National Basketball Association
How basketball teams got their nicknames.
Western Conference
Find out how NBA teams in the Western Conference got their names from the Los Angeles Clippers
to the Golden State Warriors.
Western Conference NBA Franchises »
The Western Conference and Eastern Conference are comprised of fifteen teams in each division. Both divisions contain
three divisions of five teams each. The addition of the Charlotte franchise in the beginning of the 2004-05 season took the total
NBA teams to 30 allowing for this nice symmetrical organization.
The Mississippi River almost draws the divide between the two conferences, with the exception of the Western Conference creeping
slightly in further east to account for the Memphis and New Orleans franchises. The six divisions are the Northwest, Pacific, and
Southwest in the Western Conference, and the Central, Atlantic, and Southeast in the Eastern Conference.