2001–02 National Basketball Development League season

The 2001–02 NBDL season was the inaugural season for the National Basketball Development League. The league started with eight teams: Asheville Altitude, Columbus Riverdragons, Fayetteville Patriots, Greenville Groove, Huntsville Flight, Mobile Revelers, North Charleston Lowgators and Roanoke Dazzle. The season ended with the Groove defeating the Lowgators 2–0 in the best-of-three Finals series to win the inaugural NBDL championship.[1]

2001–02 NBDL season
LeagueNBDL
SportBasketball
Draft
Top draft pickChris Andersen
Picked byFayetteville Patriots
Regular season
Top seedNorth Charleston Lowgators
Season MVPAnsu Sesay (Greenville Groove)
Top scorerIsaac Fontaine (Mobile Revelers)
(17.4 ppg)
Finals
ChampionsGreenville Groove
  Runners-upNorth Charleston Lowgators
NBA Development League seasons

Regular season standings

edit
Team W L PCT GB
North Charleston Lowgators 36 20 .643
Greenville Groove 36 20 .643
Columbus Riverdragons 31 25 .554 5
Mobile Revelers 30 26 .536 6
Huntsville Flight 26 30 .464 10
Asheville Altitude 26 30 .464 10
Fayetteville Patriots 21 35 .375 15
Roanoke Dazzle 18 38 .321 18

Statistics leaders

edit
Category Player Team Stat
Points per game Isaac Fontaine Mobile Revelers 17.4
Rebounds per game Thomas Hamilton Greenville Groove 9.4
Assists per game Omar Cook Fayetteville Patriots 7.8
Steals per game Fred House North Charleston Lowgators 2.5
Blocks per game Lee Scruggs Asheville Altitude 2.1
Field goal percentage Lorenzo Coleman Roanoke Dazzle 60.6%
3-pt field goal percentage Terry Dehere North Charleston Lowgators 45.0%
Free throw percentage Isaac Fontaine Mobile Revelers 90.5%

Source: Basketball-Reference

Season award winners

edit
Award Winner Team
Most Valuable Player Ansu Sesay Greenville Groove
Rookie of the Year Fred House North Charleston Lowgators
Defensive Player of the Year Jeff Myers Greenville Groove
Sportsmanship Award Mike Wilks Huntsville Flight

All-NBDL Teams

edit

Source: NBA.com

Inaugural head coaches

edit

Playoffs

edit

There were only 8 teams in the league. For the playoffs, the four teams with the best record in the league were seeded one to four. Each round of the playoffs were played a best-of-three series.

Semifinals
(Best-of-3)
Finals
(Best-of-3)
      
2 Greenville 2
3 Columbus 1
2 Greenville 2
1 North Charleston 0
1 North Charleston 2
4 Mobile 1

List of Playoff games

  • Semifinals
  • March 28: Columbus 81, Greenville 78
  • March 29: Greenville 96, Columbus 78
  • April 6: Greenville 79, Columbus 78
  • March 24: Mobile 78, North Charleston 75
  • April 3: North Charleston 77, Mobile 70
  • April 6: North Charleston 80, Mobile 78
  • Finals
  • April 8: Greenville 81, North Charleston 63
  • April 10: Greenville 75, North Charleston 68

Greenville defeated North Charleston on April 10 to win the first NBDL championship.[2][3]

References

edit
  1. ^ History of the National Basketball Developmental League
  2. ^ "NBDL: Playoff Bracket". NBA.com. Archived from the original on June 10, 2016.
  3. ^ "History of the National Basketball Developmental League".