National Basketball League (Australia)

Infobox sports league
title=National Basketball League
current_season = 2008-09 NBL Season
logo =
pixels=175px
caption=National Basketball League Logo (2004 – present)
sport=Basketball
founded=1979
teams=10
country=AUS
NZL
champion=Melbourne Tigers
website= [http://www.nbl.com.au www.nbl.com.au] The National Basketball League is Australia's top-level professional basketball competition.

The league commenced in 1979, playing a winter season (April–September) and did so until the completion of the 20th season in 1998. The 1998/99 season, which commenced only months later, was the first season after the shift to the current summer season format (October–April). This shift was an attempt to avoid competing directly against Australia's various football codes.

There are currently 10 teams in the league, with teams in four capital cities Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth, as well as regional centers Cairns, Townsville, Gold Coast and Wollongong, plus New Zealand. A second Melbourne club, the South Dragons, entered the league in season 2006/07. The National Basketball League has also become the first Australian sporting league to field a team from Asia with the Singapore Slingers playing in the 2006/07, through to the 2007/08 season. The Gold Coast Blaze joined the competition this 2007/08 season.

The league's best years were arguably in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but it has struggled recently and many teams have downsized to smaller venues to cut costs. A number of clubs have folded or ceased to compete in the competition. The previous major sponsor of the NBL was Mitsubishi Motors. Mitsubishi, which left its sponsorship when the ABC ceased televising NBL basketball games left the National Basketball League close to folding.

Despite these issues, at the start of the 2004/05 season the league struck a new television deal with Fox Sports in Australia and a multi-year naming-rights sponsorship deal with electronics manufacturer Philips. In 2007, Philips announced they would not continuing their naming rights sponsorship after the current contract ends in June in response to the National Basketball League wishing to increase the sponsorship deal. [cite web| last = Howell| first = Stephen|title = Sponsorship hike forces out Philips | publisher = The Age | date = 2007| url = http://www.theage.com.au/news/basketball/sponsorship-hike-forces-out-philips/2007/03/17/1174080225077.html | accessdate = 2007-02-27] On September 18, 2007, the National Basketball League announced Hummer as their naming rights sponsor for the 2007/08 season. [cite web|title = Hummer joins NBL as Naming Rights Sponsor | publisher = NBL | date = 2007| url = http://www.nbl.com.au/default.aspx?s=newsdisplay&id=72062| accessdate = 2007-09-18]

Most teams have historically featured at least one and usually two American imports; teams are limited to having two non-Australians on the roster at any one time. Some of these players have moved to Australia permanently and become Australian citizens; a few have even played for the Australian national team (under a rule that allowed one naturalized player to compete for a national team).

Current Teams

Teams in bold are current members of the NBL.

NBL Finals

Rivalries

Adelaide 36ers vs Perth Wildcats

Both teams were perennial championship contenders in the late 80's and early 90's and had several marquee players with excellent matchups, the two most notable involving the imports: Al Green (Adelaide) vs Cal Bruton (Perth), Mark Davis (Adelaide) vs James Crawford (Perth). Games during this era were rarely blowouts and helped to fuel the rivalry. Ironically, the two teams have never played each other in the final series. As the mainstay players began to slow with age and retire, the intensity of this rivalry has declined. The two clubs remain the most successful in the NBL with 4 championships each and are 1st & 2nd on the all-time wins list, and have also matched up on more occasions (76, including 20 in the playoffs) than any other two teams in the NBL (as at November 9, 2005).

Adelaide 36ers vs Brisbane Bullets

Both teams were perennial championship contenders in the mid 80's and faced each other in the final for 3 consecutive years between 1985 and 1987. NBL legends Al Green, Mark Davis & Darryl Pearce from Adelaide and Leroy Loggins, Larry Sengstock & Cal Bruton (who moved to Perth in 1987 as the Adelaide / Perth rivalry developed) from Brisbane were all in the prime of their careers during this period.

Adelaide 36ers vs Melbourne Tigers

This rivalry largely stems from the switch by Mark Bradtke to the Tigers (from the 36ers) at the end of the 1992 season, inciting the wrath of 36ers fans. As such, it could just as easily be referred to as the Adelaide 36ers fans vs Mark Bradtke rivalry.

