Talk:NBA conference finals

Voices of the NBA Conference Finals

Many details

2000s 2005 E TNT Marv Albert, Doug Collins, Steve Kerr W ABC Al Michaels, Hubie Brown (g1, g4) W ESPN Mike Breen, Bill Walton (g2, g3, g5) 2004 E ESPN Brad Nessler, Doc Rivers W TNT Marv Albert, Mike Fratello, Doug Collins 2003 E ABC Brad Nessler, Bill Walton, Tom Tolbert (g1, g3) E ESPN Brad Nessler, Bill Walton, Tom Tolbert (g2, g4) W TNT Marv Albert, Mike Fratello, Jeff Van Gundy 2002 E NBC Mike Breen, PJ Carlesimo (g1, g3-g6) E TNT Dick Stockton, Hubie Brown, Mike Fratello (g2) W NBC Marv Albert, Doug Collins, Bill Walton (g1, g3-g7) W TNT Kevin Harlan, Danny Ainge, John Thompson (g2) 2001 E TNT Marv Albert, Mike Fratello (g1) E TNT Dick Stockton, Hubie Brown (g2) E NBC Mike Breen, Steve Jones, Bill Walton (g3-g7) W NBC Marv Albert, Doug Collins (g1, g3, g4) W TNT Kevin Harlan, Danny Ainge, John Thompson (g2) 2000 E TNT Dick Stockton, Hubie Brown (g1, g2) E NBC Tom Hammond, Steve Jones, Bill Walton (g3-g6) W NBC Bob Costas, Doug Collins (g1, g3-g7) W TBS Kevin Harlan, Danny Ainge, John Thompson (g2) 1990s 1999 E NBC Tom Hammond, Steve Jones, Bill Walton (g1, g3-g6) E TNT Kevin Harlan, Doc Rivers, Hubie Brown (g2) W NBC Bob Costas, Doug Collins 1998 E NBC Bob Costas, Doug Collins, Isiah Thomas (g1, g3-g7) E TNT Dick Stockton, Hubie Brown (g2) W NBC Tom Hammond, Steve Jones, Bill Walton (g1, g4) W TNT Kevin Harlan, Doc Rivers (g2, g3) 1997 E TNT Verne Lundquist (?), Doc Rivers (?) (g1, g2) E NBC Marv Albert, Matt Guokas (g3-g5) W TNT Dick Stockton, Hubie Brown (g1-g3) W NBC Greg Gumbel, Steve Jones, Bill Walton (g4-g6) 1996 E NBC Marv Albert, Matt Guokas (g1, g3, g4) E TNT Verne Lundquist, Danny Ainge (g2) W NBC Greg Gumbel, Steve Jones, Bill Walton (g1, g4-g7) W TNT Dick Stockton, Hubie Brown (g2-g3) 1995 E TNT Ron Thulin, Hubie Brown (g1, g2) E NBC Marv Albert, Matt Guokas (g3-g7) W TNT Bob Neal, Doug Collins (g1-g3) W NBC Greg Gumbel, Steve Jones, Bill Walton (g4-g6) 1994 E TNT Ron Thulin, Hubie Brown (g1-g2) E NBC Marv Albert, Matt Guokas (g3-g7) W TNT Bob Neal, Doug Collins (g1-g3) W NBC Dick Enberg, Steve Jones, Bill Walton (g4, g5) 1993 E NBC Marv Albert, Mike Fratello (g1, g3-g6) E TNT Ron Thulin, Hubie Brown (g2) W TNT Bob Neal, Doug Collins (g1-g3) W NBC Dick Enberg, Steve Jones (g4-g7) 1992 E TNT Bob Neal, Hubie Brown (g1-g2) E NBC Marv Albert, Mike Fratello (g3-g6) W NBC Dick Enberg, Steve Jones, Magic Johnson (g1) W TNT Ron Thulin, Doug Collins (g2, g3) W NBC Dick Enberg, Steve Jones, Cotton Fitzsimmons (g4-g6) 1991 E NBC Marv Albert, Mike Fratello (g1, g3, g4) E TNT Ron Thulin (?) , Hubie Brown (g2) W NBC Dick Enberg, Steve Jones (g1, g4-g6) W TNT Bob Neal (?) , Doug Collins (g2, g3) 1990 E CBS Dick Stockton, Hubie Brown (g1, g3, g4) E TNT Skip Caray, Doug Collins (g2) E TNT Bob Neal, ?? (g5) E CBS Verne Lundquist, Len Elmore (g6, g7) W TNT  ??, ?? (g1, g3) W TNT Bob Neal, ? (g2) W CBS Verne Lundquist, Len Elmore (g4, g5) W CBS Dick Stockton, Hubie Brown (g6) 1980s 1989 E CBS Brent Musburger, Bill Raftery (g1) E TBS Skip Caray, Rick Barry (g2) E CBS Dick Stockton, Hubie Brown (g3, g4, g6) E TBS Skip Caray, Steve Jones (g5) W CBS Dick Stockton, Hubie Brown (g1) W TBS Bob Neal, Steve Jones (g2, g3) W CBS Brent Musburger, Bill Raftery (g4) 1988 E TBS Skip Caray, Rick Barry (g1, g2, g5) E CBS Dick Stockton, Billy Cunningham (g3, g4, g6) W TBS Bob Neal, Steve Jones (g1-g3) W CBS Brent Musburger, Tom Heinsohn (g4-g7) 1987 E TBS Bob Neal, Doug Collins (g1, g2, g5 (?) ) E CBS Dick Stockton, Tom Heinsohn (g3, g4, g6) W CBS Dick Stockton, Tom Heinsohn (g1) W TBS Mel Proctor, Bill Russell (g2, g3) W CBS Brent Musburger, Billy Cunningham (g4) 1986 E n/a no national TV (g1) E TBS Skip Caray, John Andariese (g2) E CBS  ??,?? (g3, g4) W CBS  ??,?? (g1, g3, g4) W TBS Rick Barry, Bill Russell (g2) W CBS Dick Stockton, Tom Heinsohn (g5) 1985 E CBS Dick Stockton, Tom Heinsohn (g1, g3, g4) E TBS Skip Caray, John Andariese (g2) E TBS  ??,?? (g5) W CBS Brent Musburger, Hubie Brown (g1, g3, g4) W TBS Rick Barry, Bill Russell (g2) 1984 E ESPN  ??,?? (g1, g2) E CBS Dick Stockton, Bill Russell (g3) E USA  ??,?? (g4, g5) W CBS  ??,?? (g1, g2, g4, g5) W CBS Brent Musburger, Kevin Loughery (g3, g6) 1983 E CBS Dick Stockton, Bill Russell (g1, g3, g4) E ESPN  ??,?? (g2) E USA  ??,?? (g5) W CBS Brent Musburger, Kevin Loughery (g1-g4) W CBS  ??,?? (g5) W CBS Dick Stockton, Bill Russell (g6) 1982 E CBS Dick Stockton, Bill Russell (g1, g6, g7) W CBS 1981 E CBS Dick Stockton, Kevin Loughery (g5-g7) W CBS Gary Bender, Rick Barry, Bill Russell (g5) 1980 E CBS Gary Bender, Rick Barry (g2) W CBS 1970s 1979 E CBS W CBS Brent Musburger, Rick Barry, (g7) 1978 E CBS W CBS 1977 E CBS W CBS Brent Musburger, Rick Barry, Mendy Rudolph (g2, g4) 1976 E CBS W CBS Don Criqui, Jerry West (g4, g7) 1975 E CBS W CBS Brent Musburger, Oscar Robertson (g7)

