History
Through the 1970's games 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 New Zealand National 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, Peter Pokai and Tony Smith starred in the early years of competition. Imported players like Clyde Huntley, Frank Smith, Kenny McFadden, Tyrone and Tony Brown added a level of sophistication and style to the Kiwi basketball scene.
The big city team such as the Auckland Stars, Canterbury Rams and Wellington Saints dominated in early years, but when the Hutt Valley Lakers won 1991 and 1993 the star players began to spread out. The Nelson Giants won their first championship in 1994 and the Stars then became the first team to win three titles in a row from 1995–97. After the Waitakere Rangers, Hutt Valley Lakers and Northland Suns left in the late 1990s many thought the league would become much weaker but it proved the opposite as only the best New Zealanders and imports were selected due to the small size of the league at the time. The league continued to improve with higher calibre players joining the league. High school standouts like former North Harbour Kings player Kirk Penney chose to play in the league until they left to play college basketball and then Euroleague and NBA.
When the New Zealand Breakers were founded in 2003, it created an incentive to continue playing NBL for the star players with their good form could be rewarded with an ANBL contract. Players like Dillon Boucher, Lindsay Tait, Pero Cameron, Phill Jones, Mark Dickel and Paora Winitana became household names in New Zealand and Australian basketball circles. Breakers imports like Tony Ronaldson and Oscar Forman appeared as well.
Read more about this topic: National Basketball League (New Zealand)
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