 30 games.
This unbalanced schedule allows for some teams to play more games against stronger opponents than other teams have to play, but over 5 years, all teams will end up playing the same number of games against every other NBA team.
Nonetheless, counting how many games are actually in an NBA season got more complicated starting in the 2023-24 season. The NBA decided to hold an in-season tournament in which all of the games count as regular season games. All games except the championship game of the tournament.
Additionally, the NBA is also the only major sports league to hold games on Christmas day as part of it’s traditional schedule. The NBA has had games on Christmas day since 1947. They also have games on MLK day every year since 1986.
How Many Games Are In An NBA Season?
However, what about in the past? What’s been the history of game scheduling? Well, since the formal start of the National Basketball Association, or NBA for short. In 1949 the number of games in an NBA season fluctuated as team came and went very quickly.
This caused the league to have to frequently adjust the schedule from as few as 48 games a season to as many as 71 games a season. Moreover, in 1953-54 the NBA changed the number of games in a season to 72. For the 1967-68 season the NBA set the number of games in a season to 82; the same number of games that it plays each season today.
As one can see, a lot of changes have gone down. Therefore, will the NBA ever change from an 82 game season? Maybe someday.
Currently, the league is looking to expand from North America to other countries in Europe and with international travel complications, playing 82 games might not be possible. But for now, it looks like it will stay at 82 games.
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