Liga ABA

Current season or competition: 2011–12 Liga ABA
180px NLB League logo
Sport	Basketball
Founded	2001
Commissioner	Josip Bilić
Inaugural season	2001-02
No. of teams	14
Country(ies)	Bosnia and Herzegovina  Croatia  Israel  Montenegro  Serbia  Slovenia
Most recent champion(s)	Maccabi Tel Aviv (1st title) (2011-12)
Most titles	Partizan (5 titles)
Official website	adriaticbasket.info

Liga ABA, also known as Adriatic League, until September 2011 known as the NLB Liga ABA for sponsorship reasons, is a top-level regional basketball league, featuring teams from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Israel, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia.

The league exists alongside scaled-down national leagues in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Slovenia, and Montenegro (Košarkaška liga Srbije, A-1 Liga, Prvenstvo BiH, 1. SKL, and Opportunity Liga). All but one of Adriatic League teams join their country's own competitions in late spring after the Adriatic League regular season and post-season have been completed. The only exception to the above is Maccabi Tel Aviv, which plays a full schedule in the Israeli national league Ligat HaAl.

Adriatic League is a private venture, founded in 2001 and organized by Slovenian limited liability company called Sidro. Adriatic Basketball Association is the body that organizes the league and is a full member of ULEB as well as a voting member of the Euroleague board. The competition can be thus be considered a local version of the Europe-wide Euroleague, in which a few Adriatic League clubs also compete (usually Partizan, Cibona, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Olimpija). Adriatic League has inspired a similar competition in the Baltic states - the Baltic Basketball League or Baltic League.

History[link]

Throughout mid-to-late 1990s, in the years after the breakup of SFR Yugoslavia and ensuing Yugoslav Wars, various basketball administrators from the newly-independent Balkan states talked about re-assembling a basketball competition to fill the void left by the dissolution of the Yugoslav basketball league whose last season was played in 1991-92.^[1]

Such a competition was agreed upon in principal at a meeting in Ljubljana on 3 July 2001 by representatives of four basketball clubs: KK Bosna, KK Budućnost, KK Cibona, and KK Olimpija. The day is considered to be the league's foundation date. Though club representatives from four countries attended the meeting, the main individuals behind the venture were six Slovenians and Croatians: Roman Lisac, Zmago Sagadin (at the time head coach of Olimpija and arguably the biggest authority figure in Slovenian basketball), Radovan Lorbek (at the time president of Olimpija), Josip Bilić, Danko Radić, and Bože Miličević (at the time president of Cibona). The name chosen for the competition was the Adriatic League, invoking the Adriatic Sea as a common thread for participant countries thus purposely avoiding the terms 'Balkans' or 'Yugoslavia' that at the time carried a fairly undesirable public perception in Slovenia and an extremely negative one in Croatia. Established as a private venture, the league was placed under umbrella of Sidro d.o.o. company that was registered in Slovenia on 14 September 2001. The company actually controls the competition through legal entity called Adriatic Basketball Association (ABA), which also manages the league's day to day operations.

At a time when European club basketball was in turmoil with clubs divided between embattled FIBA and surging ULEB, the Adriatic League founders used those circumstances to carve out a place on the map for their organization by tying their boat to ULEB, which was seemingly on the way up and looking poised to wrestle the top continental club competition (Euroleague) out of FIBA's hands. Logistically, the 2001 establishment of the Balkan-wide regional Adriatic League meant that existing national basketball leagues in Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina underwent major re-organization with their respective top clubs leaving the domestic competitions to compete in the regional one. Still, the national leagues weren't fully dismantled, though they were largely marginalized since their respective best clubs only returned in late spring for the end of the season. The only exception to the above was KK Budućnost that continued playing full schedule in FR Yugoslavia's domestic YUBA league (which remained intact) in parallel with their participation in the Adriatic League.

On the public relations front, Adriatic League was met with strong and mixed reactions. Though many hailed it as an important step for the development of club basketball in the Balkans region, many others felt that it brings no new quality and that it is not worth dismantling three domestic leagues. There was a lot of negative reaction from political circles, especially in Croatia, with even TV panel discussions being broadcast on Croatian state television. A very vociferous opinion in the country saw the league's formation as a political attempt to reinstate Yugoslavia.^[2] The league organizers for their part did their best to appease the Croatian public with statements such as the one delivered by Radovan Lorbek in Slobodna Dalmacija in September 2001:

Ten years later, in a 2011 interview for the Serbian newspaper Press, Roman Lisac explained the league's behind the scenes strategy during its nascent stages was actually quite different:

On 28 September 2001, the league announced a five-year sponsorship deal with Slovenian company Sava Tires from Kranj, a subsidiary of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. The deal also included naming rights, hence from 2001 until 2006, the competition was known as the Goodyear League.