http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/sportscasting_history/

—TMC1982, 2:14, 27 April 2006 (UTC)

Home Court, Division Champions, and Regular Season Conference Champions

Perhaps we could include, for each table, which teams had home court, which teams were division leaders, and which teams were conference leaders at season's end.

DaDoc540 00:11, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

Unilateral page move

The page shouldn't have been moved, without benefit of an RM. Recommend it be restored to NBA Conference Finals & then open an RM. GoodDay (talk) 17:35, 15 January 2024 (UTC)

Why do you disagree (Wikipedia:Don't revert due solely to "no consensus")? —Bagumba (talk) 17:46, 15 January 2024 (UTC)

This isn't the way to handle the "uppercase vs lowercase" dispute, in sports pages. GoodDay (talk) 17:49, 15 January 2024 (UTC)

I don't think there's a dispute in sports pages per se. Upper vs lowercase has project-wide guidelines. Usually, per WP:BRD, I boldly fix things if I think that brings them into agreement with guidelines. If someone thinks I'm wrong for whatever reason, they revert, and we discuss. Reverting without an actual reason is just disruptive. Dicklyon (talk) 00:00, 18 January 2024 (UTC)

@GoodDay: if you don't have a reason you can state here for why WP should cap this, please just revert your move. Dicklyon (talk) 03:48, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

I recommend you open an RM on this page. If you believe & are confident the result will be 'uppercase'. GoodDay (talk) 03:49, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

Sure, I can do that ('lowercase', mutatis mutandis), but if nobody has actually objected, then invoking the D of BRD is just a waste of lots of editors' time. Why? Dicklyon (talk) 04:21, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

Give it 24-hrs. Though I wish you'd go the RM route. If nobody else argues for upper case? Then I'll consent to your or anybody else's moving the page back to NBA Conference finals NBA conference finals. I left a notification about this discussion at WP:NBA & 'so far', there's been little to no interest in the topic. GoodDay (talk) 04:37, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

Surely you meant NBA conference finals. Dicklyon (talk) 04:40, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

And I'd appreciate if you'd not revert moves, or open RM discussions, when you don't have an actual reason to prefer a title different from the one you're disrupting. What you're doing is essentially just WP:POINTY. Dicklyon (talk) 04:43, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

Just because you can make bold moves, doesn't mean that you should make bold moves. Particularly when 'uppercase/lowercase' is concerned. The RM route isn't a terrible thing. They only last about a week or less. GoodDay (talk) 04:49, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

My move log shows I've moved about 1000 articles per year for the last 5 or more years. If one-week discussions were needed for all the obvious non-controversial fixes, it wouldn't be possible to fix nearly so much stuff. I'm happy to discuss when there are objections, but not when there aren't. Dicklyon (talk) 05:01, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

Sorry to butt in, but I partially disagree here. The "C" in Conference is capitalized per the sources I've found (ping if you want lists). The "f" I could care less about. So unilateral move from NBA Conference Finals to NBA conference finals, shall be denied. Conyo14 (talk) 05:09, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

NBA Conference finals - would be acceptable as a compromise. If nobody else (within the time period mentioned above) supports the current title. GoodDay (talk) 05:13, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

@Conyo14: Interesting. So what's the proper name here? "NBA Conference"? Or just "Conference"? Where can we find this pattern in sources?

Look up NBA Conference finals specifically. I've counted three with lowercase and 58 with uppercase so far. Keep in mind, the uppercasing is followed from Eastern and Western Conferences. To find the full phrase "NBA Conferences" is practically impossible, so adding in finals, playoffs, or games helps a bit. Conyo14 (talk) 05:34, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

I can't find even one instance of "NBA Conference finals" in books. Where are you looking? Dicklyon (talk) 16:29, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

NBA Finals has uppercase primary per ngrams. If NBA Finals is undeniably at its correct casing why would the Conference Finals be lowercased? Seems enough room here for a week's discussion, so would join in asking for an RM instead of a unilateral page move without full posted discussion templates and notices. Randy Kryn (talk) 08:24, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

Done. Section below. Dicklyon (talk) 16:44, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

@Conyo14: I've seen "NBA Conference finals" with SkySports.[1] What are some of the other ones you've seen? —Bagumba (talk) 12:44, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

Discussed below. Conyo14 (talk) 18:11, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

Basically, no, he didn't mean he found "NBA Conference finals". He meant he found a lot of "Western Conference finals" and "Eastern Conference finals", which makes sense since "Eastern Conference" and "Western Conference" are the proper names of those things. It was GoodDay who explicitly introduced the bastardized "NBA Conference finals", though Conyo14 had seemed to imply it. Dicklyon (talk) 22:37, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

Whoa there, remain civil. Conyo14 (talk) 23:26, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

Yeah, wearing my heart on my sleeve too much in that one. Dictionary says: (of a version of something) lower in quality or value than the original form, typically as a result of the addition of new elements. "by the 1760s, English cookery books were offering a bastardized version of French dishes". Dicklyon (talk) 23:50, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

Bastardized is an adjective for the term "NBA Conference finals". It's not calling any WP editor a bastard, not is it even alleging that a WP editor did the bastardizing. —Bagumba (talk) 04:12, 25 January 2024 (UTC)

Requested move 20 January 2024

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

---

NBA Conference Finals → NBA conference finals – Per MOS:CAPS, WP:NCCAPS, etc.; the only part of this that's consistently capped in sources, in sentence context, is the acronym NBA. "NBA Conference Finals", "NBA Conference Final", "NBA Conference", "Conference Finals", and plain "Conference" are not proper names, and are not close to consistently capped in sources. See discussion in section above. Dicklyon (talk) 16:43, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

