ABA League

For the women's league, see WABA League.

NLB League
(Adriatic League)
NLB Liga

Current season, competition or edition: ABA NLB League 2009–10
File:ABA NLB League official logo.jpg NLB League logo
Sport	Basketball
Founded	2001
CEO	Josip Bilić
No. of teams	14
Country	Serbia Croatia Bosnia and Herzegovina Slovenia Montenegro
Most recent champion(s)	KK Partizan
Most titles	KK Partizan (3)
Official website	adriaticbasket.info

Adriatic League, currently known as the NLB League as part of the naming rights sponsorship (from 2001 to 2006 known as the Goodyear League), is a top-level regional basketball league that features teams from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia, all of which are former republics of SFR Yugoslavia. The league is a private venture, founded in 2001 and organized by Slovenian company Sidro d.o.o.

The league exists alongside scaled-down versions of domestic leagues in each country (Naša Sinalko Liga, A1 Liga, Prvenstvo BiH, 1. SKL, Opportunity Liga). All of its teams join their country's own competitions in late spring after the Adriatic League regular season and post-season have been completed.

The Adriatic Basketball Association, set up by Sidro company, is the body that organizes the league and is a full member of ULEB and a voting member of the Euroleague board, so this league can be considered as a local version of the Europe-wide Euroleague, in which many Adriatic League clubs also compete. The league has inspired a similar competition in the Baltic states, the Baltic Basketball League or Baltic League.

History

The league was founded on July 3, 2001 with 12 teams, and started competition in fall 2001. The league had 4 teams from Slovenia, 4 teams from Croatia, 3 teams from Bosnia-Herzegovina, and 1 team from FR Yugoslavia

For the 2002-03 season, the league remained at 12 teams, with one team dropping out and Israeli powerhouse Maccabi Tel Aviv joining.

Maccabi left the league after one season, but the league expanded to 14 teams for 2003-04, and to 16 for 2004-05.

The league reverted to 14 teams for 2005-06. In September 2006 the league signed a general sponsorship contract with Nova ljubljanska banka (NLB) and was renamed to NLB League, whilst keeping Goodyear as one of the major sponsor.

Competition

Like most European leagues, the regular season consists of a double round-robin schedule, with each team playing every other team home and away. The top teams in the league then advance to a playoff round to crown the league champion.

From 2002 through 2004, four teams qualified, and the playoffs were termed the "Final Four"; starting in 2005, eight teams advanced to the "Final Eight" round. All playoff rounds consist of one-off knockout matches, unusual among European leagues. However, since all Adriatic League clubs play in domestic leagues at the same time, and many also play in the Euroleague, the current format has the virtue of limiting fixture congestion for the playoff sides.

Current season teams (2009-2010)

Hemofarm

Radnički

Zadar

Budućnost

Partizan

Crvena zvezda

FMP

Cibona

Zagreb

Cedevita

Široki

Bosna

Helios

Olimpija

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Location of the NLB League 2009-10 teams

Country	Teams	Team	City	Venue (Capacity)
Serbia	5
		KK Partizan	Belgrade	Pionir Hall (8,150)
		KK Crvena zvezda	Belgrade	Pionir Hall (8,150)
		KK Hemofarm STADA	Vršac	Millennium Center (4,058)
		KK FMP	Železnik	Železnik Hall (3,000)
		KK Radnički	Kragujevac	Hala Jezero (3,570)
Croatia	4
		KK Cibona	Zagreb	Dražen Petrović Basketball Hall (5,400)
		KK Zadar	Zadar	Krešimir Ćosić Hall (9,200)
		KK Zagreb Croatia osiguranje	Zagreb	Trnsko (2,000)
		KK Cedevita	Zagreb	Sutinska vrela (2,000)
Slovenia	2
		KK Union Olimpija	Ljubljana	Hala Tivoli (6,000)
		KK Helios	Domžale	Dvorana Komunalnega centra (2,180)
Bosnia and Herzegovina	2
		KK Bosna ASA BH TELECOM	Sarajevo	Dvorana Mirza Delibašić (6,500)
		HKK Široki HT Eronet	Široki Brijeg	"Pecara" (4,500)
Montenegro	1
		KK Budućnost m:tel	Podgorica	Morača Sports Center (4,570)

