Why is the NBA oftentimes called a “league,” even though “NBA” stands for “National Basketball Association”? The reason I ask is because Dick Stockton (who was once the lead CBS NBA play-by-play man) said this of Boston forward Larry Bird in Game 4 of the '85 NBA World Championship: “Bird is the first non-center to win back-to-back MVP awards in the league; quite a distinction in its own right.”
Seems to fit the definition nicely:
Because it is a league, obviously.
The fact that it styles itself “National Basketball Association” does not change the fact that it is a league in the sense understood by virtually any English-speaking North American; “a group of teams organized to play a planned schedule of games of a particular sport.”
Why are the 32 NFL Member Clubs referred to as “teams”?
Good responses! Another reason I asked is because while the NBA is, to my knowledge, the only major pro sports entity that calls itself an “association,” with MLB, the NFL, and the NHL being what they are, at one time, in the very early years, it was actually called a “league”; the name of it was the National Basketball League. I think this lasted from 1946 to 1949 (I may be incorrect, though).
Here’s some history courtesy of Wikipedia:
–The National Basketball League
–The Basketball Association of America
In a nutshell, the National Basketball League (NBL) was formed in 1937 and competed with the Basketball Assciation of America (BAA) from 1946 to 1949. The BAA got the upper hand on the NBL by raiding the league and taking its best players. This resulted in the NBL dissolving in 1949 and six of its most successful franchises joining the BAA. When the former NBL teams were added, the BAA rechristened itself the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Talking heads on TV love to refer to the NBA as the “Association” as too-cool-for-school insider speak.
I’ve read a book called “The Rebel League: The Short and Unruly Life of the World Hockey Association”. The words league and association are interchangeable in North America in a sports context, but possibly not in the U.K, where terms like rugby league (as opposed to rugby union) and association football have specific meanings.
I remember Todd Wright, an overnight host on ESPN radio in the early 2000s, first using the term. Don’t know if he invented it though.
fwiw, in Englad the FA (the Football Association) oversees the administation of the game in England, it runs major leagues as well as the national team. It links into the international organisations (UEFA (Europe) and FIFA (World)) as, I guess, the body recognised as governing the game in England.
The windy bastards really cherish that lingo.
And FIFA stands for the International Federation of Association Football. Association? Federation? It took me a while to make sense of it before I realized Association referred to the name of the sport and not the body.
Yes yes, that’s all good and well for answering the question of why people may refer to the NBA as a league.
As for why they refer to it as league, it’s probably 2 parts we’re used to saying league in other sports, and 3 parts “league” is one syllable, “association” is five.
There were also the American Basketball Association, the National Association, Union Association, and American Association (all baseball), and the American Pro Football Association.
I’m glad to see I’m not the only person who’s been bothered by that for the past 28 years.