• Oppose - Though I would settle for a compromise "NBA Conference finals". GoodDay (talk) 16:46, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

  Even though that mixed-case version appears nowhere in books? Where have you seen it, why would you want Conference capped? What part of this do you see as a proper name. You haven't answered any of that in the discussion above yet, have you? Dicklyon (talk) 16:48, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

  Why? According to which guideline(s)? —Bagumba (talk) 05:40, 21 January 2024 (UTC)

  @GoodDay: In light of the evidence and discussion here, do you have a reason to oppose, or to want that awkward hybrid, or will you change to support? Dicklyon (talk) 19:09, 22 January 2024 (UTC)

  The compromise proposed "NBA Conference finals" is acceptable, if "NBA Conference Finals" won't be agreed to. GoodDay (talk) 19:14, 22 January 2024 (UTC)

  So you're still unwilling to comment on the evidence or to otherwise give any reason that you find that strange one acceptable, or why you're opposed to conforming to WP style guidelines? Dicklyon (talk) 19:52, 22 January 2024 (UTC)

  If the evidence says that the page should be moved to the proposed title & consensus forms that the page is to be moved? Then that shall be the result. I won't challenge the closure of this RM, no matter its result. GoodDay (talk) 02:19, 23 January 2024 (UTC)

• Partially Oppose The "f" in Finals I could care less about. However, the "c" in Conference for "NBA Conference" is to remain capitalized per the sources I've posted below so far. Finally, the phrase "conference finals" can be all lowercased in prose (e.g. the conference finals continue in earnest), but with exceptions to NBA Conference as the consensus capital (e.g. the NBA Conference finals are the semifinal playoffs series of the...). Specifically NBA Conference insert playoff series is a shorthand reference in sources to the Eastern and Western Conference, which are unanimously capitalized. So, if the remainder of the article mentions conference finals, but the title of the article is NBA Conference finals, it is because it's supposed to be "NBA Eastern and Western Conference finals", but that's a little long and goes against MOS:TITLE. Conyo14 (talk) 18:25, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

  "NBA Conference" is not a proper noun, nor is it regularly capitalized in reliable sources. Collins defines proper noun as:

  a noun...that is arbitrarily used to denote a particular person, place, or thing without regard to any descriptive meaning the word or phrase may have, as Lincoln, Beth, Pittsburgh.[2]

  A reader seeing NBA conference does not apply a different meaning to it than when they see NBA Conference. It's purely a description in basic English, not any sort of proper noun like Super Bowl (vs a plain super bowl). —Bagumba (talk) 05:49, 21 January 2024 (UTC)

• Note (and support as nom, of course): Both of the opposers above are obviously misinterpreting the data in evidence. Conyo14 found lots of "Eastern Conference finals" and "Western Conference finals", capped thus for the proper names of the two conferences, but few or no "NBA Conference finals", a mixed capping with no plausible rationale in WP style or any other style. Furthermore, most of what Conyo14 links are uses in titles and headings, not in sentences, so has no relationship to how MOS:CAPS and WP:NCCAPS tell us to figure out what to treat as a proper name. A focus on use in sentences, in news and in books, clearly shows that "NBA Conference" is not nearly consistently capped, so per our guidelines we should not treat it as a proper name as Conyo14 wants to. Anyway, it's better to think of this title as the "conference finals" of the NBA, rather than as finals of "NBA Conference", a non-existent entity. Dicklyon (talk) 18:45, 20 January 2024 (UTC)
• Support per WP:NCCAPS and MOS:CAPS and evidence below. We consider how something is capped in the context of sentences. If this is not consistently done (as the evidence indicates) then we do not cap it here. Conyo14 would argue to cap conference as a shortened form of the full proper name being NBA Eastern and Western Conference finals. To generally do this has been previously discussed here and the consensus is against doing so. Cinderella157 (talk) 03:34, 21 January 2024 (UTC)
• Suppport per WP:NCCAPS and MOS:CAPS (especially MOS:SPORTCAPS and MOS:SIGCAPS). The terms "conference", "final[s]", and "conference final[s]" are nowhere near consistently capitalized in independent reliable sources on this topic, including sports-specific ones. Some additional data to add to all of that below: GScholar results [3] with a capitalization rate (outside of title-case titles and headings) of about 3 sources in 10. What's happened here is that specific conferences like Western Conference and Eastern Conference (like the conferences of American college football: Mid-American Conference, Pac-12 Conference, etc.) have proper names, but "conference" by itself is not a proper name; it's exactly the same as "university" and "corporation" (Oxford University and Corporation for Public Broadcasting are proper names, but the words by themselves are not). The entire expression "NBA conference finals" or "National Basketball Assocation conference finals" is not treated as something to capitalize except in a demonstrable minority of source material.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  18:35, 21 January 2024 (UTC)
• Oppose per discussion, but Strongly Oppose lowercasing 'Conference'. The NBA conferences are proper names, as are conferences in other sports. Titling the page "NBA Conference Finals" is a work-around and shortened version of titling it "NBA Western Conference Final and NBA Eastern Conference Final". Randy Kryn (talk) 05:46, 23 January 2024 (UTC)

