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The National Basketball League is Australasia's top-level professional basketball competition. There are currently 8 teams in the league, with teams in Adelaide, Cairns, the Gold Coast, Melbourne, North Shore (New Zealand), Perth, Townsville, and Wollongong. This comes after a turbulent period, when the league lost teams from Australia's three largest cities, Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. A second Melbourne club, the South Dragons, entered the league in season 2006/07, but pulled out after season 2008/09 in which they were premiers. The National Basketball League has also become the first Australasian 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. Most teams have historically featured at least one and usually two American imports; teams are limited to having two non-Australasians 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). One former American NBL player, Arne Duncan (of the Eastside Spectres, 1987-'91), went on to be named United States Secretary of Education by Barack Obama. Duncan met his future wife in Tasmania whilst playing for the Spectres. 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.
[edit] HistoryThe 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. 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.[1] On September 18, 2007, the National Basketball League announced Hummer as their naming rights sponsor for the 2007/08 season.[2] [edit] Current Teams
[edit] Former and defunct teamsSelection. See List of defunct National Basketball League (Australia) teams for a more in depth list
[edit] Administration[edit] Salary capThe NBL's salary cap for the 2006-07 season was AU$776,000, and increased to $810,000 for the 2007-08 season; the cap rose for two consecutive years due to the continued growth of the league.[3] The salary cap for the 2009-10 season is $1,000,000.[4] [edit] Broadcasting DetailsThe 2009/10 NBL season will see 51 games shown live on Fox Sports [1]. This includes all playoff games, and all New Zealand Breakers home games via satellite from Māori Television in New Zealand. Each team will have at least 7 games shown. In addition to television coverage, some teams, including the Adelaide 36ers, Perth Wildcats [2], Gold Coast Blaze and Townsville Crocodiles are, beginning in the 2009/10 season, offering Live Streaming of all home games online for a $5 pay per view fee.[3] Some clubs also have live broadcasts on local radio stations, most of which are available to listen to online.[4] [edit] Hall of FameThe National Basketball League celebrated 20 seasons of competition in 1998. As part of the celebrations, the NBL initiated the Hall of Fame to recognise the outstanding players, coaches, referees and contributors to the league. In order to be eligible for induction into the Hall of Fame, candidates must have fulfilled the following criteria:
Inductees are listed in alphabetical order.
[edit] List of ChampionsMain article: NBL (Australia) Finals
Teams in bold are current members of the NBL. [edit] NBL Finals
[edit] RivalriesAdelaide 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). 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. Adelaide 36ers vs. Melbourne Tigers Apart from the normal Victorian & South Australian rivalry, a new rivalry has emerged with Julius Hodge, a former 36er, returning to the NBL in November 2009, signing with the Melbourne Tigers. Hodge was a star in Adelaide when he joined the 36ers mid-season the previous 2 years, however issues relating to alleged missed payments caused him to walk out on the club in early January 2009 on bad terms.[5] Hodge returned to his old home court for the first time on the 5th of December, 2009 in a Tigers overtime victory. After being heckled and taunted all night in a quiet game by his standards, Hodge caused more controversy when he stamped on the Brett Maher signature on the centre of the Brett Maher Court following his new club's win.[6] [edit] The NBL in the futureThe NBL experienced its golden age in the early to mid-1990s[5], 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[7]. Disgruntled Australian basketball enthusiasts have suggested expansion to 16 teams, most importantly locating a team in the city of Darwin [8] 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 ex-Australian Boomers head coach Brian Goorjian [9] [10], 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 [11]. 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. [12]. The preferred method is to have three more teams in The Asia/Pacific region with locations such as Hong Kong, Manila, Taipei, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and even United States territory Guam being earmarked as possible locations for clubs as well as re-instating the Singapore 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 [13]. 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 own region or division. A new Brisbane club is expected to replace the old Brisbane Bullets, thereby placing this team in a division of its own with the other three Queensland clubs, the Gold Coast Blaze, Townsville Crocodiles and Cairns Taipans. The Sydney Kings name was purchased for the sum of AU$20,000 on 31 July 2008 adding hope to the club also making a return to the league [14]. Other possible locations for clubs include Hobart, Wellington 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 [15]. 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 Jianlian and Hamed Haddadi, Australia's role as hosting the best league in the region and one of the best in the world is obviously appealing[16]. The new NBL would ideally open the import restrictions to include Asian passport 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 regional basketball nations such as New Zealand, The Philippines, China, Korea, Iran, Angola, Argentina and Brazil would ideally all have representatives in the new league, which was recently merged with Basketball Australia[17]. [edit] Award winners
[edit] Statistical leaders
[edit] All-Star gameThe 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). Main article: NBL (Australia) All-Star Game [edit] All-Star Games by Season
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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