We took the final regular-season ladder and every finals series of those 17 seasons, 51 semifinal and Grand Final series plus 12 play-in games, from the results the NBL publishes on NBL.com.au as compiled on Wikipedia, and worked out who won each game and series from the scores. Every season in the period had best-of-three semifinals and a Grand Final series: best of three until 2015-16, best of five since.
How often the NBL minor premiers win the championship
The minor premiers reached the Grand Final 14 times in 17 seasons, 82 percent, and won 11 of those 14 series. They won the title in each of the first five seasons in the period, including three in a row for the New Zealand Breakers from 2010-11 to 2012-13, and in six of the nine seasons since 2017-18.
Only six missed out. Three lost the Grand Final: the Cairns Taipans to the Breakers in 2014-15, the Sydney Kings to the Perth Wildcats in 2019-20, and Melbourne United to the Tasmania JackJumpers in 2023-24. The 2019-20 series never finished: Perth led 2-1 when the NBL called off the last games because of the COVID-19 pandemic, after the Kings declined to play on, and awarded Perth the title.
The other three lost a semifinal, and all three lost it to the fourth-placed team: Melbourne United to the Breakers in 2015-16, the Adelaide 36ers to the Illawarra Hawks in 2016-17, and Melbourne to Tasmania in 2021-22. Melbourne has finished first five times in the period and turned two of them into titles.
That record is well ahead of the other leagues we have measured. The NBA team with the best record won the title 45 percent of the time since 1979-80, the A-League Men premiers won the Grand Final in 11 of 21 seasons, and the minor premiers of the NRL and the AFL have won about one season in three. Every NBL finals round in the period apart from the play-in has been a series rather than a single game, and first-placed teams have won 25 of their 31 series.
NBL champions by ladder position since 2009-10
Eleven champions finished first, three second and three third. The top two have won 14 of the 17 titles, 82 percent, and no fourth-placed team has won one: the Breakers in 2015-16, Illawarra in 2016-17 and Tasmania in 2021-22 all reached the Grand Final from fourth and lost it.
The three third-placed champions were the Perth Wildcats in 2016-17, who swept Illawarra 3-0, the Sydney Kings in 2021-22, who swept Tasmania 3-0, and Tasmania in 2023-24, who beat the minor premiers Melbourne 3-2 for the club's first title.
| Ladder position | Series W-L | Games W-L | Game win % | Grand Finals | Titles |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 25-6 | 61-33 | 64.9% | 14 | 11 |
| 2nd | 16-14 | 46-45 | 50.5% | 13 | 3 |
| 3rd | 11-15 | 31-33 | 48.4% | 4 | 3 |
| 4th | 7-20 | 18-41 | 30.5% | 3 | 0 |
| 5th | 1-4 | 1-4 | 20.0% | 0 | 0 |
| 6th | 3-4 | 3-4 | 42.9% | 0 | 0 |
The higher-placed team won 41 of the 51 semifinal and Grand Final series, 80 percent, and 97 of the 148 games in them, 66 percent. Second-placed teams have won barely half their finals games and turned 13 Grand Final appearances into three titles, and fourth-placed teams have won 30.5 percent of theirs.
| Season | Minor premiers | W-L | How it ended | Champions (position) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009-10 | Perth Wildcats | 17-11 | Won the title | Perth Wildcats (1st) |
| 2010-11 | New Zealand Breakers | 22-6 | Won the title | New Zealand Breakers (1st) |
| 2011-12 | New Zealand Breakers | 21-7 | Won the title | New Zealand Breakers (1st) |
| 2012-13 | New Zealand Breakers | 24-4 | Won the title | New Zealand Breakers (1st) |
| 2013-14 | Perth Wildcats | 21-7 | Won the title | Perth Wildcats (1st) |
| 2014-15 | Cairns Taipans | 21-7 | Lost the Grand Final | New Zealand Breakers (2nd) |
| 2015-16 | Melbourne United | 18-10 | Lost a semifinal | Perth Wildcats (2nd) |
| 2016-17 | Adelaide 36ers | 17-11 | Lost a semifinal | Perth Wildcats (3rd) |
| 2017-18 | Melbourne United | 20-8 | Won the title | Melbourne United (1st) |
| 2018-19 | Perth Wildcats | 18-10 | Won the title | Perth Wildcats (1st) |
| 2019-20 | Sydney Kings | 20-8 | Lost the Grand Final | Perth Wildcats (2nd) |
| 2020-21 | Melbourne United | 28-8 | Won the title | Melbourne United (1st) |
| 2021-22 | Melbourne United | 20-8 | Lost a semifinal | Sydney Kings (3rd) |
| 2022-23 | Sydney Kings | 19-9 | Won the title | Sydney Kings (1st) |
| 2023-24 | Melbourne United | 20-8 | Lost the Grand Final | Tasmania JackJumpers (3rd) |
| 2024-25 | Illawarra Hawks | 20-9 | Won the title | Illawarra Hawks (1st) |
| 2025-26 | Sydney Kings | 24-9 | Won the title | Sydney Kings (1st) |
How the NBL play-in works, and how 3rd to 6th have fared
From 2009-10 to 2021-22 the top four made the finals, first played fourth and second played third in the semifinals. In August 2022 the league announced a play-in from the 2022-23 season: the top two go straight to the semifinals and the teams from third to sixth play for the other two places.