Debut season[link]

With twelve clubs taking part in the inaugural 2001-2002 season, the competition commenced in fall 2001 with 4 teams from Slovenia, 4 teams from Croatia, 3 teams from Bosnia-Herzegovina, and 1 team from FR Yugoslavia. The very first game was contested in Ljubljana between KK Olimpija and HKK Široki on Saturday, 29 September 2001 at 5:30pm.^[6]

Though the competition purported to gather the strongest sides from former Yugoslavia, as mentioned, teams from Serbia were noticebly absent, particularly Belgrade powerhouses and biggest regional crowd draws KK Partizan and Red Star Belgrade. In addition to no clubs from Serbia proper, the league had no Serb-dominated clubs from Bosnia-Herzegovina either. Since the league founders mostly avoided talking about the issue due to fears of media backlash, the fact that no invitations were extended to Serbian clubs was generally explained through security issues due to organizers' fears of crowd trouble if Croatian and Serbian clubs were to start playing again in the same competition. Then in early February 2002, the public got a preview of just that when Cibona and Partizan met in Zagreb as part of that season's Euroleague group stage. In a nationalistically charged and incident-filled encounter, Croatian fans peppered the Partizan players with rocks, flares, and even ceramic tiles before physically assaulting Partizan head coach Duško Vujošević in the guest team dressing room after the game.^[7]

The Adriatic League debut season was marked by dwindling attendances and lukewarm media support. Still the league did receive a bit of a shot in the arm on 24 February 2002, when its managing body ABA got accepted as full member of ULEB.^[8]

Second season[link]

For the 2002-03 season, the league remained at the total number of 12 teams, while it went through major re-tooling internally. By the time season started, four teams dropped out (Sloboda Dita, KK Budućnost, Triglav, and Geoplin Slovan) to be replaced by: Israeli powerhouse Maccabi Tel Aviv, Red Star Belgrade (the first team from Serbia in the competition), the Bosnian Serb outfit KK Borac, and Croatian club KK Zagreb.

Getting Maccabi on board brought the league some much needed credibility and positive media exposure. Still, it was understood all along the Tel Aviv club wouldn't stick around for long. Much more important for the league's long term business was negotiating acceptable terms for the Serbian clubs to join the competition. To that end, Lorbek and Lisac went to Belgrade in early April 2002 with an offer of taking in three clubs from FR Yugoslavia for the Adriatic League's 2002-03 season.^[9] The offer was flatly rejected initially by the representatives of five YUBA league clubs - Partizan, Red Star, Hemofarm, FMP, and Budućnost - as their unified platform was either all five or nothing. Taking in all five required expanding the league to 14 teams, which was something the league organizers weren't prepared to do due to the associated increase in operating costs. The negotiated agreement thus fell through for the time being. However, it didn't take long for dents to appear in the unified front put forth by five YUBA league clubs - in May 2002 Red Star's management (three businessmen close to the ruling Democratic Party in Serbia: Živorad Anđelković, Igor Žeželj, and Goran Vesić) hired Zmago Sagadin to be the club's new general manager - and soon after, in June 2002, the club broke the ranks by negotiating terms on its own thus agreeing to join the Adriatic League for the 2002-03 season.^[10]

Maccabi Tel Aviv left the league after one season, but the league expanded to 14 teams for 2003-04, and to 16 for 2004-05.

The league reverted to 14 teams for 2005-06. In September 2006 the league signed a general sponsorship contract with Nova ljubljanska banka (NLB) and was renamed to NLB League, whilst keeping Goodyear as one of the major sponsors.

In 2010, the Czech club Nymburk joined the league for the first time.

In 2011, in search of increased level of competition, the Israeli powerhouse Maccabi Tel Aviv returned to the league after an eight-year absence. In next season 2012 ABA league is going to have the first Macedonian team, KK MZT Skopje.

Competition[link]

Like most European leagues, the regular season consists of a double round-robin schedule, with each team playing every other team home and away. The top teams in the league then advance to a playoff round to crown the league champion.

From 2002 through 2004, four teams qualified, and the playoffs were termed the "Final Four"; starting in 2005, eight teams advanced to the "Final Eight" round. All playoff rounds consist of one-off knockout matches, unusual among European leagues. However, since all Adriatic League clubs play in domestic leagues at the same time, and many also play in the Euroleague, the current format has the virtue of limiting fixture congestion for the playoff sides.

