NBL Championship Belt

Have tweeted about this in the recent week, but thought I'd keep a thread updated here as well for those not frequenting twitter or following me.

https://twitter.com/statsman74/status/1466386245106352136?s=20

Have traced through from the very first game in the NBL in 1979 through to this season, with the concept of a Championship Belt won in that first game, and then defended in every regular season match beyond that.

Melbourne United held it going into this year, but Sydney took it off them on the weekend. Illawarra get the next shot at it.

Big thanks to Nick Tan for the Belt design.

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Perthworld
Years ago

Brilliant.

Which team has held the belt for the longest period of time and also the most amount of times?

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Statsman74
Years ago

The most is the Westate/Perth Wildcats, who have held it 55 times so far.

In terms of longest, I assume you mean in terms of times defended - the Geelong Cats won it on 5 June 1983 and defended it for 17 matches before losing it to the Adelaide 36ers on 15 April 1984.

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Perthworld
Years ago

Thanks.

The most is the Westate/Perth Wildcats, who have held it 55 times so far.

That's how we do!

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Hoopie
Years ago

Just like NZ's Ranfurly Shield, iirc

Love the idea, and wish the NBL would take it up - it would make more games interesting, especially where there might be upsets by the bottom teams.

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Anonymous
Years ago

The Ranfurly Shield is only defended at home. This would be interesting if the same applied.

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Cram
Years ago

This is awesome. Even if the league itself doesn't pick it up, would love to see the fans run with it.

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Lovebroker
Years ago

What do you have to do to get the belt?

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Anonymous
Years ago

Pin the opponent. No count outs or DQs.

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Anonymous
Years ago

What a crap idea

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Anonymous
Years ago

Paul Smith, is that you? You should be happy, it's something the Kings have a chance of putting in the trophy cabinet.

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Anonymous
Years ago

The Kings are long term holders of the Dr Adrian Hurley Cup!

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Anonymous
Years ago

Love the idea, also agree it should only be defended at home games so a team has to win on the road to earn it, then take it back to their fans to defend it.

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Statman84
Years ago

Love it Statsman74!

I see you said every regular season game. So finals games are not counted?

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Anonymous
Years ago

@statman84

Yep, I excluded finals. Made it too predictable who would hold the belt at the end of each year (it was always the Champs unless a team outside the finals held it at the end of the regular season) and it also led to too many changes of who held it due to the A-H-H nature of many finals series.

Also considered just using home games but that can make it go dormant for periods of the season, and also reduced the number of times it changed hands.

I liked the idea more of "defend it every match".

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Anonymous
Years ago

Appreciate the overall sense of the responses, thanks.

I'll be promoting it on twitter every game the belt is up for grabs, and hopefully it gets some takeup. The more from here that retweet it or react to it will help.

Sydney and NZ are the two clubs that so far have reacted most positively. The Kings social media team was awesome in the leadup to the MU game when they wanted to win it, and did.

Hawks get a crack at it this weekend, will be interesting to see if they get on board with it.

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Statsman74
Years ago

(Those last 2 posts were from me, forgot to add my name to the entry field haha. I assumed it would auto-fill since I was logged in)

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Hoopie
Years ago

Great work, Statman - please keep the running commentary going, important game by important game

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Statman84
Years ago

Would it be worth putting it up on Wikipedia?

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koberulz
Years ago

It's not a real thing, so no.

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Anonymous
Years ago

"Also considered just using home games but that can make it go dormant for periods of the season, and also reduced the number of times it changed hands."

I actually think this is appealing, so that it is more of a rare opportunity to win it when it is up for grabs.

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Perthworld
Years ago

You could track both versions.

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Hoopie
Years ago

The beauty of only playing for it at home games is that it won't be able to move around as much, so games where it’s on the line will matter more.

Otherwise, it could potentially move around teams every round, which I think would make it less significant to hold it.

And, of course, the team holding it at the end of the regular season should get a big cash prize.

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Hoopie
Years ago

So Illawarra now hold the Belt?

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Statsman74
Years ago

Yep, the Hawks now hold the belt and have to defend it tonight.

https://twitter.com/statsman74/status/1471638632473645058?s=20

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Statsman74
Years ago

@Perthworld

I tracked the Belt from Day 1 also using Playoffs instead of just the regular season (and have both full lists in a spreadsheet) but preferred the way it felt excluding playoffs.

I dont mind the idea of just home games, but I think I'm more against the idea of it laying dormant for a while. For example, Perth are about to hit the road for a month - if they held the belt after Sunday, it would be off the radar for ages. For that reason I preferred defending it all the time. Just my preference I guess.

@koberulz

Very true, its not real. But I love the idea of it becoming real. Pipe dreams, I know.

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Statsman74
Years ago

Hawks defend the Belt, and now head to Brisbane with it....

https://twitter.com/statsman74/status/1471841090680418305?s=20

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Statsman74
Years ago

With the Hawks failing to hang on to the belt in Brisbane, its now Cairns that get the next crack at it - playing Brisbane this weekend.

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Hoopie
Two years ago

I've lost track of who’s got it. Still with Brisbane?

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Anonymous
Two years ago

That's because its a rubbish idea and no one cares

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Perthworld
Two years ago

Ranfurly Shield for NBL is actually a really sick idea.

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Statsman74
Two years ago

Bad news for our courageous anonymous poster...but an update on this.

Twitter is the best place to see how this has moved so far this year @statsman74 - but the short version of the story is that Sydney, after winning the Belt from Brisbane on 13 February, have now successfully retained the belt 6 times (PERx2. CAIx2, SEM, ADE).

Every team has had a chance to win it this year, except TAS, who get a chance next weekend.

Its the longest reign since Adelaide back in 2016, and one of Sydney's longest reigns since the beginning of the Belt.

@Perthworld - hadnt heard about the Ranfurly Shield before your post - thats really interesting and obviously a concept I like the look of!

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Perthworld
Two years ago

Yep, and it's only across the ditch!

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hoopie
Two years ago

So who's got it now?

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Luuuc
Last year

Congrats to United for finishing the season with the belt thanks to their win over Adelaide.

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hoopie
Earlier this year

So which team won it this season? (If anyone knows, it'll save me having to go work it out)

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Perthworld
Earlier this year

Cairns

My workings:

22-23 MEL
08/10 TAS
14/10 SEM
02/11 BNE
04/11 TAS
16/11 NZB
19/11 ILL
03/12 BNE
10/12 MEL
31/12 CNS
06/01 TAS
10/01 BNE
19/01 PER
25/01 ILL
09/02 NZB
11/02 MEL
16/02 CNS

MEL held the belt for the longest duration with a 21 day reign, followed (surprisingly) by SEM on 19 days.

ADL and SYD did not hold the belt at any stage during the season.