The National Basketball Association, initially called the Basketball Association of America, was founded in 1946. It first realigned into two conferences -- the Eastern Conference and Western Conference -- prior to the 1970-71 season. Since then, the conference finals have been the penultimate round of the NBA playoffs.
Two best-of-seven series decide the champions of the two respective conferences. The NBA first awarded conference championship trophies in 2001. In 2022, both trophies were redesigned and named the Bob Cousy Trophy for the Eastern Conference and the Oscar Robertson Trophy for the Western Conference, in honor of the two players who were key in developing the National Basketball Players Association.
Also in 2022, the NBA began awarding conference finals Most Valuable Player awards. The Larry Bird Eastern Conference finals MVP award and Magic Johnson Western Conference finals MVP award are presented to the top performing player in each conference final series. The awards are named for the two players credited with taking the league to new heights in the 1980s.
The winner of the Eastern Conference finals and the winner of the Western Conference finals face off in the NBA Finals for the NBA championship.
The New York Knicks emerged victorious from the 2026 Eastern Conference finals. They will face the winner between the San Anotnio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder.
Here are key facts and stats from NBA conference finals history: