This season marked the final season for Larry O'Brien as commissioner of the NBA. In honor of his long tenure, the NBA would rename its championship trophy after him (it was originally named after the late Boston Celtics owner Walter A. Brown).
The USA Network extended their cable deal with the NBA for another two years, and ESPN shared broadcast rights with them.
The 76ers posted a 12–1 record in the playoffs, a record for highest winning percentage in the postseason (it was later broken by the 2001 Los Angeles Lakers, whose record was, in turn, later broken by the 2017 Golden State Warriors).
The Boston Celtics were swept for the first time in their playoff history, at the hands of the Milwaukee Bucks in the Conference Semifinals of the 1983 NBA playoffs. The Bucks swept the Celtics 4–0.
The 1983 NBA Finals was the last Finals to end before June 1.
This was the final season for Wilson serving as the suppliers of the official NBA game ball (a partnership that dated back to 1946)[2]; it was replaced in that capacity by Spalding in the following season, which supplied game balls to the NBA through the 2020–21 season. Wilson returned as the game ball supplier for the 2021–22 season.[1]
Ted Stepien sold the Cleveland Cavaliers to Gordon Gund. Under Stepien, attendance at the Cavaliers' home arena at Richfield Coliseum declined, first-round picks were traded in consecutive years (which led the NBA to institute the Ted Stepien rule), and long-time announcer Joe Tait was fired (he returned following the Gund purchase). The Cavaliers had five different coaches and three consecutive losing seasons under Stepien.
On November 3, 1982, Randy Smith played in his 845th consecutive NBA game, breaking Johnny Kerr's iron man record.[2] The game was a 130–111 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers in which Smith started and scored 14 points. Smith's iron man streak ended at 906 games when he played his last game with the Clippers on March 13, 1983, and was traded to the Atlanta Hawks. The record was later surpassed by A.C. Green in 1997.
On April 16, 1983, during a 12-point victory over the Dallas Mavericks, the San Antonio Spurs set the all-time NBA regular season record for team field goal percentage by shooting .707 from the floor.
Teams in bold advanced to the next round. The numbers to the left of each team indicate the team's seeding in its conference, and the numbers to the right indicate the number of games the team won in that round. The division champions are marked by an asterisk. Home court advantage does not necessarily belong to the higher-seeded team, but instead the team with the better regular season record; teams enjoying the home advantage are shown in italics.