The Western Conference took off and began their dominance of winning NBA championships beginning in 1999 with the Spurs.
Three ABA titles aside (which don't count according to the NBA) the Pacers have a long history of "Always the bridesmaid, never the bride." when they're good. To a lesser extent the Utah Jazz and Minnesota Timberwolves do too.
It takes a really special type of very good player for them to say "I'd prefer to stay in this boring small town" instead of going for the money, glitter, and glamour the "big cities" have to offer.
Some examples: Reggie Miller, Rik Smits, John Stockton, Karl Malone, Lt. David Robinson, Tim Duncan
- Reggie played for UCLA and knew the pitfalls of LA.
- Rik's son is an allumni of the public HS my daughters attend. He also races dirtbikes and it's hilarious to see someone 7'4" jump a dirtbike designed for a teenager who is at most 5'8".
- John effectively said he wore short shorts for his entire career because no one thought to ask him if he wanted knee-length ones.
- Karl owned a semi-tractor and was a truck driver during the off-season. The wiki article on him doesn't mention that.
- David? The USN would need to modify a ship's officer's quarters so that he could stretch out while off-duty while not on the deck.
- Tim plays DnD (yes, he's a nerd like us) and his side contracts were for promoting things like dress shoes and other boring stuff .
EDIT: Rik is the only one who isn't in the Hall of Fame and Karl is the only one who played for more than one NBA team.