The National Basketball League, or NBL for short, is a league competition representing
professional, semi-professional and amateur basketball clubs from England and Wales.
It forms levels 2 to 5 on the British Basketball pyramid, sitting directly below the top tier
British Basketball League, which split from the National League in 1987.
The league has teams split across four levels; NBL1 (14 teams), NBL2 (12 teams), NBL3 North
and South (20 teams) and NBL4 North, Midlands, South East and South West (40-48 teams).
The league also runs the English Women's Basketball League, with WNBL1 and WNBL2 North and South,
and a junior structure with over 450 junior clubs taking part in under-18s, under-16s
and under-14s leagues.From 1972 until 1987, the National Leagues were the premier league
system in England.
The leagues now sit parallel with Scottish Basketball Championship forming the second
tier of basketball in the United Kingdom.
For a period between 2003 and 2015, competitions were restructured and prefixed with the letters
EBL, but the league was rebranded once again as the National Basketball League in time
for the 2015/2016 season.
There is no promotion and relegation between the National League and the British Basketball
League (BBL), which operates a franchise system.
Despite this, several teams have applied to make the step from the League to the BBL in
recent years, most notably the Worcester Wolves, the Plymouth Raiders and the Bristol Flyers.
== Senior Competitions == National Basketball League - Each club plays
the other teams in their division on a home-away basis.
Two points are awarded for a win, zero points for a loss.
The top 8 teams in NBL1 and NBL2 qualify for their respective Playoff series.
The top 4 teams each from NBL3 North and NBL3 South qualify for their Playoff series, and
the top 2 teams from each of the four NBL4 leagues qualify for their Playoff series.
In NBL2 and NBL3, usually the top 2 teams after regular season play will be promoted
to play in the higher league for the next season.
For each of the NBL4 leagues, it is usually only the league champion who is promoted.
The Playoffs - The top eight teams in each division compete for the season's final showdown
and last piece of silverware.
The top four teams have home advantage against the lower placed sides in the quarter-final
(1st v 8th, 2nd v 7th, 3rd v 6th & 4th v 5th).
The Playoff Finals Weekend is conducted at a neutral venue, and brings together the Playoff
finals for all Men's and Women's competitions.
The Finals Weekend is now held at the National Basketball Performance Centre in Belle Vue,
Manchester.
National Cup - The premier cup competition in England and Wales, the National Cup is
open to all NBL teams and played on a straight knockout format at club venues, with the final
being held at a neutral venue.
Until 2003, all British teams competed in this competition (including BBL teams).
National Trophy - Also known as the NBL Trophy, this is the League Cup competition for NBL1
teams.
The teams play a round-robin competition in mini-leagues of 3 or 4 teams.
The top team in each group qualifies for the semi finals, after which there is a straight
knockout competition to determine the winner.
Patrons Cup - The Patrons' Cup is the League Cup for NBL2 teams, played on a similar basis
to the NBL Trophy.
National Shield - Open to all clubs in NBL3 & NBL4 and run on a straight knock-out format
with the final held at a neutral venue.
== History ==
=== Pre-1972 ===
In 1960 a National Basketball League was introduced with nine members – Borehamwood Bullets,
Watford Royals, Nottingham Dodgers, Aspley Old Boys (Nottingham), Birmingham Athletic
Institute, Birmingham Dolobran, Doncaster Panthers, Manchester YMCA Comets, and Billingham
Tech.
However the London teams felt that competition was strong enough in their own London League
so they shunned the new national competition.
The two strongest teams in the country were Central YMCA and London Poly both from London
and their omission had a detrimental effect on the standard of the National League.
A change of format in 1965-66 produced three sections, with a total of 16 teams, including
two from Scotland; with a change of name to the British Basketball League known as the
‘Rosebowl’.
By 1972, the Scots had their own thriving National League, though also competing in
the "Rose Bowl", but when a London team, Sutton, defeated Edinburgh’s Boroughmuir Barrs in
the 1972 Final, the Basketball Association decided that it was time to relaunch the idea
of an English National League.
=== 1972–1986 === In 1972 the National League truly took off.
The first season comprised just six clubs, plucked from regional and district leagues
around the country, and was run in effect as a trial league.
The six teams consisted of London-based teams Avenue (Leyton) and Sutton, Sheffield YMCA
Scorpions and Liverpool Bruno Roughcutters from the North, Midlands club Loughborough
All-Stars and touring team RAF Fliers.
After several successful seasons, expansion was implemented to 10 teams, and 1975 saw
the addition of Division 2.
The 1978–79 season was the first to adopt the post-season playoff format, while a year
later the National Trophy was created.
=== 1987–1993 === In 1987, there was a breakaway by the league's
elite clubs looking to formulate a fully professional league in the United Kingdom.
The new league, operated by a new body, British Basketball League, was established as the
country's top and only fully professional basketball league, though it retained the
name National League Division 1, which was followed by Division 2 and Division 3 beneath
it.
The league was sponsored by Carlsberg and was known as the Carlsberg League.
=== 1993–2000 === In 1993, the NBL restructured once again after
the top division reverted to the name BBL Championship.
Because of this, the lower divisions were renamed and restructured to fit accordingly.
From the 1993-94 British Basketball League season, Division 1 was renamed as the Budweiser
Basketball League (BBL), thus having a domino effect where the previous Division 2 was rebranded
as NBL Division 1 and Division 3 became Division 2, forming the bottom of the three-tiered
National League structure.
That season also saw the last relegation between the top-two divisions (BBL and Division 1),
as last-placed Oldham Celtics were demoted into the new Division 1 for 1994–95.
Their replacements were Sheffield Forgers and Leopards, which signalled the start of
the current 'buy-in' policy operated by the BBL, whereby teams can only buy a place in
the league, operating a franchise system.
1997 saw the addition of Division 3 to the structure, welcoming new teams such as Reading
Rockets, Taunton Tigers and the Manchester Giants B team.
=== 2000–2003 === In 1999, the BBL restructured with a North-South
conference system, and the following year the National Basketball League replaced Division
1 with the eight-team NBL Conference as the second-tier after the BBL.
Subsequently Division 2 became Division 1 and Division 3 became Division 2, with the
addition of a new Division 3 forming effectively the fifth-tier of the structure.
However Division 3 only lasted for one season, as another reorganisation took place the following
year, in 2001, which saw an expanded NBL Conference and Division 1, while Divisions 2 and 3 merged
to form a regionalised format, with Division 2 North and Division 2 South.
In 2003, after three seasons, the BBL ditched its North-South Conference format, and reverted
to a single league of ten clubs.
During the same year, the National Basketball League was rebranded as the English Basketball
League, and once again was restructured with a new format.
=== English Basketball League 2003–present ===
The Conference was disbanded, and EBL reverted the National Leagues to EBL Division 1, Division
2 and a regionalised North-South Division 3, with Division 4 (a reincarnation of the
one-time old Division 3 of 2000) returning to the fold in 2006.
== NBL1 champions ==
== See also ==
Basketball in England British Basketball League
English Basketball League List of English National Basketball League
seasons