The 2018–19 NBL season was the 41st season of the National Basketball League since its establishment in 1979. A total of eight teams have contested the league. The regular season had been played between October 2018 and February 2019, followed by a post-season featuring the top four in March 2019. Australian broadcast rights to the season are held by

Fox Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The ''Fox Sports'' name has since been used for other sports media assets. These assets are held mainly by the F ...

, in the fourth year of a five-year deal, with two game per week simulcast on the

Nine Network The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of five main free-to-air television ne ...

. In New Zealand, Sky Sport are the official league broadcaster. As Australia and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 List of islands of New Zealand, smaller islands. It is the ...

are participating in 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup qualification, the league will take a break during the FIBA international windows of 26 November to 4 December 2018 and 18–26 February 2019. The

Perth Wildcats The Perth Wildcats are an Australian professional basketball team based in Perth, Western Australia. The Wildcats compete in the National Basketball League (Australia), National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at Perth Arena, ...

won their ninth NBL championship after defeating Melbourne United in the Grand Final.

Pre-season

The pre-season featured games in China and Malaysia. As well, it featured the NBLxNBA 2018 Tour in which five NBL teams played a total of seven games. Five NBL teams played a total of seven games against NBA teams in the 2018 pre-season.

Regular season

The regular season started on 11 October 2018 and finished on 17 February 2019. Eight teams participated, with the top four advancing to the finals series.

Ladder

The NBL tie-breaker system as outlined in the NBL Rules and Regulations states that in the case of an identical win–loss record, the overall points percentage between the teams will determine order of seeding. ''¹Perth Wildcats won on overall points percentage. Melbourne United finished 2nd on overall points percentage. '' ''²Brisbane Bullets won on overall points percentage. '' ''³New Zealand Breakers won on overall points percentage. ''

Finals

The 2019 NBL Finals were played in February and March 2019, consisting of two best-of-three semi-final series and the best-of-five

Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Sy ...

series. In the semi-finals, the higher seed hosts the first and third games. In the Grand Final, the higher seed hosts the first, third and fifth games. After winning both of their semi-finals in straight games, the Perth Wildcats and Melbourne United progressed to the Grand Final where the Wildcats triumphed 3–1.

Playoff bracket

Awards

Pre-season

* Most Valuable Player ( Ray Borner Medal): Bryce Cotton (

)

Season

* Most Valuable Player ( Andrew Gaze Trophy): Andrew Bogut (

Sydney Kings The Sydney Kings are an Australian men's professional basketball team competing in the National Basketball League (NBL). The team is based in Sydney, New South Wales. The Kings were formed from a merger between the West Sydney Westars and the ...

) * Rookie of the Year: Harry Froling ( Adelaide 36ers) * Best Defensive Player: Andrew Bogut (

) * Best Sixth Man:

Reuben Te Rangi Reuben Te Rangi (born 14 October 1994) is a New Zealand professional basketball player for the South East Melbourne Phoenix of the Australian National Basketball League (NBL) and is a regular New Zealand Tall Black. Early life Te Rangi was bo ...

(

Brisbane Bullets The Brisbane Bullets are an Australian professional men's basketball team in the National Basketball League (NBL) based in Brisbane, Queensland. They competed from 1979 to 2008, and returned to the league in 2016. Brisbane were one of ten NBL f ...

) * Most Improved Player:

(

) * Fans MVP: Bryce Cotton (

) * Coach of the Year ( Lindsay Gaze Trophy): Dean Vickerman ( Melbourne United) * Referee of the Year: Michael Aylen * All-NBL First Team: ** Casper Ware ( Melbourne United) ** Bryce Cotton (

) ** Lamar Patterson (

) ** Nick Kay (

) ** Andrew Bogut (

) * All-NBL Second Team: ** Jerome Randle (

) ** Melo Trimble ( Cairns Taipans) ** Nathan Sobey ( Adelaide 36ers) ** Daniel Johnson ( Adelaide 36ers) **

Shawn Long Shawn Long (born January 29, 1993) is an American professional basketball player for Levanga Hokkaido of the Japanese B.League. He played college basketball for the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and represented the United States at the 2015 ...

( New Zealand Breakers)

Finals

* Grand Final Series MVP ( Larry Sengstock Medal):

Terrico White Terrico Reshard White (born March 7, 1990) is an American professional basketball player. A native of Memphis, Tennessee, he was drafted by the Detroit Pistons with the 36th overall pick in the second round of the 2010 NBA draft after playing t ...

(

)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:NBL,2018 Australia,NBL 2018–19 in Australian basketball 2018 in New Zealand basketball