It’s been more than just a narrative, it’s essentially been fact in the NBA for the past several years that the Western Conference is far superior to the Eastern Conference. It’s a conference that typically has had three or four legitimate title contenders at the top and a deep list of dangerous playoff-caliber squads, sometimes 10 or 11 teams deep.
Oftentimes, the final playoff spot in the West would come down to the wire, leaving two or three capable teams spurned, and practically always a team would need to be significantly above .500 to make the playoffs.
The East, on the other hand, has typically had just one, maybe two legitimate squads, especially during the years when LeBron James was King of the East and essentially strolled through the first three rounds of the playoffs.