Melbourne Tigers vs South East Melbourne Magic

This early 90's battle to rule Melbourne raged at a time when interest in the NBL was at an all-time high, and attracted very large crowds to the 15,000 seat National Tennis Centre (now Rod Laver Arena). Key figures in these matchups were, for the Tigers: Andrew Gaze, Lanard Copeland, Mark Bradtke, David Simmons, Warrick Giddey, Ray Gordon; for the Magic: Robert Rose, Tony Ronaldson, Bruce Bolden, Darren Lucas, John Dorge, Andrew Parkinson.

Sydney Kings vs West Sydney Razorbacks

West Sydney Razorbacks fans are generally ex-Kings fans who became disillusioned with the team during the 1990s and ceased following the NBL altogether. The Razorbacks played the Kings in their first ever game in 1998. A controversial double technical foul late in the 4th quarter by Matt Nielsen, firstly for swinging on the ring and then for an obscene hand gesture, swung the game the Razorbacks way and gave the Kings a humiliating defeat. The two teams have hated each other ever since. The two teams met in a memorable Grand Final series in 2004 and the Razorbacks led the Kings 2 game to 1 and had a chance to clinch the title at home in Game 4. Behind their home crowd the Pigs rallied to tie the game but the Kings found a way to win the thrilling Game 4 and the Kings put the series away with a come from behind Game 5 victory in Sydney.

Cairns Taipans vs Townsville Crocodiles

Despite the large geographical separation of these two cities, a local derby style rivalry has developed to determine which is the dominant North Queensland team.

Cairns and Townsville are two teams that are allegedly widely reviled by fans all around the league. Their rivalry mirrors that of South East Melbourne Magic / Victoria Titans / Victoria Giants and the Sydney Kings.

Sydney Kings vs Wollongong Hawks

Being only 90 minutes drive away from each other there was always going to be a rivalry. This rivalry has also seen a Grand Final series where the Kings swept the Hawks in 3 games in a very one sided series winning all 3 in blowouts. Whenever the Kings are playing in Wollongong, WIN Entertainment Centre is usually sold out. Wollongong fans view the Kings as spoilt cousins, and as such, hate the Kings. The signing by the Evil Stydney Kings of beloved Wollongong hero Glen Saville has taken the rivalry to a new level, however, the Hawks are such a crap team that the Kings dominated them and torn them a new asshole. As such this wasn't really a rivalry as the Kings always were the better team.

Melbourne Tigers vs South Dragons

In its infancy, but with all the hallmarks of being the battle of Victorian supremacy. Local derby matches typically sell out at the Tigers 3500 seat home stadium (mostly Tiger Fans), "The Cage", and attracts 7000–9000 fans to the Dragons home stadium, Vodafone Arena. In 2008 the rivalry became bigger when Ebi Ere (thought to have signed with the South Dragons in the pre-season) signed on with the Tigers.

The NBL in the future

The NBL experienced its golden age in the early to mid-1990s [cite web| last = Morrisey| first = Tim|title = NBL needs to start from scratch if it is to survive | publisher = Herald Sun | date = 2008| url = http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23775098-10914,00.html | accessdate = 2008-06-12] , but its popularity, media attention, attendance and corporate support deteriorated and plateaued in the decade afterward. Australian NBA player Andrew Bogut suggested the NBL try to adopt a model similar to the Australian Football League (AFL) whereby there are the same 10 or 15 teams over a 10 year period [http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,21882523-10914,00.html] . Disgruntled Australian basketball enthusiasts have suggested expansion to 16 teams, most importantly locating a team in the city of Darwin [http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2005/12/01/1520428.htm] making the Singapore road-trip less drawn-out, also Darwin currently does not have the support for a national domestic team of any sort. Since the inception of the Singapore Slingers in 2006, both Asia and Oceania are represented in the National Basketball League, however Asian players are not considered local players unless they are from Singapore and play for the Slingers. Unfortunately the Slingers are no longer part of the NBL.