- Third v fourth: the winner goes through and meets the second-placed team in the semifinals.
- Fifth v sixth: the loser is out.
- Play-in game: the loser of third v fourth meets the winner of fifth v sixth, and the winner plays the minor premiers.
In the four play-in seasons the extra round has not let anyone in from below. Third and fourth reached the semifinals all eight times, because the loser of their game won the second chance every time, and fifth and sixth went 0 for 8. Sixth beat fifth in three of the four seasons, then lost the play-in game each time.
The top of the ladder has done well under the new format: the minor premiers won three of the four titles, Sydney in 2022-23 and 2025-26 and Illawarra in 2024-25, and the exception was Tasmania's run from third in 2023-24.
Most NBL championships by club
Counting every Grand Final since the league began in 1979, the Perth Wildcats have won the most titles, 10, the last in 2020. Melbourne United and the Sydney Kings have six each; four of Melbourne's came as the Melbourne Tigers. In the period of this study, Perth won six titles, the Breakers four and Sydney three, ahead of Melbourne with two and Illawarra and Tasmania with one each.
| Club | Titles since 1979 | Since 2009-10 | Last title |
|---|---|---|---|
| Perth Wildcats | 10 | 6 | 2020 |
| Melbourne United | 6 | 2 | 2021 |
| Sydney Kings | 6 | 3 | 2026 |
| Adelaide 36ers | 4 | 0 | 2002 |
| New Zealand Breakers | 4 | 4 | 2015 |
| Illawarra Hawks | 2 | 1 | 2025 |
| Tasmania JackJumpers | 1 | 1 | 2024 |
Of the other clubs in the league in 2026-27, the Brisbane Bullets have three titles, the last in 2007, and the Cairns Taipans and the S.E. Melbourne Phoenix have never won one. The full year-by-year list is on Wikipedia's list of NBL champions.
The 2025-26 NBL champions: the Sydney Kings
The Kings finished 24-9, one game ahead of Adelaide, and locked up top spot with an 11th straight win, 117-77 over the Brisbane Bullets on 20 February 2026. In the play-in, the S.E. Melbourne Phoenix beat Perth 111-94 to take third, and Perth then beat Melbourne United 95-77 for fourth.
Sydney swept Perth 2-0 in their semifinal and Adelaide beat the Phoenix 2-1. The Championship Series went the full five games, and Sydney won Game 5 113-101 in overtime at Qudos Bank Arena on 5 April 2026, in front of a record NBL crowd of 18,589. Kendric Davis had 35 points and 14 assists in the decider and was named Championship Series MVP. It was the Kings' sixth title and their third in five seasons.
The 2026-27 NBL season so far
The new season started on 19 September 2026, with 165 games over 21 rounds, 33 for each of the 10 clubs. The defending champions have started where they finished: Sydney beat Brisbane 93-78 for a 3-0 start, the last unbeaten record in the league.
The NBL ladder on Vertize tracks the race for top spot and the play-in places through the season, the NBL ladder predictor lets you pick every remaining game and see where each club would finish, and the full NBL schedule lists every game. For the NBL's route to the NBA, see every Next Stars player tracked through the draft.
NBL minor premiers and the finals: frequently asked questions
How often do the NBL minor premiers win the championship? 11 times in the 17 seasons from 2009-10 to 2025-26, 65 percent. They reached the Grand Final 14 times.
Has a fourth-placed team ever won the NBL championship since 2009-10? No. Fourth-placed teams reached the Grand Final three times and lost all three. The lowest-placed champions were third: Perth in 2016-17, Sydney in 2021-22 and Tasmania in 2023-24.
How does the NBL play-in work? Since 2022-23 the top two go straight to the semifinals. Third plays fourth and the winner goes through; fifth plays sixth and the loser is out; then the loser of third v fourth plays the winner of fifth v sixth for the last semifinal place.
Which club has won the most NBL championships? The Perth Wildcats, with 10. Melbourne United and the Sydney Kings have six each.
Who won the 2025-26 NBL championship? The Sydney Kings, the minor premiers, who beat the Adelaide 36ers 3-2 in the Championship Series, winning Game 5 113-101 in overtime on 5 April 2026.
How this was built: the final regular-season ladder and the score of every finals game of the 17 NBL seasons from 2009-10 to 2025-26, as published by NBL.com.au and compiled in Wikipedia's ladder and finals bracket tables, downloaded through the Wikipedia API on 4 October 2026; series winners were worked out from the game scores and checked against the list of champions. Ladder positions are the official ones after tiebreakers. The 2019-20 Grand Final counts as Perth's 2-1 series win. Titles by club run from 1979 to 2026.