National Standings[link]

The coefficient is the sum of all victories clubs from a certain country achieve in a regular season divided by the number of clubs from that country. By using this coefficient majority of places for current season are allocated, while the remaining places are given via wild cards from league board. This standings are applied for clubs from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia, while clubs from other countries can play in league only via wild cards.

2011–12 season[link]

Four countries start with one club in the league each. Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia than get one additional place because they have a representative in Euroleague. Other places in the league were filled according to the national standing. The first and the second best country according to the last season national standings are given one additional place while the best country according to the coefficient from the last two seasons is given one more place in the league for the current season. This method was used until 2011–12 season.

Country	2009–10 coeff.	2010–11 coeff.	2009–11 coeff.	2011–12 no. of clubs
BIH	8.5	11.5	20	1
Croatia	15	11.5	26.5	2
Serbia	13.8	13	26.8	3
Slovenia	10.5	17	27.5	4

2012–13 season[link]

For season 2012–13 new method of places allocation is used. Based on national coefficient from last ten seasons Bosnia and Herzegovina gets 1, Croatia gets 3, Serbia gets 3 and Slovenia gets 2 places in league. Clubs that will participate will be decided based on their success in respectative national championships. Based on national coefficient in season 2011–12 two wild cards will be awarded, first to either Croatia or Serbia, and second to either Slovenia or Bosnia. Three remaining wild cards will be awarded based on decision of league board. These wild cards were awarded to Budućnost from Montenegro, MZT Skopje from Macedonia, and Maccabi Tel Aviv from Israel. However, Maccabi decided to withdrawn from the league. Who will receive their wild card is still not decided.

Country	No.	2011–12 coeff.	2012–13 no. of clubs
Croatia	3	14.67	4
Serbia	3	12.25	3
BIH	1	15	2
Slovenia	2	8	2

Current season teams (2012-2013)[link]

Country	Teams	Qualification	Team	City	Venue (Capacity)
Croatia	4
		1st place in A-1 Liga	KK Cibona	Zagreb	Dražen Petrović Basketball Hall (5,400)
		2nd place in A-1 Liga	KK Cedevita	Zagreb	Sutinska vrela (2,000)
		3rd place in A-1 Liga	KK Split	Split	Arena Gripe (6,000)
		Wild card	KK Zagreb	Zagreb	Dražen Petrović Basketball Hall (5,400)
Serbia	3
		1st in Basketball League of Serbia	KK Partizan mt:s	Belgrade	Pionir Hall (8,150)
		2nd in Basketball League of Serbia	KK Radnički	Kragujevac	Hala Jezero (5,320)
		3rd in Basketball League of Serbia	KK Crvena zvezda DIVA	Belgrade	Pionir Hall (8,150)
Bosnia and Herzegovina	2
		Champion of BIH League	HKK Široki	Široki Brijeg	Pecara (capacity: 4,500)
		Wild card	KK Igokea	Aleksandrovac	Laktaši Sports Hall (3,000)
Slovenia	2
		Champion of 1.A SKL	KK Krka	Novo mesto	Leon Štukelj Hall (3,000)
		Runners up of 1.A SKL	KK Union Olimpija	Ljubljana	Arena Stožice (12,480)
FYR Macedonia	1	Wild card	MZT Skopje	Skopje	Jane Sandanski Arena (2,000)
Montenegro	1	Wild card	KK Budućnost	Podgorica	Morača Sports Center (5,000)
TBA	1	Wild card	TBA

Champions[link]

Season	Winners	Score	Runners-up	Venue	Location
2001–02	Union Olimpija	73-59	Krka	Tivoli Hall	Ljubljana, Slovenia
2002–03	Zadar	91-88	Maccabi Tel Aviv	Tivoli Hall	Ljubljana, Slovenia
2003–04	Reflex	71-70	Cibona	Dražen Petrović Basketball Hall	Zagreb, Croatia
2004–05	Hemofarm	89-76	Partizan	Pionir Hall	Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro
2005–06	FMP	73-72	Partizan	Olympic Hall Zetra	Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
2006–07	Partizan	85-83, 94-82	FMP	Played as home-and-away best-of-3 series
2007–08	Partizan	69-51	Hemofarm	Tivoli Hall	Ljubljana, Slovenia
2008–09	Partizan	63-49	Cibona	Belgrade Arena	Belgrade, Serbia
2009–10	Partizan	75-74	Cibona	Arena Zagreb	Zagreb, Croatia
2010–11	Partizan	77-74	Union Olimpija	Arena Stožice	Ljubljana, Slovenia
2011–12	Maccabi Tel Aviv	87-77	Cedevita	Yad Eliyahu Arena	Tel Aviv, Israel

• KK FMP competed under the name Reflex in 2003-04 season.

