NBL: All you need to know

The National Basketball League is the premier professional men’s basketball league for Australia and New Zealand.

The NBL, as it is known, was founded back in 1979 and now consists of 10 teams, nine from Australia and one from New Zealand.

The NBL season

The regular NBL season runs from the end of September through to the end of February. The 2023/24 NBL campaign will get underway on Thursday 28th September.

Each team in the NBL will play a total of 28 games, 14 home, 14 away, in the regular season, before finals get underway.

NBL Finals

Before the system was changed in the 2022/23 season, it was the top four teams on the ladder at the end of the regular season that went on to contest the NBL Finals.

However the NBL then introduced ‘play-in games’. In this new format, the top two teams on the ladder automatically qualified for finals, leaving third down to sixth to battle it out for the final two spots.

The winner of the clash between the third and fourth seeds, would take the third spot in finals.

The loser would then go on to meet the winner of fifth versus sixth for the right to take the fourth spot in finals.

The two teams finishing top of the ladder get home advantage in the best-of-three showdown against the teams that claimed the third and fourth spots.

The winners of series 1 and 2 progress through to the Grand Final, which is a best-of-five series. Whoever comes out on top in that is crowned as NBL champion.

The NBL teams

The NBL is currently made up of nine teams from Australia and one from New Zealand.

The Australian teams are - Adelaide 36ers, Brisbane Bullets, Cairns Taipans, Illawarra Hawks, Melbourne United, Perth Wildcats, Melbourne Phoenix, Sydney Kings and Tasmania JackJumpers. New Zealand Breakers make up the 10.

Current NBL Champions

The Sydney Kings are the current NBL Champions after beating New Zealand Breakers in the 2023 Grand Final.

Sydney Kings are priced at 4.50 to go on and defend their title in the 2023/24 campaign.

Most successful NBL team

The Perth Wildcats are the most successful team of the NBL era, when being crowned champions on 10 occasions.

Their most recent success was in 2020 and they have also finished runner-up on six occasions.

The Wildcats also hold the record for consecutive finals appearances in any major Australian professional sports competition.

The Wildcats are priced at 6.50 to be crowned champions in 2023/24.

Melbourne United have also enjoyed great success when claiming six titles, the last being in 2021. They have also finished runner-up on five occasions.

Sydney Kings have won the regular season on most occasions, with seven, and have won the grand final five times.