Why are the NBA Playoffs best-of-seven series and when did the format change?
Throughout the history of the NBA the Finals have always been best-of-seven but there have been various different formats in previous rounds.
The NBA has employed the best-of-seven series format, at least in the NBA Finals, since the 1946-47 season, when the Basketball Association of America was the governing body. That year featured 11 teams who each played 60 regular season games after which the inaugural BAA Playoffs in 1947 were held. Chicago and Washington played a best-of-seven series after going straight to the Divisional semifinals (there were no conferences at the time), with Chicago winning 4-2, while New York, Cleveland, St Louis and Philadelphia contested best-of-three series in the first round, with the Philadelphia Warriors (the precursor to Golden State) beating New York 2-0 in the other semifinal before routing Chicago 4-1 in the finals. The Warriors are one of only three teams from that season still in existence, alongside the Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks.
Best-of-seven through NBA history
The best-of-three series format was maintained for playoff rounds (with a round-robin Division Round flirted with in 1954 but swiftly abandoned) until 1955, when Division Finals moved to best-of-five. In 1958, these were switched to a best-of-seven, and in 1961 the Division Semifinals also moved to best-of-five. The Finals themselves remained a best-of-seven series throughout this era. It wasn’t until 1968 that the entire NBA playoffs were contested on a best-of-seven format in their entirety.
The reasoning for switching the format was simple enough: best-of-seven series meant more money for broadcasters and more money for teams playing at home. This year, for example, the Golden State Warriors will pocket $100m through playoffs games at the Chase Center alone. Steve Kerr’s team played nine home games to win the Western Conference, earning $72m: $7m for each of nine games in the first two rounds and $9m for their two conference finals games against the Mavericks in San Francisco. In the NBA Finals, the Warriors are guaranteed at least two home games, for which they will earn $15m each, with the possibility of more if the series goes all the way.
Game 7 the NBA Playoffs norm
To date, there have been 145 Game 7s in NBA Playoffs history. Six have required overtime and only once has double-overtime been required to determine a winner. In 34 of those 145 games the visiting team has won and every current franchise in the NBA has played in at least one of them. There have only been 12 occasions in history when a full playoffs schedule has been completed without a single Game 7 and three (1994, 2014 and 2016) didn’t even require a Game 6.
The teams that have won the most Game 7s in a single playoffs are the LA Lakers (1988) and the New York Knicks (1994). The format for the NBA Finals is the same as the rest of the playoffs: 2-2-1-1-1, with the team who has the better regular season record enjoying home-court advantage for the first two games, with the fifth and the seventh, if necessary, also played on the same stage. That has been the case since 2014, when the original format was restored after a 2-3-2 format was adopted in 1985 to cut out the amount of travel between games.