The NBL Canada Finals is the championship series of the National Basketball League of Canada (NBL). It is played between the winners of the Central Division and Atlantic Division. The first team to win four games in the series is declared NBL Canada champion. It has been played since the league's inaugural 2011–12 season. The London Lightning and Windsor Express are currently the only teams that have claimed the title, with the latter one winning the last two editions of the Finals. Only two coaches have won the championship so far. [1]
In the 2015 NBL Canada Finals, the Express won by default after the Halifax Rainmen forfeited Game 7 due to safety concerns following a pre-game brawl. [2] In the first two series in NBL history, head coach Micheal Ray Richardson led the London Lightning to back-to-back championships. Richardson was named Coach of the Year for both seasons. Bill Jones led Windsor to consecutive titles as well.
The player with the top performances in the NBL Finals is named Finals Most Valuable Player. [3] Its first two recipients, Gabe Freeman, who won the 2012 Finals with the Lightning, is the sole player to be named regular season MVP the same year. [1]
Micheal "Sugar" Ray Richardson is an American former professional basketball player and head coach. He most recently was head coach of London Lightning of the National Basketball League of Canada. Richardson played college basketball for the Montana Grizzlies. The No. 4 overall pick in the 1978 NBA draft, Richardson played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for eight years, for the New York Knicks, Golden State Warriors and New Jersey Nets. Richardson was a four-time NBA All-Star.
The Adelaide 36ers, also known as the Sixers, are an Australian professional men's basketball team in the National Basketball League (NBL). The 36ers are the only team in the league representing the state of South Australia and are based in the state's capital of Adelaide. The club was originally called the Adelaide City Eagles when they joined the NBL in 1982, but changed their name to the 36ers the following year. The 36ers nickname comes from the fact that the Colony of South Australia was officially proclaimed on 28 December 1836. Since 2019, the 36ers play their home games at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre.
Joseph Salerno Jr. is an American professional basketball coach, currently serving as the head coach of the Moncton Magic. He previously led the Island Storm to an Atlantic Division title, but the team was defeated by the Windsor Express in the Finals. Despite this, he was named co-NBL Coach of the Year with Micheal Ray Richardson of the London Lightning. Salerno has coached the Vermont Frost Heaves of the Premier Basketball League and has more than a decade of coaching experience.
The Halifax Rainmen were a professional basketball team based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. They played in the Atlantic Division of the National Basketball League of Canada (NBL) and their home games took place at the Scotiabank Centre, formerly known as the Halifax Metro Centre. Andre Levingston was the owner of the Rainmen since he helped establish the team in 2006. The team played their first season in the American Basketball Association (ABA). However, after becoming unhappy with the ABA, they moved to the Premier Basketball League (PBL) for the next three seasons. In 2011, they joined the NBL Canada as one of the original seven teams. Despite showing success in the four seasons they spent in the Canadian league, making two Finals appearances, the Rainmen filed for bankruptcy in July 2015. The team was coming off a controversial loss in the 2015 NBL Canada Finals against the Windsor Express and forfeited Game 7 after taking part in a pre-game brawl. The Halifax Hurricanes, with a larger ownership group than the Rainmen's single owner, replaced the Rainmen in NBL Canada for the 2015–16 season.
The National Basketball League of Canada is a Canadian professional men's basketball league. The NBL was founded in 2011, when three teams formerly of the Premier Basketball League joined with four new franchises to form the NBL's "Original Seven". The league has changed in size multiple times and currently has eight teams; four located in the Atlantic provinces and four in Ontario. The most recent champions are the Moncton Magic, having defeated the St. John's Edge 4–0 in the 2019 NBL Finals. The league's season begins in November and ends in April of the following year.
The London Lightning is a Canadian professional basketball team based in London, Ontario, Canada, with home games at the Budweiser Gardens. The team is a charter member of the National Basketball League of Canada (NBLC) that began play for the 2011–12 season and won the league's first championship. The Lightning have won the most NBLC championships with four.
The 2012–13 NBL Canada season was the second season of the National Basketball League of Canada. The regular season began on Friday, November 2, 2012, when the Summerside Storm hosted the Saint John Mill Rats. The regular season ended on Saturday, March 16, 2013. The playoffs started on March 19 and ended on April 12 when the London Lightning defeated the Summerside Storm in Game 4 of their series, 87–80, winning the Finals, 3–1 and to capture the franchise's second NBL Canada title. Marvin Phillips was named the Finals MVP.
Eddie Jermaine "E. J." Smith is a retired American professional basketball player who last played for the Windsor Express of the National Basketball League of Canada (NBL). He is currently a Master Barber & Cosmetologist in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Kyle Julius is a Canadian former professional basketball player and is currently the head coach for the Taiwanese team Formosa Dreamers of the ASEAN Basketball League. A former Canadian men's national team player, he has been considered one of Canada's most experienced and talented basketball minds. He shares training tips and basketball experience through short articles published on NorthPoleHoops.