  Oppose per discussion...: Which discussion are you referring to? —Bagumba (talk) 06:55, 23 January 2024 (UTC)

  Conyo14's spot-on comment in particular. Randy Kryn (talk) 07:08, 23 January 2024 (UTC)

  That comment was rebutted. Do you have a counter argument for the community to consider? —Bagumba (talk) 07:30, 23 January 2024 (UTC)

  Maybe rebutted to your liking, not mine. Notice that the present title is about the NBA Conference Finals, not NBA conferences finals (plural). I think what Conyo14 was correctly getting at is that both titles are inaccurate. There is no "NBA conference", there are two, so the title should be NBA Western Conference and Eastern Conference Finals. I would support that. Randy Kryn (talk) 12:46, 23 January 2024 (UTC)

  Responded to in detail in the section below.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  20:08, 23 January 2024 (UTC)

• Oppose per data collected by Conyo14. Conferences are proper nouns in American English and to suggest otherwise to any sports fan would elicit blank stares; either from not caring enough about this "issue" or just knowing that it was common sense. SounderBruce 07:12, 23 January 2024 (UTC)

  [Comments pertainting to SounderBruce's reliance on Conyo14's links and claims about them has been refactored below, along with detailed analysis of those claims.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  09:41, 26 January 2024 (UTC)]

• Support per MOS:CAPS:

  Wikipedia avoids unnecessary capitalization...Wikipedia relies on sources to determine what is conventionally capitalized; only words and phrases that are consistently capitalized in a substantial majority of independent, reliable sources are capitalized in Wikipedia.

  "NBA Conference" is not even a proper noun as it's not

  a noun...that is arbitrarily used to denote a particular person, place, or thing without regard to any descriptive meaning the word or phrase may have, as Lincoln, Beth, Pittsburgh (per Collins).

  Also, the basic English description "NBA conference" has the same semantic meaning as "NBA Conference", as opposed to "Super Bowl" vs. "super bowl" or "White House" vs. "white house". Thus capitalization is neither necessary for understanding nor seen consistently in a substantial majority of independent, reliable sources. Some !voters are mistaking the generic description "NBA conference finals" with the specific "Western Conference f/Finals" (of the NBA's Western Conference) or "Eastern Conference f/Finals" (of the NBA's Eastern Conference).—Bagumba (talk) 08:45, 24 January 2024 (UTC)
• Support lowercasing conference and finals. Sources plus logic: it's plural. Tony (talk) 02:42, 28 January 2024 (UTC)
• Support per WP:LOWERCASE, WP:NCCAPS, MOS:CAPS, etc., per nom, SMcCandlish, Cinderella157, Bagumba, etc. This doesn't look tricky. Wikipedia avoids unnecessary capitalization. When independent reliable sources are mixed, Wikipedia uses lowercase. The fact that this is plural and specific conferences are not identified in the title makes the case even more clear. There is no conference called the "NBA Conference". The topic is a category of events, not a particular named event, and thus a common name. —⁠ ⁠BarrelProof (talk) 04:40, 29 January 2024 (UTC)
• Support per nom. It seems that except in the specific case of Western Conference and Eastern Conference, the term conference is treated as a common noun. So downcase away, Whittington.  — Amakuru (talk) 15:10, 5 February 2024 (UTC)
• Support per nom and evidence below, especially SMC's analysis of the sources Conyo found. Should be lowercase per WP:NCCAPS and MOS:CAPS. A glance at the most recent reliable Google News hits suggests that capitalization in running prose is not "consistently capitalized in a substantial majority". Capitalization here would be "unnecessary". Firefangledfeathers (talk / contribs) 17:58, 15 February 2024 (UTC)
• Leaning support, since. e.g., Eastern Conference (NBA) says: "The Eastern Conference is one of two conferences that make up the National Basketball Association (NBA), the other being the Western Conference". If this title were fully extruded with clauses, it would be "Finals of the conferences of the NBA", in the lowercase. BD2412 T 16:22, 17 February 2024 (UTC)

