Southeast Division (NBA)

• 1. Introduction

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  The Southeast Division of the National Basketball Association has existed since 2004, yet one franchise has dominated it more than any other. The Miami Heat won the division title in four consecutive seasons, from 2011 to 2014, a run that remains a record today. Five teams currently share this division inside the NBA's Eastern Conference. They are the Atlanta Hawks, the Charlotte Hornets, the Miami Heat, the Orlando Magic and the Washington Wizards. How did these five franchises come to be grouped together, and why has one of them played under two different names? What finally ended a decade of near-total control by two of the five teams? And what does the trophy now awarded to the division's champion actually commemorate?

• 2. Five Teams, One Split

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  At the start of the 2004-05 season, the National Basketball Association expanded from 29 teams to 30. The addition of the Charlotte Bobcats as an expansion franchise pushed the league to realign into three divisions in each conference. The Southeast Division began with five inaugural members: the Hawks, the Bobcats, the Heat, the Magic and the Wizards.

  The Atlanta Hawks moved over from the Central Division to join this new grouping. The Miami Heat, the Orlando Magic and the Washington Wizards all crossed over from the Atlantic Division instead. The newest team in the group, the Bobcats, would not carry that name for long.

• 3. A Name Reclaimed

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  Effective with the 2014-15 season, the Charlotte Bobcats changed their name back to the Charlotte Hornets. With the change came the full history of the original Hornets, who had played under that name from 1988 to 2002. That earlier Hornets franchise had moved to New Orleans. The Hornets name stayed there until 2013, worn by the club now known as the Pelicans. Through it all, the newly renamed Hornets have yet to add a single Southeast Division title to their history.

• 4. Miami's Grip

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  The Miami Heat have won the Southeast Division title 12 times, more than the other four franchises combined. The Orlando Magic have taken six division titles, the Atlanta Hawks three and the Washington Wizards one. Three times, in 2006-2012 and 2013, a Miami Southeast Division title led directly to an NBA championship in that same season. In one of those title-winning years, the Heat finished with a 66-16 record, a .805 winning percentage, then went on to capture the NBA Finals. Even this run had company: Florida's other franchise, the Magic, was piling up division banners of its own.

• 5. The Streak Breaks

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  From 2004 to 2014, Miami and Orlando, Florida's two franchises in the division, combined for ten consecutive division titles. That streak ended in 2015, when the Atlanta Hawks won the division with a 60-22 record. The Hawks remain the reigning Southeast Division champions today.

  Twice, in 2010 and 2014, four of the division's five teams occupied half of the NBA's eight playoff spots that postseason. That decade also included an unusual season. A lockout delayed the start of play until the 25th of December 2011. All 30 NBA teams played a shortened 66-game schedule that year. For all these years of division champions, none of them played for a trophy that carried a name.

• 6. Naming The Trophy

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  Beginning with the 2021-22 season, the Southeast Division champion has received the Earl Lloyd Trophy. Like the other division trophies across the league, it honors one of the African American pioneers of NBA history. Earl Lloyd became the first African American to play in an NBA game, debuting for the Washington Capitols on the 31st of October 1950. The trophy itself takes the form of a 200 millimeter crystal ball. Each Southeast Division champion now carries forward the name of a Hall of Famer, on a trophy still new to the division's long history.