Premiere Basketball League
 |
|
| Sport | Basketball |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2007 |
| Inaugural season | 2008 |
| Ceased | 2017 |
| CEO | Dennis Truax |
| No. of teams | 18 |
| Country | United States |
| Continent | FIBA Americas (Americas) |
| Last champion(s) |
Rochester Razorsharks (2017) |
| Most titles | Rochester Razorsharks (7) |
| Official website | thePBL.com |
The Premier Basketball League, often abbreviated to the PBL, was an American professional men's basketball minor league that began play in January 2008. The league folded after the 2017 season, with the North American Premier Basketball as a successor league. In the past, there have been teams also in Canada and Puerto Rico. The league season operated from January to April.
The PBL was formed after a number of disagreements between several former member teams of the modern American Basketball Association (ABA) and ABA CEO Joe Newman. Eight of the initial ten PBL teams either played in or were slated to play in the ABA.
In early 2007, Newman was voted out of his position as CEO of the ABA by the board of directors, which included Maryland Nighthawks owner and then-ABA COO Tom Doyle (who was later a commissioner of the PBL), citing dissatisfaction with how Newman executed his duties as CEO, the large number of ABA teams that did not have the funds to operate, and high number of games when an ABA team did not show up. Newman responded by using his and other shares that formed a controlling interest to remove the entire board of directors.
Newman then refused to reschedule a weather-delayed playoff game between the Rochester RazorSharks and Wilmington Sea Dawgs although the two teams agreed to a make up date, wanting instead to force Rochester to accept a forfeit. It was on the heels of these two incidents that the Nighthawks and RazorSharks ownership groups decided to found the PBL. Dr. Sev Hrywnak, owner of the Rochester RazorSharks, invested close to $2 million dollars to start the PBL. The business model was structured so that teams entering the initial season did not have to pay an entrance fee of $100,00 and that all travel would be covered by the League. This would allow new teams the opportunity to have financial success from the start.
Former Houston Rockets point guard and current NBA on TNT analyst Kenny Smith was the league's first commissioner.
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