The National Basketball League (NBL) was a

professional basketball In professional sports, as opposed to amateur sports, participants receive payment for their performance. Professionalism in sport has come to the fore through a combination of developments. Mass media and increased leisure have brought lar ...

league in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

run by the

Japan Basketball Association The is the governing body of basketball in Japan. Formed in 1930, it is based in Tokyo. The JBA is a member of FIBA and FIBA Asia. The federation is responsible for the Japan national basketball team and the Japan women's national basketball t ...

(JBA). The first NBL season started in Autumn 2013, replacing the JBA's previous top-flight league, the

Japan Basketball League The Japan Basketball League (JBL) was a professional basketball league in Japan. It made up the top-tier of basketball in Japan alongside the bj league, Japan's other basketball competition, with no promotion and relegation between bj and the JB ...

. Below the NBL was the National Basketball Development League (NBDL), which was the successor to the former JBL 2 division. The NBL and its predecessor existed alongside the

bj league The was a professional basketball league in Japan that began in November 2005 as a six-team league. The league was operated as a competitor to the established Japan Super League which was run by the Japan Basketball Association, the official g ...

, an independent league based on the American sports franchise model that had been active since 2005. The JBA was suspended by

FIBA The International Basketball Federation (FIBA ; French: ) is an association of national organizations which governs the sport of basketball worldwide. Originally known as the (hence FIBA), in 1989 it dropped the word ''amateur'' from its nam ...

in November 2014 for failing to address the fragmentation of the sport into competing leagues. As a condition of FIBA lifting the suspension in August 2015, the NBL and NBDL merged with the bj-league to form the

B.League The B.League is a professional men's basketball league that began in Japan in September 2016. The league is operated by the Japan Professional Basketball League and was formed as a result of a merger between the National Basketball League that ...

, which will commence in October 2016. Accordingly, the 2015-16 NBL season was the league's third and final season.

Teams

The league's initial season in 2013-14 consisted of twelve teams. The eight teams that participated in the final season of the JBL1 joined the league, as well as the JBL2 champion

Hyogo Storks The Nishinomiya Storks (西宮ストークス) are a professional basketball team based in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan that competes in the Japanese B.League . History The club was formed in 2011 as the Hyogo Storks (兵庫ストーク� ...

. The Chiba Jets returned to the JBA system after playing two seasons in the bj-league, including a 9th-place finish in 2012-13. intended to join the NBL after finishing third in their first JBL2 season in 2012-13, but subsequent financial difficulties saw them withdraw their application. They were replaced by the newly formed Tsukuba Robots, who submitted a separate application for entry to the league. The twelfth team to join the league was the Kumamoto Volters, who had been seeking entrance into the JBL2 since 2009. Three NBDL teams were given associate membership status, allowing for the possibility of their future promotion to the NBL. However, all three teams ( Renova Kagoshima, Tokyo Excellence and Toyota Tsusho Fighting Eagles) ultimately remained in the NBDL for the duration of the competition's existence. The 2014-15 season saw the

Hiroshima Dragonflies The Hiroshima Dragonflies (広島ドラゴンフライズ) are a professional basketball team based in Hiroshima, Japan. In October 2014 they commenced competing in the Western Conference of the Japanese National Basketball League. In Septembe ...

enter the league as an expansion team and the Tsukuba Robots transfer from the Western Conference to the Eastern Conference. The Wakayama Trians, who were runners up in the league's first season, withdrew midway through the 2014-15 season in January 2015 due to financial difficulty and were refused entry into the 2015-2016 season. In March 2014 the league issued a public call for expansion teams to join the NBL or NBDL for the 2015-16 season. The Tokyo Hachioji Trains joined the NBDL but the NBL remained at twelve teams. The league abandoned the two-conference system in 2015-16, with teams instead playing five matches against each other for a total 55-game regular season.

Playoff champions

All-star game

References

{{Men's professional basketball leagues Basketball leagues in Japan Defunct basketball leagues Sports leagues established in 2013 Recurring sporting events disestablished in 2016 2013 establishments in Japan 2016 disestablishments in Japan Defunct sports leagues in Japan