Short answers, pulled from the story.
The league renamed the event to conference finals in 1970 when it realigned into two conferences with two divisions each. Before this change, the series were known as Divisional Finals and started being played during the league's third season.
Since 1957, the conference finals have been played as a best-of-7 series. This modern standard ensures that the most dominant team advances through seven-game series to determine the winner.
The Los Angeles Lakers have won the most conference titles with 19 victories. They also hold the record for the most appearances in the conference finals with 24 total entries.
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. These awards feature a silver basketball on distinct bases to differentiate between the two conferences.
The NBA began awarding conference finals MVPs in 2022 to recognize the best-performing player of each conference. Prior to this year, no official Most Valuable Player awards existed specifically for the conference finals.