Champions

Season	Winner (of Playoffs)	Runner-up	Final Score	Finals host city	Regular season winner, W-L
2001-02	Union Olimpija	Krka	73 - 59	Ljubljana	Union Olimpija, 20-2
2002-03	Zadar	Maccabi Tel Aviv	91 - 88	Ljubljana	Crvena Zvezda, 16-5 (one game not played)
2003-04	Reflex	Cibona	71 - 70	Zagreb	Cibona, 20-6
2004-05	Hemofarm	Partizan	89 - 76	Belgrade	Hemofarm, 22-8
2005-06	FMP	Partizan	73 - 72	Sarajevo	Partizan, 20-6
2006-07	Partizan	FMP	85 - 83, 94 - 82	played as home-and-away best-of-3 series	FMP, 21-5
2007-08	Partizan	Hemofarm	69 - 51	Ljubljana	Partizan, 24-2
2008-09	Partizan	Cibona	63 - 49	Belgrade	Partizan, 23-3
2009-10	TBD	TBD	TBD		Cibona, 20-6

• KK FMP Železnik competed under the name Reflex in 2003-04 season.

Performance by club

Team	Winners	Runners-Up	Years Won	Years Runner-Up
Partizan	3	2	2007, 2008, 2009	2005, 2006
FMP	2	1	2004, 2006	2007
Hemofarm	1	1	2005	2008
Olimpija	1	–	2002	–
Zadar	1	–	2003	–
Cibona	–	2	–	2004, 2009
Krka	–	1	–	2002
Maccabi Tel Aviv	–	1	–	2003

Regular season winners		Years Won
Partizan	3	2006, 2008, 2009
Cibona	2	2004, 2010
FMP	1	2007
Hemofarm	1	2005
Crvena Zvezda	1	2003
Union Olimpija	1	2002

NLB League Awards

MVP Award

Season	MVP	Team
2001-02	Marino Baždarić	Triglav osiguranje
2002-03	Kenyan Weaks	Pivovarna Laško
2003-04	Dejan Milojević	Budućnost
2004-05	Dejan Milojević	Partizan
2005-06	Dejan Milojević	Partizan
2006-07	Milan Gurović	Crvena zvezda
2007-08	Tadija Dragićević	Crvena zvezda
2008-09	Ante Tomić	Zagreb

NLB League Clubs

The following is a list of clubs who have played in the NLB League at any time since its formation in 2001 (as Goodyear League) to the current season. NLB League teams playing in the 2009-10 NLB League season are indicated in bold. A total of 25 teams have played in the NLB League.

Club	Town or City	Country	Total seasons	Seasons	Highest finish
Borac Nektar	Banja Luka	Bosnia and Herzegovina	2	2002–2004	11th
Bosna	Sarajevo	Bosnia and Herzegovina	7	2001–2003 2004-2007 2008-	Quarter-finals
Budućnost	Podgorica	Montenegro	7	2001–2002 2003-2005 2006-	Quarter-finals
Cedevita	Zagreb	Croatia	1	2009-	n/a
Cibona	Zagreb	Croatia	9	2001–	2nd
Crvena zvezda	Belgrade	Serbia	8	2002–	Semifinals
FMP	Železnik	Serbia	7	2003–	1st
Geoplin Slovan	Ljubljana	Slovenia	6	2001–2002 2003–2008	9th
Helios	Domžale	Slovenia	6	2004–	8th
Hemofarm	Vršac	Serbia	6	2004–	1st
Krka	Novo mesto	Slovenia	4	2001–2004 2008–2009	2nd
Lovćen	Cetinje	Montenegro	1	2003–2004	14th
Maccabi	Tel Aviv	Israel	1	2002–2003	2nd
Partizan	Belgrade	Serbia	6	2004–	1st
Pivovarna	Laško	Slovenia	5	2001–2006	Semifinals
Radnički	Kragujevac	Serbia	1	2009–	n/a
Sloboda Dita	Tuzla	Bosnia and Herzegovina	1	2001–2002	5th
Split	Split	Croatia	7	2001–2005 2006–2009	8th
Triglav osiguranje	Rijeka	Croatia	1	2001–2002	10th
Union Olimpija	Ljubljana	Slovenia	9	2001–	1st
Vojvodina Srbijagas	Novi Sad	Serbia	3	2005–2006 2007-2009	Quarter-finals
Zadar	Zadar	Croatia	9	2001–	1st
Zagreb	Zagreb	Croatia	8	2002–	6th
Šibenka Dalmare	Šibenik	Croatia	1	2004–2005	11th
Široki	Široki Brijeg	Bosnia and Herzegovina	8	2001–2008 2009–	6th

See also

• YUBA Liga

Footnotes

There is mistake on official site of NLB league. Gecevski (22.27 avg Val) is named MVP for that season, because Gurovic (29.3 avg Val) was accidently erased from the MVP list.

External links

• Official Site In English
• Eurobasket.com League Page