The 2020–21 NBL season was the 43rd season of the National Basketball League since its establishment in 1979. A total of nine teams contested in the 2020–21 season. The regular season was played between January and June 2021, followed by a post-season in June 2021. Australian broadcast rights to the season were held by

SBS Viceland SBS Viceland (stylised as SBS VICELAND) is an Australian free-to-air television channel owned by the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS). It began as SBS TWO on 1 June 2009, and was branded as SBS 2 between 2013 and 2016. On 8 April 2017, SBS V ...

in the second year of a two-year deal. All games were available live and free on streaming platforms such as SBS On Demand.

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

also broadcast select games, including all games after 7.30pm AEDT. In New Zealand, Sky Sport were the official league broadcaster. The NBL continued broadcasting games online on Twitch in the second year of a two-year deal.

Teams

Nine teams competed in the 2020–21 season, with the Tasmania JackJumpers set to enter the league for the 2021–22 season. During the off-season the Illawarra Hawks were renamed to The Hawks after the new ownership group announced they wanted to expand out from Illawarra and into the wider region. On 9 February 2021, the NBL reinstated the Illawarra Hawks name following an increase in support from the local community.

Stadiums and locations

Personnel and sponsorship

Player transactions

Free agency negotiations were delayed until 15 July 2020, after the NBL and the Australian Basketball Players' Association postponed the original start date of 30 March 2020 due to the effects of 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 ...

. On 17 April 2020, the NBL, the Australian Basketball Players' Association and the nine clubs reached an agreement in response to the financial pressure caused by the pandemic, which reduced the salaries of players signed for the 2020–21 season, lowered the full-time roster positions from 11 to 10 players (plus a Next Star slot) and from three import slots to two import slots.

Coaching transactions

Pre-season

The

pre-season In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of S ...

games began on 13 November 2020, and ran until 10 January 2021.

Ladder

Regular season

The regular season which was due to begin in early October, began on 15 January 2021 after it was delayed twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It consisted of 162 games spread across 21 rounds, with the final game being played on 8 June 2021.

Ladder

NBL Cup

The 2020–21 season sees the introduction of the NBL Cup, which was a tournament 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 ...

ran from 20 February to 14 March 2021.

Ladder

Perth Wildcats won the inaugural NBL Cup trophy with a 7–1 record in eight games played.

Finals

The 2021 NBL Finals was played in June 2021, consisting of two best-of-three semi-final series and a best-of-five

Grand Final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final 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. Synonymous with a championship game in North Ameri ...

series. In the semi-finals, the higher seed hosted the first and third games. In the Grand Final, the higher seed usually hosts the first, third and fifth games. However, due to the border restrictions by the Western Australian state government, Perth Wildcats (the lower seed) hosted the first two games, while Melbourne United hosted the third game (and would have also hosted the fourth and fifth games had they not already won the series by the third game).

Playoff bracket

Awards

Regular season

Player of the Week

Awards Night

* Most Valuable Player ( Andrew Gaze Trophy): Bryce Cotton ( Perth Wildcats) * Rookie of the Year: Josh Giddey (

Adelaide 36ers The Adelaide 36ers are an Australian professional men's basketball team in the National Basketball League (NBL). The 36ers are the only team in the league representing the state of South Australia and are based in the state's capital of Adela ...

) * Best Defensive Player ( Damian Martin Trophy): Justin Simon ( Illawarra Hawks) * Best Sixth Man: Jo Lual-Acuil ( Melbourne United) * Most Improved Player: Sam Froling ( Illawarra Hawks) * Fans MVP: Bryce Cotton ( Perth Wildcats) * Coach of the Year ( Lindsay Gaze Trophy): Trevor Gleeson ( Perth Wildcats) * Executive of the Year: Mark Boyd ( Melbourne United) * Referee of the Year: Chris Reid * Most Outstanding Media Coverage: Olgun Uluc (

) * GameTime by Kmart: Kyle Adnam ( South East Melbourne Phoenix) * All-NBL First Team: ** Bryce Cotton ( Perth Wildcats) ** Nathan Sobey (

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 ...

) ** Tyler Harvey ( Illawarra Hawks) ** John Mooney ( Perth Wildcats) ** Jock Landale ( Melbourne United) * All-NBL Second Team: ** Chris Goulding ( Melbourne United) ** Casper Ware (

Sydney Kings The Sydney Kings are an Australian men's professional basketball team competing in the National Basketball League (Australia), National Basketball League (NBL). The team is based in Sydney, New South Wales, and play their home games at Qudos Ba ...

) ** Mitch McCarron ( Melbourne United) ** Mitch Creek ( South East Melbourne Phoenix) ** Finn Delany (

New Zealand Breakers The New Zealand Breakers (also known as the Bank of New Zealand, BNZ Breakers for sponsorship reasons) are a New Zealand professional basketball team based in Auckland. The Breakers are the only non-Australian side currently competing in Austral ...

)

Post season

* Grand Final Series MVP ( Larry Sengstock Medal): Jock Landale ( Melbourne United)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:NBL,2020-21

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

2020–21 in Australian basketball 2020 in New Zealand basketball 2021 in New Zealand basketball