At no point in its history has the National Basketball Association been legitimately associated for any significant length of time with the word “parity.’’

So the answer to the burning sports talk-show question, “Is the dominance of the Warriors and Cavaliers good or bad for the league?’’ is that it’s neither. It’s just NBA business as usual.

The thought occurred to me as I was watching the Washington Wizards ring up those 26 straight points against the Celtics a few weeks back. It was in front of the same Wizards fans who had witnessed their lads roll off 22 straight against the Celtics in a previous game. Oh, and don’t forget their 16-0 run to open that game in Boston.

Anyway, I’m home watching that 26-point spree on television and the noise from the Verizon Center some 400 miles away practically sounded as if it were in my kitchen. I can guarantee you those people were not watching it while thinking, “Oh, darn, we can’t compete with the Cavs. Oh, too bad we would get swept by the Warriors if we ever reached the Finals.’’

Ah, no. Those fans were enjoying every millisecond of the action. They were relishing the play of their team. They were hoping they’d score 50 straight against the hated Celtics. They were completely in the moment. They were not remotely worrying about the Big Picture. They were getting their money’s worth of basketball entertainment.

I’m telling you. This worry about the dominance of the Warriors and Cavaliers is a media contrivance. It is a topic for sports talk and for the talking heads of TV. If the only reason anyone ever supported an NBA team was to see it win a championship, there would be many empty arenas in the league.

I’m not saying people shouldn’t want to see their team win a championship. That would be ridiculous for someone who has been living in these here parts for more than 50 years to say. Of course it’s a worthy goal. Of course seeing your team win a championship is a fantastic experience. But it’s something that can materialize only for one team annually.

There has to be some other reason to enter the arena, watch your team on TV, or listen to it play on the radio. That reason is appreciation of the game. You get invested in this whole activity because you enjoy the sport.

“My reaction,’’ says NBA commissioner Adam Silver, “is that this is real life. Sometimes you have parity and sometimes you don’t. There are going to be ebbs and flows. There are seemingly dominant teams, and ultimately they are beaten.’’

Dominant teams have been the story of the NBA from its very inception. The NBA as we know it took shape in 1949 when the Basketball Association of America merged with the National Basketball League to form an unwieldy 17-team league stretching from Boston in the East to Denver in the West. The first champions in the new league were the George Mikan-led Minneapolis Lakers. The Lakers also won in 1950. And 1952. And 1953. And 1954. (Rochester interrupted the run in 1951, in large measure because Mikan had a serious ankle problem.)

That first year was a real shakedown cruise. When play resumed in 1950, the league was down to 11 teams, and that number was 10 when Washington disbanded in January 1951. What kept the league in anyone’s consciousness was the greatness — the dominance — of the Minneapolis Lakers.

Mikan retired at the conclusion of the 1953-54 season. (He unretired briefly during the 1955-56 season.) Syracuse won in ’55 and Philadelphia won in ’56. Bill Russell arrived the following season and I’m guessing you don’t need to be told what happened then. His Boston Celtics won 11 of the next 13 titles and would have won a 12th had he not been injured. It was not quite “parity,’’ but somehow the league survived.

You can make a case that the ’70s had some semblance of competition, with eight teams winning the 10 available titles. But the ’80s put the NBA back where it was, with either the Celtics or the Lakers in the Finals every year. Then came the 76ers, winners in ’83 and finalists in ’80 and ’82. Detroit came along at the tail end of the decade, losing in the ’88 Finals and winning in ’89. The only other team to make a Finals in that decade was Houston in ’81 and ’86. So what did the league do? It expanded — twice, adding the likes of Charlotte, Miami, Minnesota, and Orlando.

Plutocracy dominance did not seem to be much of a business deterrent. So dazzled was commissioner David Stern by the volume and passion of the seven cities making bids for expansion franchises at the 1986 league meetings that he said, “Perhaps this should be the reverse of the Groucho Marx line: If this many people want to join the club, maybe we should let them all in.’’

In the ’90s, the Bulls won six out of eight, and had Michael Jordan not taken his little diamond sabbatical, they very likely would have matched the Old Celtics with eight straight. Can anyone seriously suggest they were bad for the sport?

The NBA remains something of a closed shop. Going into this Golden State-Cleveland series, there had been 70 championships (going back to the BAA’s founding in 1946). Boston and the Minneapolis/Los Angeles Lakers have won 33 of them. Chicago (6) and San Antonio (5) have accounted for 11 more. That’s 63 percent of the available titles shared by four franchises in what is now a 30-team league.

Throw in the Philadelphia/San Francisco/Golden State Warriors (4), Fort Wayne/Detroit Pistons (3), Syracuse Nats/Philadelphia 76ers (3), Miami (3), New York (2), and Houston (2), and now it’s 10 teams accounting for 87 percent of the titles.

Some of the team histories are truly startling. The Suns are 0 for 46. The Buffalo/San Diego/Los Angeles Clippers franchise is 0 for 46. New Orleans/Utah is 0 for 42. The current Atlanta Hawks came into being in 1949 as the Tri-Cities Hawks, and their lone title came as the St. Louis Hawks. In 1958.

Oh, and those lovable Sacramento Kings must go back to 1951 to claim their lone franchise title, and that was three locations ago, four if you count Omaha.

The Wizards came into existence in 1961 as the Chicago Packers, and they’ve won once (1978). Other one-timers and the year they were hatched include Seattle (1967), Portland (1970), and Milwaukee (1971). How many of their original fans are still around?

New Jersey, Indiana, and Denver joined San Antonio as ABA merger franchises, and those three have combined for three trips to the Finals (New Jersey 2, Indiana 1). The Nuggets’ furthest advancement has been the Western Conference finals in 1985 and 2009.

Of the ’80s expansion teams, Miami has had the best success, of course. Orlando has made it to two Finals (1995, 2009). The New Orleans/Charlotte team has never been to a Finals. Toronto is back with a nice team its fans can enjoy.

With regard to the current Warriors and Cavaliers dominance killing interest in the product, the ratings would suggest otherwise.

“People are seeing some beautiful basketball,’’ says Silver. “And excellence should be rewarded. Coaches and teams are doubling down in the offseason to improve their teams in order to catch up.

“People act as if something unfair has happened. Yes, Golden State has [Kevin Durant], but Steph [Curry] was a No. 7 [overall pick], [Klay] Thompson was an 11, and Draymond [Green] was a 35. That team was essentially built through the draft.’’

I think you get the point. The NBA has somehow managed to survive and thrive because people can enjoy the product without losing their minds over the Big Picture. It’s in the league’s DNA.

Bob Ryan’s column appears regularly in the Globe. He can be reached at ryan@globe.com.