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The National Basketball Association (NBA) is the major professional basketball league in the world， with teams from the United States and Canada. With the addition of the Toronto Raptors and the ancouver Grizzlies prior to the 1995～ 1996 season， the NBA expanded to 29 teams competing in two conferences， the Eastern and Western， in four separate divisions. Each team conducts a training camp in October to determine its 12- player roster. Training camp allows each team to evaluate players， especially rookies (first-year players)， to assess the teams strengths and weaknesses， and to prepare players for the upcoming season through a series of on-court drills and practice of offensive and defensive strategy. After a series of exhibition games， the NBA begins its 82-game regular season in the first week of November. In the second week of February， the NBA interrupts its season to celebrate the annual NBA All-Star game， featuring the games best players as selected by the general balloting of fans throughout the United States and Canada. After the NBA season concludes in the third week in April， a total of 16 teams qualify for the playoffs(常规赛季后的夺标决赛)(8 teams from each conference)。 Every June the league conducts its amateur draft， in which each team obtains the rights to the professional services of the best collegiate and international players. Any player who has graduated from high school and is at least 17 years old qualifies for the NBA draft if that player renounces intercollegiate eligibility. To determine the draft order the NBA uses a draft lottery， introduced in 1985. Those teams that failed to qualify for the playoffs the previous season are eligible for the lottery. The lottery determines the first three teams to select in the draft. The remaining teams draft according to their win-loss record of the previous season， so that teams with poorer records draft higher than those with better records. The NBA draft consists of only two rounds， with a total of 58 players chosen. Those players not selected in the draft can be invited to try out for a team and are sometimes signed to playing contracts. | 
