The home crowd has long been considered as any team's sixth man. There's just something about playing in your own home floor, in front of your home fans that fuels players to perform at their best. Behind, or rather, around every home crowd is a home arena that figuratively and literally holds the supporters together. It's why a look at the best NBA arenas is a fun topic to discuss.
There are more than a few noteworthy stadiums throughout the NBA today — as well as a number of not-so-special ones — but there are some that just stand out among the rest. Below are our Top 5 best NBA arenas today.
5. AmericanAirlines Arena – Miami Heat
The Miami Heat are one of the biggest market teams in the NBA today, and they have the stadium to match their elite status. The AmericanAirlines Arena is located along Biscayne Bay in Downtown Miami and has a maximum capacity for 21,000 fans. Opened at the turn of the century, this top-class stadium is the home of all three of Miami's championships in franchise history.
This arena made its mark in the league during the Big 3 era, during which many described the atmosphere inside the stadium as “electric” and “incomparable” whenever the trio of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh took the floor. You can only imagine what it was like here when this team finally fulfilled its destiny in 2012 by winning the title, and again in 2013 when they defended their crown, en route to back-to-back championships.
4. ScotiaBank Arena – Toronto Raptors
The ScotiaBank Arena in Toronto is holds a capacity crowd of 19,800. In last year's NBA Finals, it felt much more than that inside the arena, not to mention the massive crowd watching from outside the stadium. While the facilities this stadium offers are top-notch, there's no denying that what makes this venue so special are the fans. This was on full display last season when their beloved Raptors went on that unprecedented title run. No other NBA team can say that they have a whole nation behind them, and for these adoring supporters, they call the ScotiaBank Arena their home.
3. Chase Center – Golden State Warriors
The Chase Center is the newest of all NBA arenas, with the new home of the Golden State Warriors opening its doors just this season. It was a sad farewell for the Dubs as they moved away from their long-time home venue, the Oracle Arena, at the end of the 2018-19 campaign, but perhaps what softened the blow a bit was the fact that they were moving to a brand new, state-of-the art home.
This stadium cost half a billion dollars to build, and it has every single penny of its lofty investment to show for. Aside from having the largest LED scoreboard in the league (9,699 square feet), this 18,000-capacity arena also boasts of a total of over 130 suites on each of the levels of the stadium.
2. Staples Center – Los Angeles Lakers/Los Angeles Clippers
One of the biggest draws of the Staples Center is the Hollywood crowd it produces on a nightly basis. From the Jack Nicholson's to the Leonardo DiCaprio's, you're as much likely to see a huge celebrity in the crowd as you would on the basketball court — that is of course if you get your hands on the extremely high-priced tickets for Lakers games. There's no denying that when it comes to star power, all the other arenas can't hold a candle to the Staples Center.
The Los Angeles Clippers currently share this arena with the Lakers, but with Clippers owner Steve Ballmer now in the picture, L.A.'s “other team” is now set for a huge upgrade. Ballmer just recently purchased The Forum in Inglewood for a whopping $400 million in cash, so stadium-wise, this cross-town rivalry just got even more heated.
1. Madison Square Garden – New York Knicks
Could there have been any arena ranked higher than THE Madison Square Garden? After all, you don't get labelled as “The Mecca of Sports” for nothing.
The New York Knicks call this momentous stadium their home, and while this team has been pretty much horrid over the past few years, this has not taken anything away from the glitz and glamour of MSG. Most, if not all NBA players have once in their lives dreamed about playing in this historic arena, and each visit to the this stadium presents itself as an opportunity to live out that dream. You better believe that for players on opposing teams, road games in the MSG are always one of their highlights of the season.
Having been built in 1925 — the oldest among all stadiums in the league — the Madison Square Garden has also hosted some of the most important sporting events throughout its decades of existence, so as far as history goes, nothing comes close to the MSG.
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