Some data in evidence

• Book n-grams don't find the full title (it doesn't appear in enough books). But it does show NBA Conference as only about half capped. And if you preface that with "the" to restrict to sentence contexts, it shows nothing but lowercase conference.
• Book search finds both upper- and lower-case uses in sentences, and just one of the "compromise" mixed-case version.
• News search finds mostly lowercase except in the context of specific conference names, like NBA Eastern Conference Finals. I don't see any of the mixed-case that GoodDay suggests (which Conyo14 said he has found a bunch of, but hasn't said where).

Anyone else who finds evidence in sources, please link it here. Dicklyon (talk) 17:00, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

• uppercase "C" for conference: [4] [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19], [20], [21], [22], [23], [24]
• lowercase "C" for conference: [25], [26], [27], [28], [29], [30]
• mixed "C" for conference: [31]. Next, Mixed case, with upper only in a heading; does cap EC and WC; other pages at same site have lowercase ([32][33][34][35][36][37][38][39]); but some rare instances of uppercase[40], about a 1:10 ratio; EC & WC usually capped, but not always [41].

Should I continue? P.S. I the "f" is shown to be mostly lowercased. Conyo14 (talk) 18:10, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

OK, so did we misunderstand you above as indicating that you found a lot of mixed "NBA Conference finals"? I do see "Eastern Conference finals" and "Western Conference finals" (which explain some of the lowercase "finals" you see a lot of), but no "NBA Conference finals". And most of your links (at least the ones I can access) do not show any instance of "NBA Conference Finals" in sentences; some of the lowercase ones do find "NBA conference finals" and "NBA conference semifinals" in sentences. Maybe you or someone can go through and find the ones that cap in sentences, and quote them or something, as the long list of links there is presently just misleading. Keep in mind that WP:NCCAPS says For multiword page titles, one should leave the second and subsequent words in lowercase unless the title phrase is a proper name that would always occur capitalized, even mid-sentence. Dicklyon (talk) 18:33, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

I think you might be misinterpreting it. That's on me. You are looking for generic usage of the title right? Since that I think is a lot rarer. Unfortunately for everyone, it's almost always Eastern/Western Conference finals/semifinals. If that's what you want, please give me some time to find them. I may consider changing my !vote if this article started out as lowercase, otherwise, it is yet another no consensus we approach. Conyo14 (talk) 19:31, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

Whether it's generic or proper, the point is to decide, by looking at uses of the title phrase in sentences. If you don't find it uppercase "consistently", then the capitalization is a style choice, and WP style is to choose lowercase. Dicklyon (talk) 22:11, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

@Conyo14: some of your sources say the opposite of what you're indicating. For example [42] and [43] both use conference in sentence case, except when explicitly referencing the proper names of Western Conference and Eastern Conference. Those titles should therfore be included in your lowercase "C" for conference list, not your uppercase "C" for conference. Please could you revamp the list above so that it reflects the actual usage, then we can make an informed decision as to which way to !vote in this discussion. Currently I'm leaning towards lowercase conference, but would like to see the full data as you've assessed it. Cheers  — Amakuru (talk) 17:32, 21 January 2024 (UTC)

I noticed that, but due to some outside-of-Wiki stuff happening, I won't have the time to find others. Conyo14 (talk) 17:16, 23 January 2024 (UTC)

The Newspapers.com link was just a TV Guide listing, which automatically use title case for anything. The Sportsnet link is captialized for "Eastern Conference Finals", not "NBA Conference Finals". For the China Daily link, I wouldn't trust is an an authority on English style. Philippine Canadian Enquirer link is again not for "NBA Conference Finals", WP:SPORTSKEEDA is not reliable. And the lowercase list seems arbitrary—glaring omission of ESPN and The New York Times, among others. Agree with Amakuru, the list is misleading. —Bagumba (talk) 07:58, 24 January 2024 (UTC)

I just trusted that these links showed what Conyo14 said they did (which still would not be enough to capitalize this on Wikipedia), but seeing the above comments, I decided to go over these links myself, I have to agree with Dicklyon, Amakuru, and Bagumba: There is four-editor unanimity that these sources do not at all show what Conyo14 claims they do, but primarily a) capitalization in title-case headings/headlines, which capitalize everything, b) capitalization of other terms like "Western Conference" and "Eastern Conference", and c) lowercase or mixed-case of "NBA conference finals" in article text in most instances. The "upppercase" claim about them is grossly misleading, but at least one editor has already fallen for it.

