The Miami Heat win their first NBA championship in franchise history. They become the third franchise (joining the 1969 Boston Celtics and 1977 Portland Trail Blazers, later joined by the 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers and 2021 Milwaukee Bucks) to win the NBA Finals after losing the first two games. They are also the first of the four 1988/89 expansion franchises to win a championship.
The All-Star Game was played on February 19, 2006 at the Toyota Center in Houston with the East beating the West 122–120. LeBron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers won the game's MVP honors the youngest ever in All-Star Game history at 21 years, and 51 days old.
On the last day of the regular season, Ray Allen broke the single season record for most three-pointers, at 269.[2]
The NBA Finals was jokingly referred to as the "American Airlines" series since both competing teams played in an arena sponsored by the same airline. The Miami Heat play their games at American Airlines Arena (now as FTX Arena), while the Dallas Mavericks reside in the American Airlines Center.
The Los Angeles Clippers made it back to the playoffs for the first time since 1997 and won their first playoff series since 1976 when they were still known as the Buffalo Braves.
On June 20, 2006, the Miami Heat clinched the NBA Finals, with Wade being the Finals MVP, averaging the third highest points per game in finals history, at 34.7, the highest points per a four-game stretch in finals history, at 39.3, and the highest PER in finals history, at 33.8.
This marks the last season that Reebok as the official outfitter for the league until the merged with Adidas, following the season and would continued for the next ten years before Nike became the official outfitter in 2017.
This also marks the last season for longtime Boston Celtics legend Red Auerbach's official involvement as their longtime executive before he died in October of 2006.
Boston Celtics – added new green and black road alternate uniforms with black side panels to their shorts, and also added another new green and gold road alternate uniforms with gold side panels to their shorts for Saint Patrick's day games only.
Cleveland Cavaliers – added new dark blue road alternate uniforms added side panels to their jerseys and shorts.
Denver Nuggets – added new dark blue road alternate uniforms with light blue side panels to their jerseys and shorts.
Detroit Pistons – added new red road alternate uniforms with blue side panels to their jerseys and shorts.
Indiana Pacers – added new logo and new uniforms, remained with dark navy blue and gold to their color scheme and pinstripes was used during the preseason games was eventually removed to their jerseys and shorts at the start of the season.
z – Clinched home court advantage for the entire playoffs
c – Clinched home court advantage for the conference playoffs
x – Clinched playoff spot
y – Clinched division title
Playoffs
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.
