The National Basketball Association (NBA) began life as the Basketball Association of America (BBA) in 1946 and played under that moniker for 3 years. The BBA started out with 11 teams in 1946. In 1949 merging with the National Basketball League (NBL) started with 17 teams but quickly started losing teams. By 1955 The NBL had only 8 teams and merged with the NBA because of financial troubles and only having small markets. From 1955 until 1970 the NBA expanded to 14 teams. From 1970 to 1976 added 4 more teams because of the closing of the NBA competitors The American Basketball Association (ABA) that started in 1967. Four teams came to the NBA making it 18 teams. From 1976 to 1980 four more teams joined making the total 22. From 1980 to 1989 five teams joined, making it 27 teams. In 1995 the NBA added 2 Teams in Canada making it 29 Teams in the League. The last expansion happened in the NBA was 2004 making it total and its current number of teams of 30 NBA Teams.
The NBA has always been a league that was dominated by what some historians have called “teams of the era”. The early decades of the NBA were dominated by the Minneapolis Lakers and their star George Mikan. From 1948 until 1954 the Lakers won 5 NBA Championships. From 1957 until 1969 the Boston Celtics won 11 Championships in 13 seasons and the 1980s was dominated by the Lakers and Celtics who combined to win 8 of the 10 titles during the decade. The 1990s saw the rise of Michael Jordan's Chicago Bulls who would capture 6 titles during the decade. The 2000s saw the Lakers again being dominant, winning 5 titles during the decade. Only the 1970s and 2010s did not see a franchise win at 4 NBA titles, though the Golden State Warriors got close by winning 3 titles in the 2010s.
