International Basketball League

:"This article is about the International Basketball League formed in 2004. See International Basketball League (1999-2001) for information on the original unrelated International Basketball League."

Infobox sports league

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pixels = 200px
caption = International Basketball League logo
sport = Basketball
founded = 2004
inaugural = 2005
motto =
teams = 18
country = USA
CAN
PRC
JPN
champion = Bellingham Slam
folded =
website = [http://www.iblhoopsonline.com/ www.iblhoopsonline.com]

The International Basketball League is a professional men's spring basketball league featuring teams from the West Coast, Rocky Mountains, Western Canada, and the Midwest. They also feature teams from the People's Republic of China and Japan which will temporarily relocate to the USA for the IBL season. The IBL season runs from the end of March through June with playoffs in July.

History

Founded by Portland area sports promoter Mikal Duilio, the league features rules designed to create a fast-paced, high-scoring brand of basketball. Duilio first began planning for the league with a series of test games in Portland and Seattle in November 2003. These games featured a mixture of traditional college and NBA rules, plus three rules created specifically for the league:
*1. The "Immediate Inbound" Rule: After a made basket, the referee will throw the ball to a nearby player, instead of a player throwing in the ball from under the basket, to eliminate wasted time.
*2. Instead of six timeouts as in an NBA game, teams are limited to only a single timeout per quarter.
*3. A 22-second shot clock is used instead of the NBA's 24. A defensive non-shooting foul or kicked ball resets it to 12.

The test games proved popular and resulted in the founding of the IBL in August of 2004. Founded with 8 teams, the league expanded to 17 by the start of the season in April 2005. Each team played approximately 20 regular season games, most of them centered around their home region, with the teams with the two best records playing in a championship game at the end of the season. The Battle Creek Knights won the inaugural title by going undefeated in the regular season and beating the Dayton Jets in the finals.

In the league's first year, the up-tempo rules resulted in the average team scoring 126.9 points per game, nearly 30 points more than the NBA team average in 2004-05, and slightly higher than the NBA record for points per game by a team in a single season, set by the Denver Nuggets in 1981-82.

Teams

Current Teams

IBL Champions

Championships by Team

Notable people

Commissioners

*Mikal Duilio - Commissioner from 2004-Present

Players

*Kyle Keyes, point guard for the Snohomish County Explosion, is the son of famous adult film actor Johnny Keyes.

Coaches

*Logan Vander Velden, head coach of the Battle Creek Knights and former Los Angeles Clipper [27 Dec 2007. "Vander Velden takes the helm in Battle Creek." IBLHoopsOnline. 24 Oct. 2006. International Basketball League. .]
*Rob Ridnour, head coach of the Bellingham Slam and father of Milwaukee Bucks guard Luke Ridnour

Owners

*Nathan Mumm, owner of the Snohomish County Explosion

Final Regular Season Standings

See article IBL Regular Season Standings

Minor notes

ee also

* List of developmental and minor sports leagues

External links

* [http://www.iblhoopsonline.com Official League Site]
* [http://portland.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2004/08/16/daily25.html Article on league's founding]