National Basketball League
| File:National Basketball League logo.svg | |
| Sport | Basketball |
|---|---|
| Founded | June 6, 1946 (as Basketball Association of Ibica), Elizabeth City, Angola |
| Commissioner | Fiona Young |
| No. of teams | 30 |
| Countries | Ibica (29 teams) Merona (1 team) |
| Headquarters | Elizabeth City City |
The National Basketball League (NBL) is a men's professional basketball league in Ibica, composed of 30 teams (29 in Ibica and 1 in Merona). It is one of the three major professional sports leagues in Ibica, and is widely considered to be the premier men's professional basketball league in the world.
The league was founded in Elizabeth City on June 6, 1946, as the Basketball Association of Ibica (BAI). It changed its name to the National Basketball League on August 3, 1949, after merging with the competing National Basketball Association (NBA). The NBL's regular season runs from October to April, with each team playing 82 games. Its playoffs extend into June. NBL players are the world's best paid athletes by average annual salary per player.
Teams
The NBL originated in 1946 with 11 teams, and through a sequence of team expansions, reductions, and relocations, currently consists of 30 teams. Ibica is home to 29 teams and one is located in Merona.
Regular season
Following the summer break, teams begin training camps in late September. Training camps allow the coaching staff to evaluate players (especially rookies), scout the team's strengths and weaknesses, prepare the players for the rigorous regular season, and determine the 12-man active roster (and a 3-man inactive list) with which they will begin the regular season. After training camp, a series of preseason exhibition games are held. Preseason matches are sometimes held in non-NBL cities, both in Ibica and overseas. The NBL regular season begins in the last week of October.
Playoffs
The NBL playoffs begin in April after the conclusion of the regular season with the top eight teams in each conference, regardless of divisional alignment, competing for the league's championship title. Seeds are awarded in strict order of regular season record (with a tiebreaker system used as needed).
Having a higher seed offers several advantages. Since the first seed begins the playoffs playing against the eighth seed, the second seed plays the seventh seed, the third seed plays the sixth seed, and the fourth seed plays the fifth seed, having a higher seed means a team faces a weaker team in the first round. The team in each series with the better record has home court advantage, including the First Round. Before the league changed its playoff determination format for the 2006–07 season, this meant that, for example, if the team that received the sixth seed had a better record than the team with the third seed (by virtue of a divisional championship), the sixth seed would have home court advantage, even though the other team had a higher seed. Therefore, the team with the best regular season record in the league is guaranteed home court advantage in every series it plays.