Taken in the order Conyo14 gave them in his "uppercase" section: Lowercase throughout (Eastern Conf. & W. Conf. capitalized). Title-case TV listings in which every word of everything is uppercase. Capitalized in headline; not found in body text (EC & WC capitalized). Actually capitalized in text. Lowercased in text (uppercased in title, EC & WC capitalized). Actually capitalized in text, in that article, but elsewhere on same site, lower- and uppercase mixed in same page ([44][45][46]). Capitalized in headline; does not appear in body; EC/WC capped; unreliable source for English. Capitalized in headline; does not appear in body; EC/WC capped; unreliable source for American English and American sports]. Actually capitalized in text. Capitalized in text, but unereliable source for American English and American sports. Mixed case in the same article, not consitent uppercase (EC/WC capped). Capitalized in headline, not body; EC/EW capped; unreliable source for Am. Eng. & sports. Capitalized in text, but another source not reliable for Am. Eng. & sports. Actually capitalized in the body. Mixed case in the same article, not consitent uppercase (EC/WC capped); but unreliable WP:UGC site anyway. Not an article, and shows only headlines; another article at same site, though, does capitalize in text; however, other materials by the same publisher do not ([47][48][49][50], etc. - not cherry picked, just the first 5 search results[51]); often capitalizes EC/WC but not always [52]. Not verifiable; UK site "unavailable in your region"; not a reliable source for Am. Eng./sports. Capitalized in headline & headings, not body text; found articles there with lowercase in body text, lowercase in headline, and mixed usage in body; EC/WC capped often but not always; very unlikely to be RS anyway: "a Sports fan web site and is in no way affiliated with any media organization, any professional sports league, team, organization, or its Properties", and knows not what to capitalize at all. Does capitalize in body text – but just in that article; uses lowercase in body and headline ([53][54][55][56][57][58][59] – didn't find another case of them capitalizing it); caps EC/WC. Finally, failed verification yet again: Lowercase and in the full form "National Basketball Association finals" (also uses "NBA draft" later in same page; something that will likely be relevant later). BTW, of the sources that capitalized Eastern/Western Conference, only about half capitalized "final[s]" after it. Several also lowercased plural "Eastern and Western conferences", the way would be "Harvard and Oxford universities".

I checked, individually and in order, every source for which "uppercase" was claimed (other than the irrelevant region-blocked one), including the paywalled Newspapers.com stuff (via TWL). Only a very small number of Conyo14's claims about these sources were correct, but often for publications of no relevance to or reliability for American English and sports. Lowercase in running text clearly predominated in this source material he put in the uppercase box for some reason. I have to point out here, as I did at a thread very similar to this, that verifying claims about sources is what we do all day around here.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  09:41, 26 January 2024 (UTC)

The fact that "NBA Conference Finals" and "NBA Conference finals" don't even show up in ngrams at all is a clear demonstration that it is not a proper name, but is an WP:NDESC Wikipedians have used, to have a merged article on the NBA Eastern Conference finals and NBA Western Conference finals. I have no idea what the desire is to argue and argue and argue to capitalize stuff like this, but it unmistakably fails MOS:CAPS and WP:NCCAPS. To the very limited extent our NDESC has attested usage in external source material at all, it veers back and forth between capitalization styles [60], so it is not consistently capitalized (treated as a proper name) in independent reliable sources.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  20:08, 23 January 2024 (UTC)

@Randy Kryn: To respond to your strange !vote and alternative name suggestion: A) You know as well as anyone else here that a common noun used inside a proper name is not capitalized outside of it (e.g. "Harvard University and Oxford University have very different university policies on harassment", not "...University policies..."). B) And that such a noun when used in the generic with regard to multiple entities will usually take singular form when converted to an adjective (e.g. "Manchester Football Club and Chelsea Football Club have distinct club uniforms" not "...clubs uniforms"), and in this particular case is never written as "NBA conferences finals". The current name is not broken (other than being over-capitalized). C) You can also find out in a matter of seconds that "NBA Western Conference and Eastern Conference Finals" is almost unattested anywhere [61], much less in reliable sources, where it is totally unattested [62][63]). So, while the present title is also a WP:NDESC not a proper name, your long one fails WP:CONCISE. An argument could be made to split the two finals into separate articles, but that would be a very different kind of discussion.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  20:08, 23 January 2024 (UTC)

