National Basketball League (New Zealand)

National Basketball League (NBL)

Upcoming season or competition: 2017 New Zealand NBL season
Basketball New Zealand Logo
Sport	Basketball
Founded	1982
Inaugural season	1982
CEO	Iain Potter
President	Sam Rossiter-Stead
No. of teams	7
Country	New Zealand
Continent	FIBA Oceania (Oceania)
Most recent champion(s)	Wellington Saints (9th title)
Most titles	Auckland Stars & Wellington Saints (9 titles)
Level on pyramid	1
Official website	New Zealand NBL

The National Basketball League (NBL) is the pre-eminent men's basketball league in New Zealand.

Seven teams competed in the 2016 season with teams based in Auckland, Christchurch, Invercargill, Napier, Nelson, New Plymouth and Wellington.

Despite financial woes forcing a number of teams over the past decade to fold, the quality of play in the league continues to improve, evidenced by more New Zealand players going on to play in the Australian National Basketball League (ANBL) and college basketball in the United States. Some have even gone on further to make the NBA, such as Kirk Penney and Steven Adams. The league has a limit of two imports per team with many of the imports coming from the United States. The league also only allows one naturalised New Zealand player per team.

In the league's early days, Auckland, Wellington and Canterbury dominated the competition. By the mid-1990s, Auckland and Nelson were the teams to beat, with New Zealand basketball legends Pero Cameron and Phill Jones dominating during this era for Auckland and Nelson, respectively. Auckland and Waikato dominated during the 2000s, but with Auckland's departure following the 2012 season, the door was left open for Wellington and Southland to fill the void of the league's premier teams.

Through the 1970s, basketball games in New Zealand were organised between neighbouring representative teams, or in annual tournaments organised as club or provincial national tournaments. Other competitions were also held during Easter tournaments or in small regional leagues. The Countrywide Basketball League began in 1982 in response to a need for consistent and quality competition on a semi-professional basis, to match the structure and improvements occurring in Australia. Tall Blacks such as Stan Hill, Dave Edmonds, Glen Denham, Byron Vaetoe, Peter Pokai and Tony Smith were important cogs during the early years of the competition. However, Americans dominated the league during the 1980s. Imported players like Clyde Huntley, Angelo Hill, Frank Smith, Kerry Boagni, Willie Burton, Ronnie Joyner, Benny Anthony, Tyrone and Tony Brown, and Kenny McFadden added a level of sophistication and style to the Kiwi basketball scene.