East vs West: which conference has won more NBA championships?
The old guard back east, or the new upstarts in the west, we look at which conference has the edge in NBA Finals history and why it isn’t all clear cut.
Across American sports, conferences tend to have geographical references, north, south, east, and west, and often these are difficult to decipher when looking at the map.
The Chicago Stags were originally in the NBA’s Western Division, before common sense prevailed and the Bulls were placed in the East, conforming to the fact that the city lies decidedly in the eastern half of the United States.
Memphis and New Orleans are two cities in the eastern United States, both lying on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, yet they compete in the Western Conference. Minneapolis is 294 miles west of Milwaukee, but shares a conference not with the eastern city but with Portland, over 1,400 miles away to the west.
When the league was first founded, the now-defunct Baltimore Bullets were in the Western Conference, despite being a seaport on the Atlantic Ocean. Likewise, the Rochester Royals.
All of that information is important when thinking about who has more wins in NBA Finals history — the Eastern or Western Conference. Keep it in mind when you hear that the Eastern champions have the edge over the Western 40 to 36.
A shining example is the Milwaukee Bucks, who won their first NBA Finals as Western Conference champions, before being shifted to the East.
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While the long arc of history may favor the East, it is the young turks from the West who are currently on the rise. Since 1999, the Western champions have taken the crown 16 times to the Eastern’s eight.
So perhaps the zeitgeist favors Oklahoma City in 2025. But then again, Indiana is a tough team with momentum and a strong postseason showing.
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