History
The league commenced in 1979, playing a winter season (April–September) and did so until the completion of the 20th season in 1998. The 1998/99 season, which commenced only months later, was the first season after the shift to the current summer season format (October–April). This shift was an attempt to avoid competing directly against Australia's various football codes.
Despite these issues, at the start of the 2004/05 season the league struck a new television deal with Fox Sports in Australia and a multi-year naming-rights sponsorship deal with electronics manufacturer Philips. In 2007, Philips announced they would not continuing their naming rights sponsorship after the current contract ends in June in response to the National Basketball League wishing to increase the sponsorship deal. On 18 September 2007, the National Basketball League announced Hummer as their naming rights sponsor for the 2007/08 season.
A second Melbourne club, the South Dragons, entered the league in season 2006/07, but pulled out after season 2008/09 in which they were premiers. The NBL became the first Australasian sporting league to field a team from Asia with the Singapore Slingers playing in the 2006/07 and 2007/08 seasons. The Gold Coast Blaze joined the competition in the 2007/08 season and played until the end of the 2011-12 season.
After a turbulent period during 2008 and 2009, when the league lost teams from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, the 2010–11 season saw the return of the Sydney Kings. In 2010, the NBL returned to free-to-air television in Australia for the first time in three years when One started broadcasting 2–3 games a week.
Read more about this topic: National Basketball League (Australasia)
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