The National Basketball Association (NBA) Playoffs is a best-of-seven elimination tournament among sixteen teams in the Eastern Conference and Western Conference (called Divisions, pre-1970), ultimately deciding the final four teams who will play in the NBA Conference Finals.

The NBA announced the current revised playoff seeding system on August 3, 2006. Following the NBA regular season, eight teams in each conference qualify for the playoffs and are seeded one to eight.

The team that has the best record in each of the three divisions in each conference is declared division champion. The three champions, and another team in the conference with the best record, are seeded one through four by their records. This guarantees that the division champions will be no lower than fourth seed, and also ensures that a conference's two best teams (by record) are ranked as the top two. However, because the NBA does not re-seed its teams and because home court advantage goes to the team with the better record, not the better seeding, division winners are guaranteed no better than a de-facto five seed, as their 4th seeding does not guarantee home court advantage in the first round, and after the first round the 4 vs 5 winner will play the same teams as the loser would have played had they won the first round. This will continue throughout the remainder of the playoffs and to the finals until the 4 vs 5 winner loses a playoff round or wins the championship. Of the remaining eleven conference teams, the four with the best records are seeded fifth through eighth based on their record.

LeBron Raymone James (/ləˈbrɒn/; born December 30, 1984) is an American professional basketball player for the Miami Heat of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "King James", he was a three-time "Mr. Basketball" of Ohio in high school, and was highly promoted in the national media as a future NBA superstar while a sophomore at St. Vincent – St. Mary High School. He was selected with the number one pick in the 2003 NBA Draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers. Listed as a small forward, James has set numerous youngest player records since joining the league. He was named the NBA Rookie of the Year in 2003–04, was named the NBA Most Valuable Player in 2009, 2010, and 2012 and has been both an All-NBA selection and an All-Star every season since 2005. In 2010, a much-publicized free agency process ended with James signing with the Miami Heat.

James led the Cleveland Cavaliers to consecutive playoff appearances from 2006 through 2010. In 2007, the Cavaliers advanced to the NBA Finals for the first time in franchise history, but lost to the San Antonio Spurs. In 2011, James and the Miami Heat advanced to the NBA Finals but lost to the Dallas Mavericks. James has been a member of the USA national team, winning a bronze medal at the 2004 Olympics and gold at the 2008 Olympics.

Jalen Anthony Rose (born January 30, 1973) is a retired American professional basketball player and current sports analyst for the television network ESPN. In college, he was a member of the University of Michigan Wolverines' "Fab Five" (along with Chris Webber, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson) that reached the 1992 and 1993 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship games as both Freshmen and Sophomores. Rose played in the NBA for six teams, most notably alongside Reggie Miller on the Indiana Pacers teams which made three consecutive Eastern Conference finals, including the 2000 NBA Finals.

As a star at Southwestern High School in Detroit, Rose obtained a high profile and can even be seen at a high school All-American camp in the documentary film, Hoop Dreams. Rose attended the University of Michigan where the Wolverines reached two NCAA Finals games in 1992 and 1993, finishing as national runners up both times. Rose was a part of Wolverines coach Steve Fisher's legendary 1991 recruiting class, dubbed the "Fab Five". He led the Fab Five in scoring his freshman year, averaging 19 points per game, and set the school freshman scoring record with 597 total points. Aside from being the most outspoken of the Fab Five, Rose was also their point guard and leader. During his career, he racked up over 1700 points, 400 rebounds, 400 assists, and 100 steals. Of the players called before the grand jury (Robert Traylor, Webber, Rose, Maurice Taylor, and Louis Bullock) in the University of Michigan basketball scandal, he was the only one not listed as having received large amounts of money.

William J. "Bill" Simmons III (born September 25, 1969) is a sports columnist, author, and podcaster. He currently writes columns and hosts podcasts for Grantland.com, which is affiliated with ESPN.com. He is a former writer for ESPN The Magazine and Jimmy Kimmel Live!. Nicknamed The Sports Guy, formerly The Boston Sports Guy, Simmons gained the attention of ESPN with his web site, BostonSportsGuy.com which earned him a job offer in 2001.

Since joining ESPN in 2001, in addition to writing for ESPN.com, he has also hosted his own podcast on ESPN.com titled The B.S. Report, appeared as a special contributor on the television series E:60, and serves as an executive producer of ESPN's documentary project, 30 for 30. He also has written two best-selling books and worked as a writer for Jimmy Kimmel Live!. On June 8, 2011, Simmons launched Grantland.com, an online magazine for which he serves as Editor-in-chief. At this point he began publishing his Sports Guy columns and B.S. Report podcasts on Grantland, which are then linked to from ESPN.com.

David "Dave" Jacoby is the Iowa State Representative from the 30th District. A Democrat, he has served in the Iowa House of Representatives since 2003, when he was elected in a special election following the resignation of Dick Myers.

Jacoby currently serves on several committees in the Iowa House - the Appropriations committee; the Human Resources committee; the State Government committee; and the Commerce committee, where he is chair.

Jacoby was re-elected in 2006 with 9,639 votes, running unopposed.