Notable occurrences

• The NBA makes its return to Charlotte as the Charlotte Bobcats become the league's 30th franchise. They play their first season at the Charlotte Coliseum.
• This season also makes the first year of the NBA's new divisional alignments, separating the league into six divisions of five teams instead of the previous four divisions of varying numbers of teams. As part of this realignment, the New Orleans Hornets move from the Eastern Conference to the Western Conference.
• The NBA All-Star Game was played on February 20, 2005 at the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado, with the East winning 125-115. Philadelphia's Allen Iverson was named the MVP of the game.
• During All-Star Weekend Quentin Richardson won the Three-point Shootout, Steve Nash won the Skills Challenge, and Diana Taurasi, Dan Majerle and Shawn Marion won the Shooting Stars Competition -- all Phoenix Suns victories. Amare Stoudemire made it to the final round of the Slam Dunk Contest but failed to complete the sweep for the Suns.
• Prior to the start of this season, Shaquille O'Neal was traded to the Miami Heat after his reported fallout with former Laker teammate Kobe Bryant. Fans sensed this, along with the Pistons championship, as a possible end of dominance by the Western Conference. They also witnessed the loss of head coach Phil Jackson and replacement Rudy Tomjanovich as the Lakers missed out on the NBA playoffs for the fifth time in their history.
• The Memphis Grizzlies play their first game at FedExForum.
• An early regular season game between Detroit and Indiana at The Palace of Auburn Hills was disrupted with 45.9 seconds to go as a major riot broke out between players and fans. This resulted in record breaking suspensions, most notable of which was Ron Artest who received the longest suspension in NBA history (73 games plus the playoffs). The NBA also overhauled its league-wide security policy.
• The Bulls make their first appearance in the playoffs since their 1998 championship season (after which they lost Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, Phil Jackson, Luc Longley, and Steve Kerr among others). The Bulls postseason berth also followed an 0-9 start to the season, and the Bulls fielded one of the youngest rosters in NBA history (Gordon, Deng, Duhon, and Nocioni were rookies, Hinrich was in his second season, Chandler and Curry were in their fourth seasons out of high school).
• The Washington Wizards make their first appearance in the playoffs since the team name changed for the 1997-98 season.
• The Phoenix Suns started an unofficial league tradition of a mostly exposed hardwood floor, with a darker varnish on the outside of the three-point area. They also put their team website on the sideline, which other teams followed suit in the coming seasons.

Final standings

Eastern Conference

Western Conference