Knox Raiders is a

NBL1 South NBL1 South is a semi-professional basketball league in Victoria (state), Victoria and Tasmania, Australia, comprising both a men's and women's competition. In 2019, Basketball Victoria partnered with the National Basketball League (Australia), ...

club based in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

. The club fields a team in both the Men's and Women's NBL1 South. The club is a division of Knox Basketball Incorporated (KBI), the major administrative basketball organisation in the

City of Knox The City of Knox is a local government area in Victoria, Australia in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. It has an area of and in 2020, Knox had a population of 165,147. This municipality is one of only a handful that survived the widespread mu ...

. The Raiders play their home games at the State Basketball Centre.

Club history

Early years

Knox Basketball was established in 1965 to provide youth from the

with a sporting and social infrastructure to develop and promote personal, team and social skills in a sporting environment. Founded by Alf Stevens, Alice Jago and Heather Kemp, it began as an after school competition at the Mossfield Avenue Facility, Ferntree Gully in 1974. In 1980, its headquarters moved to the 3 court facility in Park Crescent at

Boronia ''Boronia'' is a genus of about 160 species of flowering plants in the citrus family Rutaceae. Most are endemic to Australia with a few species in New Caledonia, which were previously placed in the genus ''Boronella''. They occur in all Australi ...

which was later expanded to six courts in 1989.

SEABL

In 1982, Knox's senior program was established, with a Raiders men's team entering the

South East Australian Basketball League The South East Australian Basketball League (SEABL) was a semi-professional basketball league in Australia comprising both a men's and women's competition. The SEABL began in 1981 and operated for 38 seasons until it was disbanded in 2018. The ...

(SEABL) that year. A women's team entered the SEABL in 1990 after playing in the

Women's Basketball Conference The Women's Basketball Conference (WBC) was a women's basketball league in Australia. The WBC began in 1984 and served as a second-tier national league under the Women's National Basketball League (WNBL). It operated for six seasons until it wa ...

(WBC). Knox were WBC grand finalists in 1987. In 1991, the Raiders men were SEABL South Conference champions and ABA National champions. The men won five more conference titles in 1994, 1996, 2006, 2008 and 2009. They were ABA National runners-up in 1996 and won the SEABL championship in 2009. The Raiders women claimed the SEABL-ABA championship double in 1992, 1994 and 1996. In 1998 and 2005, the women finished as ABA National runners-up. In 2012 and 2013, the Raiders women were back-to-back conference champions. They won the SEABL championship in 2013. In November 2014, Knox Basketball Incorporated withdrew its Knox Raiders SEABL teams from the 2015 season due to its dire financial position. The Raiders requested they remain a financial member of the SEABL with the intention of returning in season 2016. The SEABL retained the club's financial guarantee with the Raiders classified as a non-playing member of the league in 2015.

Big V

In November 2015, KBI announced that their senior men's and women's teams would be playing in the

Big V The Big V is a semi-professional basketball league in Victoria, Australia, comprising both a men's and women's competition. History The Big V Conference was established in 2000 and joined the Australian Basketball Association (ABA). The ABA ...

in 2016 instead of the SEABL.

NBL1

In October 2018, KBI's Big V teams were entered into the

NBL1 The NBL1 is a semi-professional basketball league in Australia run by the National Basketball League (NBL). The league consists of five conferences: NBL1 South, NBL1 North, NBL1 Central, NBL1 West and NBL1 East, with each consisting of bot ...

for its inaugural season in 2019. The

season did not go ahead in

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. In

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

, the men's team won the NBL1 South championship and the NBL1 National championship. In

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

, the men's team lost in the NBL1 South elimination final but returned to the NBL1 National Finals as defending champions, where they won back-to-back NBL1 National championships.

References

External links

KBI's official website
{{NBL1 Basketball teams established in 1982 1982 establishments in Australia Basketball teams in Melbourne Sport in the City of Knox