Performance by club[link]

Team	Winners	Runners-up	Years Won	Years Runner-up
Partizan	5	2	2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011	2005, 2006
FMP	2	1	2004, 2006	2007
Hemofarm	1	1	2005	2008
Maccabi Tel Aviv	1	1	2012	2003
Olimpija	1	1	2002	2011
Zadar	1	–	2003	–
Cibona	–	3	–	2004, 2009, 2010
Cedevita	–	1	–	2012
Krka	–	1	–	2002

Regular season winners	Titles	Years Won
Partizan	4	2006, 2008, 2009, 2011
Cibona	2	2004, 2010
Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv	1	2012
FMP	1	2007
Hemofarm	1	2005
Crvena zvezda	1	2003
Union Olimpija	1	2002

Performance by country[link]

Country	Winners	Runners-up	Years Won	Years Runner-Up
Serbia	8	4	2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011	2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
Croatia	1	4	2003	2004, 2009, 2010, 2012
Slovenia	1	2	2002	2002, 2011
Israel	1	1	2012	2003

Regular season winners	Titles	Years Won
Serbia	7	2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011
Croatia	2	2004, 2010
Israel	1	2012
Slovenia	1	2002

Individual Awards[link]

Most Valuable Player[link] Season Player Team RPG 2001-02 Marino Baždarić Triglav osiguranje 17.64 2002-03 Kenyan Weaks Pivovarna Laško 19.33 2003-04 Dejan Milojević Budućnost 29.35 2004-05 Dejan Milojević Partizan 30.35 2005-06 Dejan Milojević Partizan 26.21 2006-07 Milan Gurović[11] Crvena zvezda 29.30 2007-08 Tadija Dragićević Crvena zvezda 21.93 2008-09 Ante Tomić Zagreb 22.42 2009-10 Chester Mason Široki 19.96 2010-11 Luka Žorić Zagreb 23.62 2011-12 David Simon Radnički 22,27

Top Scorer[link] Season Player Team PPG 2001-02 Marino Baždarić Triglav osiguranje 26,23 2002-03 Kenyan Weaks Pivovarna Laško 20,14 2003-04 Igor Rakočević Crvena zvezda 23,22 2004-05 Dejan Milojević Partizan 21,77 2005-06 Dejan Milojević Partizan 17,68 2006-07 Milan Gurović Crvena zvezda 28,60 2007-08 Tadija Dragićević Crvena zvezda 20,46 2008-09 Dragan Labović FMP 17,96 2009-10 Andrija Žižić Cedevita 17,12 2010-11 Michael Lee Radnički 19,60 2011-12 David Simon Radnički 19,38

NLB League Clubs[link]

The following is a list of clubs who have played in the NLB League at any time since its formation in 2001 (as Goodyear League) to the current season. NLB League teams playing in the 2011–12 NLB League season are indicated in bold. A total of 27 teams have played in the NLB League.

Club	01–02	02–03	03–04	04–05	05–06	06–07	07–08	08–09	09–10	10–11	11–12	Total seasons	Highest finish
Borac Banja Luka	–	11th	13th	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	2	11 !11th
Bosna Sarajevo	12th	12th	–	QF	QF	10th	–	7th	13th	–	–	7	07 !Quarter-finals
Igokea Aleksandrovac	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	11th	–	1	11 !11th
Sloboda Tuzla	5th	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	1	05 !5th
Široki	6th	9th	12th	13th	11th	11th	12th	–	10th	9th	5th	10	05 !5th
Cedevita Zagreb	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	7th	7th	2nd	3	02 !2nd
Cibona Zagreb	SF	5th	2nd	QF	QF	SF	QF	2nd	2nd	12th	7th	11	02 !2nd
Split	8th	10th	9th	15th	–	14th	10th	10th	–	–	–	7	08 !8th
Šibenka Dalmare	–	–	–	11th	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	1	11 !11th
Triglav osiguranje	10th	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	1	10 !10th
Zadar	7th	1st	8th	QF	QF	7th	SF	5th	8th	14th	–	10	01 !1st
Zagreb	–	6th	11th	12th	13th	12th	11th	13th	6th	5th	9th	10	05 !5th
Nymburk	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	8th	–	1	08 !8th
Maccabi Tel Aviv	–	2nd	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	1st	2	01 !1st
Budućnost Podgorica	9th	–	5th	14th	–	5th	QF	6th	5th	SF	SF	9	04 !Semi-finals
Lovćen Cetinje	–	–	14th	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	1	14 !14th
Crvena zvezda Beograd	–	SF	SF	SF	SF	6th	QF	SF	9th	13th	10th	10	03 !Semi-finals
FMP Železnik	–	–	1st	SF	1st	2nd	QF	8th	12th	–	–	7	01 !1st
Hemofarm Vršac	–	–	–	1st	SF	SF	2nd	SF	SF	6th	12th	8	01 !1st
Partizan Beograd	–	–	–	2nd	2nd	1st	1st	1st	1st	1st	SF	8	01 !1st
Radnički Kragujevac	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	11th	10th	8th	3	08 !8th
Vojvodina Novi Sad	–	–	–	–	QF	–	9th	14th	–	–	–	3	05 !Quarter-finals
Helios Domžale	–	–	–	16th	12th	8th	13th	12th	14th	–	13th	7	08 !8th
Slovan Ljubljana	11th	–	10th	10th	9th	13th	14th	–	–	–	–	6	09 !9th
Krka Novo Mesto	2nd	7th	7th	–	–	–	–	11th	–	SF	11th	6	02 !2nd
Olimpija Ljubljana	1st	SF	SF	QF	10th	9th	SF	9th	SF	2nd	6th	11	01 !1st
Zlatorog Laško	SF	8th	6th	9th	14th	–	–	–	–	–	14th	6	04 !Semifinals

