NBA history has always included a dark side of gambling and drug abuse and these 21 players paid the price for their involvement.

As much so as the games, players, and teams themselves, the history of basketball is a history of American labor politics

Long before modern analytics incentivized three-point shooting, these star players were bombing away from long distance, even though it counted the same as a lay-up.

Due to expansion and relocations, the NBA has been forced to realign conferences multiple times since 1970, sometimes to confusing ends.

Joel Embiid and Julius Randle are joining a long list of players who have sat out the All-Star Game due to injury but here are the more rare examples where other life events and factors got in the way.

As part of our Totally ’80s series, we explore the 80 most monumental, controversial, influential, unforgettable, and indescribable basketball moments from the 1980s.

Several of the top ABA players, like Julius Erving and Moses Malone, continued on to NBA stardom while others, like Mel Daniels and Louie Dampier, had short, unspectacular stints after the merger. These are the top ABA players who, for various reasons, never got a chance in the NBA.

Like JFK or the Beatles, Michael Jordan is so ingrained in the consciousness of American culture that he was bound to be initiated with at least one conspiracy. But he’s not the only NBA figure or team that’s inspired (relatively) crackpot theories.

With the 2023 free agency period about to began, we take a look back at the most notable free agent signings that had a major effect on the player, the teams, and/or the league itself.

Going back to the invention of the game in 1891, we take a look at the 75 innovations, signings, mergers, rule changes, lawsuits, agreements, disagreements, trades, hirings, draft picks, and other off-court events that shaped the course of NBA history.

For better or worse, we don’t really see big fights on the court anymore in the NBA. But in the past, they’ve been just as threaded into the fabric of the sport as anything that gets logged into the box score. Today, we take a look at the 26 most memorable examples of on-court melees, presented below in chronological order.

With the stakes at their highest and teams usually evenly matched or close to it, playoff series can often swing on a single player’s availability. Here are five notable cases where a star player missed a critical postseason game due to suspension.

From its early speculative days to its middle aged eras of expansion to its current experimentation with play-in games, the NBA has refreshed its playoff format numerous times over the years, with mixed results for franchises, players, and fans.

Whether it was due to anti-trust or just a lack of trust, here are ten cases where the NBA league office had to defend itself in the court of law

We take a look back at the most controversial moments of David Stern’s long, successful, momentous career as an NBA league executive.

In some cases players are so unstoppable that the rule implemented to slow them down is named after them, and in other cases players sign contracts so unfair that their namesake regulation changes free agency forever.

It lasted for only nine seasons, its franchises were mostly unprofitable and volatile, its level of play was a step below, and its legacy in pro basketball is not always readily apparent. But the ABA had some undeniable influence on the NBA, especially in these six cases, which had their inception in the secondary league.