National Basketball League (Canada)

For other organizations with similar names, see National Basketball League (disambiguation) and NBL (disambiguation). For the 2011–2023 basketball league in Canada, see National Basketball League of Canada.

The National Basketball League was a professional basketball league based in Canada that lasted only one and a half seasons in 1993 and 1994.[1] It rose from the ashes of the World Basketball League which folded after the 1992 season, which had teams in various Canadian and American cities; the new league combined several former WBL teams based in Canada and new franchises.[2] The NBL's first game was played on May 1, 1993 when the Cape Breton Breakers visited the Halifax Windjammers. The Breakers won the regular season championship with a 30-16 record, but they lost the championship finals to Saskatoon three games to one.

During the 1994 season there were rumours that the Cape Breton team was going to move to Saint John in mid-season, which never happened before the league folded on July 9, 1994. Halifax, which finished last in 1993, was in first place at the time the league had folded.

The league's president was Sam Katz and the commissioner was Tom Nissalke.[3]

  1. ^ Zwarun, Robert; and Anderson, Chris. National Basketball, The Association for Professional Basketball Research. Accessed February 4, 2024.
  2. ^ National Basketball League, From Naismith to Nash. Accessed February 4, 2024. "A short-lived primarily Canadian-based league that folded midway through its second season. It was comprised of the Canadian franchises of the World Basketball League, which folded after the 1991-92 season."
  3. ^ Morgan, T. Kent. "A breezy history of pro basketball in Winnipeg", Winnipeg Free Press, November 30, 2022. Accessed February 4, 2024. "Thunder then played in the National Basketball League, not to be confused with the NBA, in the 1993 season. The all-Canadian pro league with Katz as president and Nissalke as commissioner had teams from the Maritimes to the Prairies."