Sport Basketball Inaugural season 2004 Continent FIBA Asia (Asia) | Founded 2004 Country China | |
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No. of teams Division A: 10
Division B: 6 | ||
The National Basketball League (simplified Chinese: 全国男子篮球联赛; traditional Chinese: 全國男子籃球聯賽; pinyin: Quánguó Nánzǐ Lánqiú Liánsài) is a professional basketball minor league in China, called Chinese Basketball League (CBL) before 2006. It is commonly known as the NBL, and this name (spelled out in letters) is often used even in Chinese.
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NBL is the second-tier league to the professional Chinese Basketball Association (CBA).
Inaugural season
The first regular season of the CBL began in April 2004. Eight teams advanced to the playoffs:
On 4 August 2004, Yunnan Honghe Running Bulls defeated Guandong Dongguan New Century to win the first ever CBL championship and were promoted to the CBA for the 2004–2005 season.
Current clubs
There are currently 16 clubs in the league. From the 2013 season onwards, the league will be competing under two divisions. After an assessment by the CBA, mainly based on results from the 2012 NBL season, ten clubs have been assigned to Division A and six clubs to Division B. After the regular season, teams finishing in the top four in Division A will advance to the Championship playoffs while the bottom two teams and the top two teams in Division B will form another playoff group, teams finishing in the top two in this group will qualify for Division A next season.