The National Basketball League (NBL) is the pre-eminent professional men's basketball league in Australia and New Zealand. The league was founded in 1979 and is currently contested by nine teams; eight from Australia and one from New Zealand.
Andrew Barry Casson Gaze, AM is an Australian former professional basketball player and former head coach of the Sydney Kings of the National Basketball League (NBL). He has been described as one of the greatest players Australia has ever produced. Gaze played every season for the Melbourne Tigers, between 1985 and 2005 and won the league's MVP award on seven occasions. He also guided the Tigers to two NBL championships, in 1993 and 1997, and was named an All-NBL first team member every year between 1986 and 2000, a feat matched by no other player in NBL history.
The National Basketball League that was based in Canada lasted only one and a half seasons in 1993 and 1994. It rose from the ashes of the World Basketball League which folded after the 1992 season, which had teams in various Canadian and American cities. The NBL's first game was played on May 1, 1993 when the Cape Breton Breakers visited the Halifax Windjammers. The Breakers won the regular season championship with a 30-16 record, but they lost the championship finals to Saskatoon three games to one.
Robert "Bobby" McDermott was an American professional basketball player in the 1930s and 1940s. He was known as an outstanding shooter and has been called "the greatest long-distance shooter in the history of the game" by contemporaries. His grandson is businessman Bill McDermott. McDermott was named to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1988.
The Women's National Basketball League (WNBL) is the pre-eminent professional women's basketball league in Australia. It is currently composed of eight teams. The league was founded in 1981 and is the women's counterpart to the National Basketball League (NBL). Several WNBL teams have NBL counterparts. The Adelaide Lightning, Melbourne Boomers, Perth Lynx and Sydney Uni Flames are the current WNBL teams sharing a market with an NBL team .The current league champions are the University of Canberra Capitals.
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 capital, 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. They will play their home games at the Adelaide Entertainment Centre from 2019 onwards.
Mark Robert Bradtke is an Australian retired professional basketball player who played mainly in Australia's National Basketball League, but also had a single stint in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1996–97. As well as his outstanding play, Bradtke was known in the early part of his NBL career for his mullet haircut.
Brian Warwick Goorjian is an American basketball coach. He is the most successful coach in Australian basketball history. In an NBL coaching career spanning over 20 years since his debut with the Eastside Spectres in 1988 Goorjian has won six championships: two with the South East Melbourne Magic, three with the Sydney Kings and one with the South Dragons. With a win ratio of over 70% Goorjian heads Lindsay Gaze as the most winning coach in NBL history and became the second man after Gaze to coach 600 games. Goorjian was also coach the Australian national team, the Boomers, from 2001 to 2008. Goorjian traveled to China after he finished his commitment with the Boomers in 2009. He became the Coach in General of Dongguan Leopards, a growing team in CBA. He led the Leopards Youth Team to win Championship of the Chinese National Youth League in July, 2009, who only ranked in the 9th position in 2008. With a great success, Goorjian is expected to be promoted as the head coach for the senior team in the 2010–2011 CBA Season.
Lanard Copeland is an American-Australian former professional basketball player. He currently serves as an assistant coach for the Sydney Kings of the National Basketball League (NBL). Born in Atlanta, Georgia, he played in the NBL from 1992 to 2008.
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 Cape Breton Breakers were a franchise in the National Basketball League that began play in 1993, the league's first season. The team played their home games at Centre 200, in Sydney, which was also home of the Cape Breton Oilers.
Leroy Loggins is an Australian / American retired professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball League from 1981 until 2001. Loggins, originally from the United States, is a naturalised Australian citizen and is widely considered to be the best import to ever play in the NBL and behind only Australian basketball legend Andrew Gaze as the league's best ever player.
The Hamilton Skyhawks was a professional basketball franchise based in Hamilton, Ontario that played in the World Basketball League and the National Basketball League in 1992 and 1993. The team joined the WBL as an expansion team for the 1992 season. However, the WBL folded before completion of that season. Some of the Canadian WBL teams, including the Skyhawks, formed their own league for 1993 called the National Basketball League. The Skyhawks did not complete that season either, moving to Edmonton, Alberta before the 1993 NBL playoffs.
The Saskatoon Slam were a professional basketball franchise based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, that played in the National Basketball League in 1993 and 1994. The teams in the NBL were the Canadian franchises of the World Basketball Association, which folded in 1992. The ownership of the WBL’s Saskatchewan Storm franchise chose to re-name the team as the Saskatoon Slam in the new league. The team played its home games at Saskatchewan Place. In the NBL's single full season, 1993, the Slam captured the league championship. They defeated the Cape Breton Breakers three games to one. All the games were played in Saskatoon to reduce travel costs. The Slam returned for the 1994 season, but the league folded on 9 July that year.
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". By 2017, the league had grown to ten teams, with six located in the Atlantic provinces and four in Ontario. The current champions are the London Lightning, having defeated the Halifax Hurricanes 4–3 in the 2017 NBL Finals. The league's season begins in November and ends in April of the following year.
The Moncton Miracles were a Canadian professional basketball team in Moncton, New Brunswick. Established in 2011, they were a charter member of the National Basketball League of Canada (NBL). The Miracles played their home games at the Moncton Coliseum as a part of the league's Atlantic Division and were one of two New Brunswick teams in the league along with the Saint John Riptide. The team was founded and owned by Steven Conville but were now without an owner for three seasons. Their seasons in the NBL Canada had been highlighted by struggles, until the franchise was finally folded following the 2016–17 season when a new ownership decided to start a new franchise in Moncton called the Moncton Magic.
The Dayton Wings were a professional basketball franchise based in Dayton, Ohio from 1991–1992. They entered the World Basketball League in 1991 as an expansion team. They finished the 1991 season as the WBL champions, defeating Calgary in the final. They were leading the Southern Division in 1992 when the league folded mid-season.
Darryl "The Iceman" Pearce is an Australian former professional basketball player. He played in Australia's National Basketball League (NBL) for the Adelaide 36ers from 1982–1991 before playing four seasons (1992–1995) with the North Melbourne Giants. A 6'3" (191 cm) Shooting guard, Pearce is regarded as one of the best ever Three-point field goal shooters in NBL history having shot at 41.9% from beyond the arc during his 374 game career.
The Halifax Hurricanes are a professional basketball team playing based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The team competes in the National Basketball League of Canada (NBL) and are a part of the Atlantic Division. The Hurricanes were founded to replace the Halifax Rainmen, who declared bankruptcy in July 2015 ultimately leading to the club folding.