NLB league records[link]

• Highest Index Ratings in a Game

• 59 by Dejan Milojević, Budućnost vs FMP on January 3, 2004

• Most Points in a Game

• 45 by Milan Gurović, Crvena zvezda at FMP on September 30, 2006

• Most Two Point Field Goals Made in a Game

• 15 by Nikola Peković, Partizan at Split on December 9, 2007

• Most Three Point Field Goals Made in a Game

• 10 by Josip Sesar, Široki vs. Union Olimpija on November 19, 2005
• 10 by Teemu Rannikko, Union Olimpija at Zagreb on December 18, 2005

• Most Free Throws Made in a Game

• 19 by Igor Rakočević, Crvena zvezda at Reflex on April 16, 2004
• 19 by Milan Gurović, Crvena zvezda at FMP on September 30, 2006
• 19 by Milan Gurović, Crvena zvezda vs. FMP on December 16, 2006
• 19 by Damir Mulaomerović, Zagreb vs. FMP on January 19, 2010

• Most Rebounds in a Game

• 23 by Tommy Smith, Split vs. Reflex on October 4, 2003
• 23 by Boris Savović, Hemofarm vs. Radnički Kragujevac on October 22, 2011

• Most Assists in a Game

• 16 by Ivan Tomas, Zagreb vs. Krka on October 12, 2002
• 16 by Miljan Pavković, Radnički Kragujevac vs. Cibona on October 9, 2011
• 16 by Steven Marković, Radnički Kragujevac vs. Krka on December 17, 2011

• Most Steals in a Game

• 9 by Curtis McCants, Split vs. Zagreb on December 16, 2003
• 9 by Andres Rodriguez, Union Olimpija at Partizan on November 7, 2004
• 9 by Jure Močnik, Helios at Split on April 6, 2005
• 9 by Goran Jeretin, Crvena zvezda at Partizan on April 30, 2005

• Most Blocks in a Game

• 7 by Smiljan Pavič, Union Olimpija vs. Bosna on November 27, 2004
• 7 by Slavko Vraneš, Partizan at Cibona on January 10, 2010
• 7 by Shawn James, Maccabi Tel Aviv vs. Zlatorog Laško on January 5, 2012

• Most Turnovers in a Game

• 11 by Jiri Welsch, Union Olimpija at Pivovarna on February 9, 2002

All-Time Leaders[link]

Since the beginning of the 2001-02 season:

	Accumulated
Points	Krunoslav Simon	2333
Rebounds	Smiljan Pavič	1082
Assists	Miljan Pavković	631
Steals	Siniša Štemberger	267
Blocks	Slavko Vraneš	268
Index Ratings	Todor Gečevski	2476

Notable players[link]

This list of "famous" or "notable" sporting persons has no clear inclusion or exclusion criteria. Please help to define clear inclusion criteria and edit the list to contain only subjects that fit that criteria.

Well-known basketball players who have played in the NLB League include:

Footnotes[link]

There is mistake on official site of NLB league. Gecevski (22.27 avg Val) is named MVP for that season, because Gurovic (29.3 avg Val) was accidentally erased from the MVP list.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Adriatic League

• Official Site
• Eurobasket.com League Page
• Fantaziranje.com Fantasy for NLB League

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