Broad concept Yes, "NBA conference finals" is basically a descriptive English term for the WP:BROADCONCEPT covering the individual NBA Eastern Conference finals and NBA Western Conference finals. The verbose proposed title of "NBA Western Conference and Eastern Conference finals" fails WP:PRECISION and WP:CONCISE compared to the generic "NBA conference finals".—Bagumba (talk) 04:01, 25 January 2024 (UTC)

But maybe NBA Eastern and Western Conference finals would be an OK compromise if Randy and Bruce don't accept the generic/descriptive term for the pair? I'd prefer the more concise one still, even though it's a term not often seen in sources (and never capped in sources). Dicklyon (talk) 16:21, 25 January 2024 (UTC)

The shortened "NBA conference finals" is used in sources, and anyways its a basic English description that readers can comprehend. Is there a more compelling reason for a longer title? —Bagumba (talk) 00:21, 26 January 2024 (UTC)

No reason I can see. RK likes it (I'm guessing because it has more capitals in it), but it fails several of the WP:CRITERIA. As noted above, another option (for a different kind of discussion) would be WP:SPLIT; it's not at all clear that these need to be jammed together in one article, and I'm rather surprised that they have been (various other sports projects would not have tolerated such a borderline mutual-WP:COATRACKing).  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  02:14, 26 January 2024 (UTC)

Most of the current prose is generic for both conferences, and it's not too big. I wouldn't split simply to circumvent the MOS:CAPS debate. —Bagumba (talk) 03:33, 26 January 2024 (UTC)

Sure, it just seems weird (at least from a sports coverage perspective) to have both series of finals in the same article. I'm not concerned about where the RM is going.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  07:56, 26 January 2024 (UTC)

• Refactored commentary after SoundBruce's !vote:

  Conyo14 clarified below [now above] that they were referring specifically to Western Conference and Eastern Conference, not the generic NBA conference.[64] —Bagumba (talk) 07:37, 23 January 2024 (UTC)*::

  No I didn't. Conyo14 (talk) 17:15, 23 January 2024 (UTC)

  Ok. Then please clarify what the diff means. Thanks. —Bagumba (talk) 17:35, 23 January 2024 (UTC)

  It means exactly what it said.... If you wish to discuss further, do so below, not on someone's !vote. Conyo14 (talk) 17:54, 23 January 2024 (UTC)

  Conyo14's data shows "NBA Eastern Conference" and "NBA Western Conference" consistently capitalized. It does not show "NBA conference" consistently capitalized, since "conference" is used generically there; source usage is demonstrably all over the place on this [65], so it fails the MOS:CAPS test: Wikipedia relies on sources to determine what is conventionally capitalized; only words and phrases that are consistently capitalized in a substantial majority of independent, reliable sources are capitalized in Wikipedia.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  20:08, 23 January 2024 (UTC)

  Please discuss my data below [now here], do not bludgeon the process. Conyo14 (talk) 22:42, 23 January 2024 (UTC)

  I've have gone over your data in detail, and it is provably faulty more than 4/5 of the time. When someone like SounderBruce believes at first glance that your data is convincing, but every single person above who has examined your links in any detail finds it all badly misleading, then the commenter deserves to know that it is misleading and to have an opporunity to revise their RM input.  — SMcCandlish ☏ ¢ 😼  09:41, 26 January 2024 (UTC)

  I agree. As data and evidence are what this section is about, his data support lowercase more than they support uppercase. Further, where SounderBruce wrote "Conferences are proper nouns in American English", it's not clear what he means; I'd agree with "Conference names are proper nouns in American English", but "conference" is a generic noun, not a conference name. Also note that "NBA Conference" is not a conference name, though it's dressed up as one by the capitalization. Dicklyon (talk) 18:24, 27 January 2024 (UTC)

  I just noticed that Randy Kryn said about the same thing: "The NBA conferences are proper names". What the heck does that mean? Again, I would agree that conference names are proper names, but "NBA conference" is not a conference name, so I can't see the relation that Randy is implying here. Dicklyon (talk) 06:45, 29 January 2024 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.