National Basketball Association
Homepage: http://www.nba.com/
Rules and regulations: http://www.nba.com/analysis/rules_index.html

History:
Conceivably every amateur basketball player’s dream ticket to national and international recognition is by making it to the National Basketball Association (NBA). Founded in New York City on June 6, 1946 as the Basketball Association of America, the league changed its name to NBA in 1949 after adopting more teams from rival National Basketball League.

Now, NBA is known as the premier basketball league in North America. Basketball greats Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Larry Bird, Clyde Drexler, Patrick Ewing, Magic Johnson, and Michael Jordan all trace their success and worldwide recognition to NBA – the league that has always been known to set the “overall standard of the competition is considerably higher than any other professional competition.”

Aside from producing superstars, the NBA is also known for promoting equality in the sport – being the first professional sports league to appoint a black head coach in 1966; the first to have a black general manager in 1972, and the first black majority owner in 2002. With only 11 founding teams in 1946, the NBA has had 44 total franchises so far, 30 of which are active.