The East did have a distinct advantage in the late 1980s, winning all five season series from 1984-85 to 1988-89. The east peaked in 1996-98 with win percentages of 57.9 and 57.6, respectively, but could never string together multiple years of 55+ percent wins like the West did in the 2000s. The 1990s were a better decade for the East, but the West still won the inter-conference battle in five of 11 seasons from 1989-90 to 1999-2000. The East peaked with a winning percentage of 45.3 in 2010, the equivalent of a team finishing the regular season with a 37-45 record. Further, the difference in wins was not close in any season, other than 2009. The West clearly dominates since 2000, with the East winning more inter-conference games only once (2008-2009). Here are two graphs of the number of wins by conference since 1984, the year the NBA adopted a 16-team playoff: If the assumption that conference imbalance is cyclical is true, then the east should have won the majority of those games during several consecutive seasons in the recent past. Whichever conference has better teams should, usually, win more of the inter-conference regular season games. The regular season results from the inter-conference games provide a good general indicator of conference equality. Since 1979 NBA teams have played opponents from the opposite conference twice per season - once at home and once on the road. Let's examine three of those assumptions and analyze, based solely on historic precedent, whether or not realignment is necessary.Īssumption #1: The conference imbalance is cyclical. The arguments for and against conference realignment have incorporated several assumptions that have been accepted as true, but have not been verified with historic data. On the other side of the argument, journalists, coaches, and fans have countered that the inequality is cyclical in nature and eventually the Eastern teams will surpass the Western teams, making realignment an unnecessary nuisance. The disparity has been significant enough in recent years that Dallas Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban, has added his voice to the calls for realignment. Many NBA writers and fans have bemoaned that the disparity unfairly disadvantages franchises in the West by excluding qualified teams from the playoffs and creating a tougher path to the finals. For several seasons the NBA's Western Conference has been clearly superior to the Eastern Conference.
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