Adriatic - Liga ABA

Basketball league

Adriatic Liga ABA

Commonly known as the Adriatic League First Division, the league features clubs from the former Yugoslavia : Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Montenegro and North Macedonia. In the past, the league has also consisted of clubs from Bulgaria (Levski), the Czech Republic (ČEZ Nymburk), Hungary (Szolnoki Olaj), and Israel (Maccabi FOX) that received wild card invitations.

The ABA launched its inaugural campaign for the 2001-02 season. It now has 12 teams and a 22 games regular season, followed by playoffs for the top 4 teams. For 12 seasons, the title was decided during a Final Four weekend.

Despite the antagonistic post-war politics, the ABA managed to integrate historic clubs that join their country's own competitions in late spring after the ABA regular season and post-season have been completed.

The league has crowned 9 different champions in its history with arch rival from Belgrade Partizan (6 championships) and Red Star (4) being dominant. The ABA is known for its limited use of foreign players. This hotbed of European basketball gives a lot of space to youngsters and is a natural destination for scouts from the NBA.

The 12 teams playing in this basketball league also play in their domestic leagues.

Location: Eastern Europe

Regular-season schedule: September to April

Last 5 Adriatic Liga ABA Champions

Red Star Belgrade (2015, 2016, 2017, 2019), Buducnost Podgorica (2018)

All-Time Best Adriatic Liga ABA Basketball Players

Josip Sesar, Igor Rakocevic, Dejan Milojevic, Milan Gurovic, Tadija Dragicevic, Nikola Pekovic, Ante Tomic, Miro Bilan, Stefan Jovic

From Adriatic Liga ABA to the NBA

Jiri Welsh, Slavko Vranes, Kosta Perovic, Nikola Pekovic, Jan Vesely, Bojan Bogdanovic, Bogdan Bogdanovic, Dario Saric, Boban Marjanovic, Nikola Jokic, Rade Zagorac, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, Goga Bitadze, Vlatko Cancar