The Basketball National League (BNL) is the pre-eminent male and female semi-professional

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league in

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. Since its inception in 1993 the league has been exclusively played by male club teams, in 2021 the women's division officially launched. The 11 teams of th
WBNL
are the female teams of the current participating clubs.

History

Founded in 1993 as the Premier Basketball League, it was disbanded in 1996. The league was renamed the Basketball National League in 2013. The BNL Season of 2018 started in August, the 3rd and ended on October, the 27th. For the first time ever, the championship was won by the Soweto Panthers. In 2016 the league piloted a women's division in Gauteng, The Sturdy Stars won the title that year. South Africa saw the official nationwide launch of the Women's Basketball National League (WBNL) in 2021, with the participating club expansion the W-Tshwane Suns won their first National Championship on the 27 November 2021. Because of the scarcity of available basketball arenas, all games between 2013 and 2015 were played at

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in Stafford, Gauteng,

City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality The City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality is a Metropolitan municipality (South Africa), metropolitan municipality that manages the local governance of Johannesburg, South Africa. It is divided into several branches and departments in or ...

, a former ice-rink which holds up to 3,000 visitors.Basketball (And The NBA) Try To Find Fans In South Africa
Don Boroughs (

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), 3 August 2015. Accessed 3 December 2020.

Current clubs

The league currently has 11 clubs:

Championships

Men

Women

All-Star Team

The 2018 All-Star Team consisted of: *

Tatenda Maturure Tatenda Paul Maturure (born 14 August 1988) is a Zimbabwean professional basketball player for Mercenaries of the Manicaland Basketball Association (MBA). Club career Maturure has spent a large part of his career with the Harare City Hornets in ...

( Soweto Panthers) * Vusimuzi Sithole ( Soweto Panthers) *

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( Soweto Panthers) *

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( Soweto Panthers) * Kwazi Gumede (

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) *

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(

) * Sbusiso Cele (

) * Kagiso Ngotjana (

Tshwane Suns Tshwane Suns is a basketball team located in Tshwane, South Africa. The team competes in South Africa's highest division, the Basketball National League (BNL).

) *

Richard Lubasi Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'str ...

(

Mpumalanga Rhinos The Basketball National League (BNL) is the pre-eminent male and female semi-professional basketball league in South Africa. Since its inception in 1993 the league has been exclusively played by male club teams, in 2021 the women's division of ...

) *

Nkosinathi Sibanyoni Nkosinathi Sandile Sibanyoni (bon May 24, 1998) is a South African professional basketball player for Urunani of the Burundian Basketball Championship, as well as for the Cape Town Tigers of the Basketball Africa League (BAL) and Basketball N ...

(

) * Stenard Mapurisa (

Western Cape Mountaineers The Basketball National League (BNL) is the pre-eminent male and female semi-professional basketball league in South Africa. Since its inception in 1993 the league has been exclusively played by male club teams, in 2021 the women's division of ...

) * Nhlanhla Dlamini (

KwaZulu Marlins The Basketball National League (BNL) is the pre-eminent male and female semi-professional basketball league in South Africa. Since its inception in 1993 the league has been exclusively played by male club teams, in 2021 the women's division offi ...

)

Individual wards

References

External links

* * Basketball competitions in South Africa Basketball leagues in Africa Professional sports leagues in South Africa {{SouthAfrica-sport-stub