Kirk Williams Jr. is an American professional basketball player who currently plays for the London Lightning of the National Basketball League of Canada (NBL). He plays the small forward and power forward positions. Williams played high school basketball for Woodlands High School in Hartsdale, New York and moved on to compete with Longwood and Bridgeport in college. In 2014, he was named NBL Canada Sixth Man of the Year, and in 2015 helped the Express win the championship and became the Finals' Most Valuable Player. And in 2018 he won another championship with the London Lightning. Kirk Williams Jr is married to April Mercado-Williams and they have 4 kids together Angel, Abigail, Kirk Jr 3rd and Jove Kai Mercado-Williams
The 2015 NBL Canada Finals was the championship series of the 2014–15 National Basketball League of Canada season and the conclusion of the season's playoffs. The Central Conference champions Windsor Express controversially won the title after Atlantic Conference champions Halifax Rainmen forfeited Game 7. The Finals began on April 15, and ended on April 30. The Express claimed their second straight title, and Kirk Williams was named Finals MVP.
Tyrone Watson is a Canadian professional basketball player for the St. John's Edge of the National Basketball League of Canada (NBL). He attended New Mexico State University, where he represented the Aggies, and has competed with the Canadian youth national team in the past. Following graduation, Watson played a season with the Halifax Rainmen in the NBL Canada and, following a suspension, returned to the league with the Orangeville A's.
The 2015–16 NBL Canada season was the fifth season of the National Basketball League of Canada (NBLC). The regular season began on December 26, 2015 and concluded on April 30, 2016. There were 40 total games played by each team, eight more than the previous year. The new expansion Niagara River Lions team are competing in their first season. The Halifax Hurricanes also began play, replacing the defunct Halifax Rainmen. During the offseason, the Mississauga Power folded to make way for Raptors 905 of the NBA Development League. Prior to the season, the league also enforced new policies to help improve its standard, including rules regarding sportsmanship, addressing the brawl that ended the 2015 NBL Canada Finals. The first regular season game featured the Island Storm and the Saint John Mill Rats.
The NBL Canada Coach of the Year Award, is an annual National Basketball League of Canada award given since the 2011–12 season. Since its inception, the award has been given to 5 different coaches. Micheal Ray Richardson of the London Lightning is the only coach to get the award more than once. In the 2012–13 season Richardson shared the award with Joe Salerno. The most recent recipient is Hugo López of the Halifax Hurricanes. After receiving the award in 2015, Josep Clarós was handed a lifetime ban from the NBL Canada, for forfeiting the seventh game of the 2015 Finals.
Stefan Bonneau is an American former professional basketball player. Born in Middletown, Orange County, New York, Bonneau played high school basketball for Middletown. He then played for the SUNY Orange Colts of the NJCAA. After graduating, he enrolled in LIU Post to play for the Pioneers in NCAA Division II. In both his seasons with the Pioneers, Bonneau won the East Coast Conference (ECC) championships and was named All-ECC Player of the Year.
Papa Kwaku Oppong is a Canadian former professional basketball player in the National Basketball League of Canada (NBL). He is currently a student at the teacher's college of the University of Windsor. Oppong competed with three different college basketball teams from 2006 to 2010. He played with Coffeyville Community College as a freshman, Panola Junior College as a sophomore, and Eastern Kentucky of the NCAA Division I as a junior and senior.
The 2014–15 Windsor Express season was the third season of the franchise in the National Basketball League of Canada. The Express finished the season with a 21–11 record and won the 2015 Finals in a controversial manner, with the opposing Halifax Rainmen forfeiting Game 7 after a pre-game brawl. They won their second consecutive title, becoming the second team to do so after the London Lightning under Micheal Ray Richardson. Head coach Bill Jones also won back-to-back titles.
The 2015 NBL Canada Finals brawl was an altercation that occurred prior to Game 7 of the year's National Basketball League of Canada (NBL) Finals, between the Windsor Express and Halifax Rainmen on April 30, 2015. It led to the Rainmen's forfeit of the deciding game and allowed the Express to win the championship by default. Windsor's guard Tony Bennett, who participated in the brawl, said, "It's a black eye not just for the league, but for basketball."
Rudolphe "Rudy" Joly is a Haitian-Canadian professional basketball player. A Haiti native, he moved to Quebec City for school. Joly has competed at the college level in both the United States and Canada, with Sheridan College and Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). As a professional, he has played in both the NBL Canada and Vietnam Basketball Association (VBA), most notably winning the 2016 VBA championship and earning international MVP honors.
