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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 twelve teams in the league, with teams in most capital cities (all except Canberra , Hobart and Darwin ), regional centres Cairns , Townsville and Wollongong , as well as New Zealand and Singapore . A second Melbourne club, the South Dragons , entered the league in season 2006/07. The NBL has also become the first Australian sporting league to field a team from Asia with the Singapore Slingers playing in the 2006/07 season. On November 21 , 2006 , the NBL announced that a 13th team, based on the Gold Coast , (Blaze) will join the league in 2007/08.1 The league's best years were 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 , however due to the switch to summer and lack of funding from its owner left the NBL 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 NBL wishing to increase the sponsorship deal.2 A replacement naming rights sponsor for the league has yet to be confirmed. Most teams have historically featured at least one and usually two America n 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 (a) A new franchise based on the Gold Coast will enter the league for the 2007/08 season as the 13th team. Defunct teams BROADCASTING DETAILS Currently the primary broadcaster of the NBL in Australia is pay television channel Fox Sports , airing matches on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. A weekly highlights program, ''Starting Five'' (formerly ''NBL Wrap''), airs weekly before the game of the week, on Wednesday nights.3 The primary broadcaster of the NBL in New Zealand is free-to-air network Maori Television, after signing a deal before the 2007/08 season, who will broadcast all the home games of the New Zealand Breakers. Pay television channel Sky TV, who previously broadcast the home games of the Breakers, are expected to show replayed games and other Fox Sports coverage.4 In 2007, the league signed a deal with free-to-air Network Channel 9 airing a weekly highlights package of games that have aired previously on Fox Sports. The last time the NBL had been on free-to-air television was in the early 2000s, when a weekly highlights show and a game of the week were aired on the ABC . Prior to that, it had agreements with the Seven ( 1988 - 1991 ) and Ten ( 1992 - 1997 ) networks, the latter during the league's most successful period. Games were also aired on many regional stations as well, mainly Capital Television and Ten Northern NSW (now Southern Cross Ten ), Seven Queensland , WIN Television and NBN Television at varying stages. Radio coverage is limited only to local station 4TO Townsville, who cover Crocodiles matches, SEN who covers the Melbourne Tigers and South Dragons and ABC 891 who covers the Adelaide 36ers matches (usually over the internet.) HALL OF FAME The 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. LIST OF CHAMPIONS See Also: NBL (Australia) Finals Teams in bold are members of the current 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 team have hated each other ever since. 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. Whenever the Kings are playing in Wollongong WIN Entertainment Centre is usually sold out. Sydney Kings vs '''Canberra Cannons''' Melbourne Tigers vs '''South Dragons''' In its infancy, but with all the hallmarks of being the battle of Victorian supremacy. THE NBL IN THE FUTURE The NBL was said to have experienced its golden-age in the early 1990's, since then support has deteriorated and plateued in recent years. 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 {Link without Title} . Disgruntled Australian basketball enthusiasts have suggested expansion to 16 teams, most importantly locating a team in the city of Darwin making the Singapore road-trip less drawn-out, however 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. NOTABLE NBL FIGURES
AWARD WINNERS
STATISTICAL LEADERS
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 SEE ALSO
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