Consider the Boston Celtics of 2004 making the playoffs despite going 36-46? neither do I. Their second and third leading performers were Mark Blount and Ji Welsch, who were led by Paul Pierce. The Celtics would have finished Western Conference play with the third-worst history, but they did so after winning the East postseason and being immediately eliminated in the first round.
This is the standard for Gen Z NBA followers. The eighth-seeded team in the Eastern Conference has only had a better document three days since 1999 than its American rival. West teams have won 17 of the 25 tournaments that were open during that time, and there have been more Western team members chosen for All- NBA each year.
The East had a better report than the West in intra-conference games only once between the 1999-2000 and 2020-21 times, when the East eked it out in 2008-09 by winning 51.3 %.

There was a glimmer of hope for the East in the 2021- 22 and 2022- 23 times, which edged out the West in the head-to-head half. However, it was n’t a total reversal. The majority of All- NBA people in both times played in the West, and a West group won the title both conditions.
The Pacific Ocean is now the center of power after two centuries of unbalancement. West teams have won 55.9 % of intra-conference games this year, and it is expected that those same historical patterns will continue. Four of the top five individuals in a new grass poll of MVP voters were West people. Five of the seven groups with 20- to -1 chances or better on Lotto are from the West, according to the future hero.
Some of these styles may be analytical anomalies because Steph Curry, Tim Duncan, and Kobe Bryant all landed in the same meeting as rookie and contributed to 14 of the West’s most recent 17 titles as a group. Michael Jordan’s time with the Chicago Bulls, when the East usually predominated, is conveniently excluded when looking back precisely 25 years. Given its regularity over the course of an entire quarter of a decade, the All-NBA style is a little more challenging to interpret as unpredictability, though.
Interesting enough, the gap in star power and on-court efficiency has not, in any way, caused a financial gap. We rated the median West team, the Denver Nuggets, at$ 3.4 billion in Sportico’s 2023 NBA valuations, while the median East team, the Atlanta Hawks, was only slightly undervalued at$ 3.2 billion. This fairness has persisted throughout history. Twenty years ago, Forbes estimated the median values for the West group at$ 256 million and the East staff at$ 258 million.
East groups are doing just fine in terms of cash stream as well. Despite the Golden State Warriors ‘ outlier$ 764 million pull pinning the latter’s overall, the East generated just 4 % less profit overall than the West last year.
There are fewer little industry, which is advantageous for the East. According to Nielsen, 23 of the 29 NBA teams that play in the United States enjoy in designated advertising sections that are among the nation’s top 25. Salt Lake City (# 27 ), San Antonio (# 31 ), Oklahoma City (# 47 ), Memphis ( #50 ), and New Orleans ( #51 ) are five of the remaining six West teams. The Milwaukee Bucks ( #38 ) are the lone” small market” Eastern Conference team by this basic definition.
In some ways, the typical East group finds life simpler. Despite employing fewer giants, winning fewer matches, and hosting fewer final marches, they have managed to keep up the rate on the business aspect throughout the 21st century.
Because East team play more games against their own meeting than against the other one, making it easier for them to reach the quarterfinals. For example, the Dallas Mavericks are now in Play-In Tournament status while the New York Knicks are on pace to win house court advantage in the first round of the finals this year. Despite the fact that the Mavs are better at defeating Eastern Conference opponents and the Knicks at home, they also have a better successful percent.
The NBA’s unavoidable growth to 32 clubs may change the status quo, but where and how will that change change? The front-runners to field teams are Seattle and Las Vegas, so moving a team from the Western Conference to the East may be necessary to balance the books. The Minnesota Timberwolves, New Orleans Eagles, and Memphis Grizzlies are the possible candidates, none of whom have actually reached the NBA Finals. So, the East’s historical impact on success might be even greater.
On the other hand, fresh development teams frequently lose a lot of games because the development draft only has a select few players and the teams are bound by a salary cap that is one-third less than the rest of the league in their first year. The West may likely add two poor groups, at least immediately, so that is why.
In the meantime, the West might experience another wave of on-court supremacy. The San Antonio Spurs, the West’s worst group, have 20-year-old Victor Wembanyama and are 4-22 against the East this season. Wemby is already averaging 20 points and 10 rebounds per game and rates in the top 25 among all participants in the advanced measurement Estimated Plus Minus ( EPM).
Only three players under the age of 25 in the West, including Chet Holmgren ( 21 ), Anthony Edwards ( 22 ), and Luka Doni ( 24 ), rank higher than Wemby ( 23 ). The Grizzlies, the third-worst group in the west, will return 24-year-old Ja Morant after he has only played nine games this season. The West is already the conference’s more fierce face, and it should only get better.
In the 1980s and 1990s, the NFC won 13 immediately Super Bowls, before the swing retreated. While the NBA’s Eastern Conference team are awaiting that jump, they can enjoy softer routines and similar financial success.