Central Division (NBA)

• 1. Introduction

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  The Central Division of the National Basketball Association crowns its champion each season with a trophy built around a 200 millimeter crystal ball. Five teams chase that prize today: the Chicago Bulls, the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Detroit Pistons, the Indiana Pacers, and the Milwaukee Bucks. The division has worn that name once before, under a completely different set of teams, decades earlier.

  Thirteen NBA champions have come from the Central Division. Not every one of its five current teams shares in that history. How a grouping built mostly from one dissolved division became the league's most title-heavy group is one question. What happened to the earlier Central Division that disappeared within a year is another.

• 2. Two Conferences, One Division

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  In the 1970-71 season, the NBA grew from 14 to 17 teams by adding the Buffalo Braves, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Portland Trail Blazers. That expansion came with a full restructuring: the league split into a Western Conference and an Eastern Conference, each holding two divisions. The Central Division opened with four teams: the Atlanta Hawks, the Baltimore Bullets, the Cincinnati Royals, and the new Cleveland Cavaliers. The Hawks arrived from the Western Division, while the Bullets and the Royals came over from the Eastern Division.

  None of those four original members plays in the Central Division today. Three left for other divisions over the following decades, and the fourth, the Cincinnati Royals, moved cities and changed its name entirely. That turnover set the pattern for decades of realignment to come.

• 3. A Division That Vanished

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  Before the 1949-50 season, the Basketball Association of America merged with the National Basketball League and took the name NBA. The league grew from 12 to 17 teams and split into three divisions for the first time, creating the Central Division. Five teams made up that Central Division: the Chicago Stags, the Fort Wayne Pistons, the Minneapolis Lakers, the Rochester Royals, and the St. Louis Bombers. All five joined from the Western Division. The Minneapolis Lakers won that division's only title, finishing 51-17; the Rochester Royals matched that record but did not win it.

  The division disbanded before the 1950-51 season, after six teams across the league folded. The Chicago Stags and the St. Louis Bombers were among the teams that folded. The Fort Wayne Pistons, the Minneapolis Lakers, and the Rochester Royals returned to the Western Division. That is the only time the Central Division has ceased to exist, a distinction none of today's five teams had to live through.

• 4. Teams In, Teams Out

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  In 1972, the Houston Rockets joined the Central Division from the Pacific Division. That same year, the Cincinnati Royals relocated, became the Kansas City-Omaha Kings, and left for the Midwest Division. In 1973, the Baltimore Bullets relocated and were renamed the Capital Bullets. The next year, an expansion team, the New Orleans Jazz, joined the division, and the Capital Bullets were renamed the Washington Bullets. In 1976, the San Antonio Spurs joined after merging into the NBA from the American Basketball Association. Two years later, the Detroit Pistons arrived from the Midwest Division, and the Washington Bullets departed for the Atlantic Division. In 1979, the Indiana Pacers joined from the Midwest Division, while the New Orleans Jazz relocated to Utah and left for the Midwest Division. A year later, the Chicago Bulls and the Milwaukee Bucks joined from the Midwest Division. The Houston Rockets and the San Antonio Spurs left the Central Division for the Midwest at the same time.

  In 1989, the Orlando Magic joined as an expansion team, but only for one season. In 1990, the Charlotte Hornets joined from the Midwest Division. The Orlando Magic moved on too, first to the Midwest Division, then permanently to the Atlantic Division. In 1995, the Toronto Raptors joined as an expansion team. In 2002, the Charlotte Hornets relocated and became the New Orleans Hornets. The Charlotte NBA franchise then sat inactive from 2002 to 2004. A new team, first known as the Bobcats, began play in the 2004-05 season. In 2013, the New Orleans Hornets were renamed the Pelicans, and the next season the Bobcats were renamed the Hornets. The renamed Hornets inherited the history and records of the 1988-2002 Hornets, while the Pelicans were retroactively counted as an expansion franchise.

  By 2004, the New Orleans Hornets left for the Southwest Division. The Atlanta Hawks left for the Southeast Division, and the Toronto Raptors left for the Atlantic Division. That left the Central Division with the same five franchises that hold it today. Numerous other franchises had passed through the Central Division and back out before those five settled in for good.

• 5. Banner Count

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  The Chicago Bulls have won six NBA championships as a Central Division team, more than any other franchise in the group. The Detroit Pistons added three titles, the Milwaukee Bucks two, and the Bullets and the Cleveland Cavaliers one each. Only twice did an NBA champion fail to also win the Central Division that same year. Those exceptions were the Washington Bullets in 1977-78 and the Detroit Pistons in 2003-04. All five Central Division teams reached the playoffs together only once, in the 2005-06 season. Two rivalries stood out across those years: the Chicago Bulls against the Detroit Pistons, and the Bulls against the Cleveland Cavaliers. In the 1995-96 season, the Chicago Bulls went 72-10 before winning the NBA Finals.

  Counted by division titles rather than championships, the Milwaukee Bucks lead with thirteen, ahead of the Chicago Bulls and Detroit Pistons with nine apiece. Four of the division's five teams have won an NBA championship at some point, the highest share of any division in the league. The Indiana Pacers are the one franchise in the group still chasing that first banner.

• 6. The Pacers' Exception

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  The Indiana Pacers reached the NBA Finals in 2000, the closest they have come to a Central Division championship. They are the reigning Eastern Conference champions and played in the 2025 NBA Finals. Whichever team finishes atop the Central Division standings now takes home a trophy carrying someone else's name: Wayne Embry.

• 7. The Wayne Embry Trophy

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  Since the 2021-22 season, the Central Division champion has received the Wayne Embry Trophy. Embry played for the Milwaukee Bucks in the 1968-69 season and is a Hall of Famer. Like the NBA's other division trophies, this one honors an African American pioneer from league history. Embry became the NBA's first African American general manager when the Milwaukee Bucks hired him in 1972. That means most of the division's championship teams across history never had the chance to hold it.