Southwest Division

The Southwest Division is a division under the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association (NBA). In 2003, the NBA approved an additional sixth division beginning in the 2004-05 basketball season. The New Orleans Hornets left the Central Division to be part of the Southwest Division. The addition of the Southwest Division eliminated need for a Midwest Division. The Dallas Mavericks, the Houston Rockets, the Memphis Grizzlies, and the San Antonio Spurs all went over to the Southwest Division. All five teams remain active in the division since 2004.

The division's creation separates the teams in groups where each team competes against the others for their own division's championship. They play an eighty-two game regular season schedule. Each team plays forty-one home games and forty-one away games against other teams in their division. They also play against teams inside their conference, Eastern or Western, three to four times each before facing opponents outside their conference. They do this to make the playoffs where teams play against each other for titles in the National Basketball Association Championship.

In the NBA playoffs the home court advantage is based on regular season record. The system works better, though some claim it is flawed. Others insist the many divisions are unnecessary stating that the NBA needs only two, East and West.

As of 2007, The San Antonio Spurs twice defeated the other teams in their division. The Dallas Mavericks took the Southwest Division championship once.

The San Antonio Spurs traded Damir Markota to the Milwaukee Bucks in the 2006 drafts. The Dallas Mavericks picked up Maurice Ager from Michigan State. The Memphis Grizzlies drafted three players, Rudy Gay from Connecticut, Alexander Johnson from Florida State and Kyle Lowry from Villanova. The New Orleans Hornets drafted two good athletic and strong men, Hilton Armstrong of Connecticut and Cedric Simmons of NC State. They also brought in Marcus Vinicius de Souza (Marquinhos) from Brazil. Steve Novak of Marquette joined the Houston Rockets, though they tried to trade for Brandon Roy.

Yao Ming from China plays for the Houston Rockets. He is one of the tallest professional basketball players in the world with a height of seven foot six inches.

In 2005-06 season, the Dallas Mavericks and San Antonio Spurs had the best records in the West. The Dallas Mavericks also reached the NBA Finals the season before.

Fans claim the Southwest Division teams bring the toughest division in NBA basketball.