NBA conference finals history: Winners, records and stats

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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…