Ever heard of The NBL? Ever knew there was competitive basketball happening down under in Australia? Most Americans don’t since we are inundated with NBA quality basketball. We are so spoiled here in the United States that almost any other league, anywhere, pales in comparison to the quality of players we see.
“In 1978, New South Wales Basketball president John Raschke sat with 10 interested parties in an unused aircraft hangar at Sydney Airport to discuss the formation of a national competition that would help the development of the sport throughout Australia.
A national competition was also seen as a way of improving the standard of players who would compete for Australia at events such as the Olympic Games and World Championships.
Since that day, the NBL has grown from a fledgling competition with games played in front of just a few hundred people to a league that attracts more than 750,000 spectators each season, as well as prime-time television audiences for games broadcast live nationally.
While games were initially played in small suburban stadiums, clubs now perform at major Australian arenas, including the 8,000-seat Distinctive Homes Dome in Adelaide.
Basketball also has one of the highest participation rates of any team sport in Australia, with numbers continuing to grow each year.
Between 1979 and 1997, the NBL season was played between April and September, but in 1998 the league moved its season to the summer place, with games played between October and April.
Eight teams currently compete in the NBL- the Adelaide 36ers, Cairns Taipans, Gold Coast Blaze, Melbourne Tigers, New Zealand Breakers, Perth Wildcats, Townsville Crocodiles and Wollongong Hawks.”
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