The Southland Sharks are a New Zealand professional men's basketball team based in Invercargill. The Sharks compete in the National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at Stadium Southland. For sponsorship reasons, they are known as the SBS Bank Southland Sharks.
Team history
The Southland Sharks brand dates back to the 1990s when the Smokefree Southland Sharks competed in the Conference Basketball League (CBL) and won championships in 1995 and 1998.[1] In 2002, a group of local businessmen launched a bid to enter a Southland team into the National Basketball League (NBL), but that attempt fell over late in the piece when the Community Trust of Southland declined a $150,000 application.[2][3]
In October 2009, Southland Basketball Association was granted a three-year NBL license.[4] In December 2009, the Sharks were confirmed for the 2010 NBL season.[3][5]
The Sharks made playoff appearances in their first two seasons in the NBL, before missing the post-season in 2012. In 2013, the Sharks won their maiden NBL championship with a 92–81 win over the Nelson Giants in the final.[6][7] After another playoff appearance in 2014, the Sharks won their first minor premiership in 2015, before going on to reach the NBL final, where they won their second championship with a 72–68 win over the Wellington Saints.[8] With the win, they broke the 2001 Waikato Titans 15-game winning streak to finish the season with 16 wins in a row.[9] The 2015 season also saw the Sharks retire Kevin Braswell's No. 12 jersey.[10][11][12]
After another playoff appearance in 2016, the Sharks made their third NBL final in 2017, where they lost 108–75 to the Saints.[13] In 2018, the Sharks returned to the NBL final for the fourth time in six years, where they won their third championship with a 98–96 win over the Saints.[14][15]
