NBL Overview

BASKETBALL IN AUSTRALIA

Australian basketball encompasses a participation base that is greater than Australian Rules Football, Cricket, Rugby League and Rugby Union.

Basketball is Australia's third largest team based participation sport with 675,000 Australians aged 15 years and over participating in some form of basketball.

Including children aged under 15 years, the overall participation base is 1,025,000 participants.

Basketball has an impressive grass roots foundation supported by 426 local registered basketball associations representing over 20,000 clubs and 60,000 teams across the country.

Basketball is truly a global sport. Australia is ranked third in the world by the sports' international governing body, FIBA, who governs basketball across the 213 nations basketball playing nations.

Australia is the only nation who has every national team positioned in the top 10 of its respective competition internationally.

TRANSFORMATION OF AUSTRALIAN BASKETBALL

The sport of basketball in Australia has undergone significant reform over the last two years that has transformed the sports' capability to govern its future direction within a competitive and dynamic sport and entertainment landscape.

A key reform of the sports governance model was the integration of the National Basketball League (NBL) and clubs into the Basketball Australia structure and governance framework.

As a direct outcome, basketball now presents a unified, progressive, Olympic and Paralympicsport with a robust governance model committed to transforming the game into a true 'spectator sport'.

Fundamentally critical to becoming a true spectator sport is the delivery of an elite men's national competition that is a respected, high quality, engaging sports entertainment product.

The NBL under the governance of Basketball Australia has made considerable progress in the last twelve months towards achieving this aspiration.

THE NATIONAL BASKETBALL LEAGUE

The National Basketball League (NBL) was established in 1979 as the elite national men's basketball competition. It is regarded as one of the premier basketball leagues in the world and home to some of the world's best players.

Between 1979 and 1997, the NBL season was played between April and September, but in 1998 the league moved its season to the summer months, with the 126 game regular season and finals series staged between October and April.

The nine clubs that compete in the NBL Championship are:

• Melbourne Tigers
• New Zealand Breakers
• Perth Wildcats
• Sydney Kings
• Townsville Crocodiles
• Wollongong Hawks
• Adelaide 36ers
• Cairns Taipans
• Gold Coast Blaze