There has been significant support for the NBL to expand into Asia by many NBL players as well as Australian national coach Brian Goorjian [http://www.nbl.com.au/default.aspx?s=newsdisplay&id=75866] [http://blogs.foxsports.com.au/basketball/index.php/foxsports/comments/live_qa_with_andy_vlahov] , be it differently to how it was done with the now defunct Singapore Slingers which had a 14 hour round-trip flight to the Australian East Coast [http://wwos.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=605329&rss=yes] . The 2009/10 season is earmarked as the season in which the NBL will begin its revamping, much like the old National Soccer League which has now become the eight team A-League, with an eye to expanding to 10 teams within two seasons. [http://www.a-league.com.au] . The preffered method is to have three more teams in The Asia/Pacific region with locations such as Hong Kong, Manilla, Taipei, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and even United States territory Guam being earmarked as possible locations for clubs as well as re-instating the Slingers licence; although this expansion is not likely to happen for up to five more years. However it is possible the Perth Wildcats and/or a new Darwin franchise may make up the numbers in an Australasian division also [http://blogs.foxsports.com.au/basketball/index.php/foxsports/comments/live_qa_with_andy_vlahov] . Each of these clubs would then play just one home and one away game against each club not in its region or division and play up to three games against those clubs in its immediate area. A new Brisbane club is expected to replace the old Brisbane Bullets [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brisbane_Bullets] , thereby placing this team in a division of its own with the other three Queensland clubs, the Townsville Crocodiles, Gold Coast Blaze and Cairns Taipans. The Sydney Kings name was purchased for the sum of AU$20,000 on July 31st, 2008 adding hope to the club also making a return to the league [http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,8659,24111189-23769,00.html] . Other possible locations for clubs include Hobart, Southern New Zealand and even an Australian Institute of Sport team based in Canberra comprising the best Australian players under the age of 22. Canberra has not had an NBL side since the Canberra Cannons which folded in 2003, the success of the AIS team in the Australian Women's National Basketball League underlies the likelihood of such a venture working [http://www.wnbl.com.au/index.php?id=64] .

With the eventual expansion into Asia is it expected that Australia's significant Asian population would follow the game as well as creating revenue from pay-TV rights throughout Asia. With Basketball booming in Asia with the success in the NBA of Yao Ming as well as Yi Jianlin, Hamed Haddadi and Sun Yue Australia's role as hosting the best league in the region and one of the best in the world is obviously appealing [http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_10081024] . The new NBL would ideally open the import restrictions to include Asian pasport holders as well as Oceania and possibly Southern Hemisphere born players to play as locals creating a wider player base and a better standard of basketball. Strong basketball nations such as Argentina, China, Brazil, New Zealand, Iran, Korea, Angola and The Phillipines would ideally all have representatives in the new league, which was recently merged with Basketball Australia [http://news.smh.com.au/sport/basketball-australia-and-nbl-merge-20080624-2w4w.html] .

Notable NBL Figures

* Ray Borner
* Cal Bruton
* Shane Heal
* Steve Carfino
* James Crawford
* Mark Davis
* Andrew Gaze
* Lindsay Gaze
* Brian Goorjian
* Ricky Grace
* Leroy Loggins
* Larry Sengstock
* Phil Smyth
* Andrew Vlahov
* Brett Maher
* Chris Anstey
* C. J. Bruton
* Sam Mackinnon

Award Winners

* 25th Anniversary Team (2003)
* 20th Anniversary Team (1998)
* Most Valuable Player
* Most Valuable Player — Grand Final
* Coach of the Year
* Rookie of the Year
* Most Improved Player
* Best Defensive Player
* Best Sixth Man
* Good Hands Award (defunct)
* Most Efficient Player (defunct)
* All NBL teams

tatistical Leaders

* Points per game
* Rebounds per game
* Assists per game
* Steals per game
* Blocks per game
* Field goal %
* Free throw %

All-Star Game

The All-Star game is an annual event in the NBL. It was once contested between the East and West but was now contested by the locals (Aussie All-Stars) and imports (World All-Star).

All-Star Games by Season

References

ee also

*All-time Records
*List of sports attendance figures — the NBL in a worldwide context
*List of National Basketball League (Australia) venues

External links

* [http://www.nbl.com.au Official NBL website]
* [http://www.basketball.net.au Basketball Australia]
* [http://www.aussiebball.com Aussie BBall]
* [http://www.hoopcity.com.au Australia's basketball magazine]
* [http://www.nblstats.com NBLStats]
* [http://www.foxsports.com.au/basketball FOX Sports Australia Basketball section]
* [http://sportsaustralia.com/basketball SportsAustralia.com Basketball]