The 2018 NAPB season was the inaugural season for the North American Premier Basketball. For 2018, the league consists of eight teams: the Albany Patroons, Kansas City Tornados, Kentucky Thoroughbreds, Nevada Desert Dogs, Ohio Cardinals, Rochester Razorsharks, Vancouver Knights, and Yakima SunKings.
| 2018 NAPB season | |
|---|---|
| League | NAPB |
| Sport | Basketball |
| Duration | December 31, 2017 – April 28, 2018 |
| Draft | |
| Top draft pick | Vance Cooksey |
| Picked by | Vancouver Knights |
| Regular season | |
| Top seed | Yakima SunKings |
| Season MVP | Edwin Ubiles (Albany) |
| Playoffs | |
| Finals champions | Yakima SunKings |
| Runners-up | Albany Patroons |
| Finals MVP | Renaldo Major |
The Ohio Cardinals were replaced after 23 games by the Ohio Bootleggers, a semi-professional team in the North American Basketball League that also apparently had taken over operations of the Vancouver Knights sometime during the season. The Knights also had become a travel team at that point and was transferred to a new ownership group that was never identified.[1]
The season ended with the SunKings defeating the Patroons two-games-to-none in the best-of-three finals to win the inaugural NAPB championship.[2]
Standings
editFinal standings:[3]
| Team | W | L | PCT | GB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yakima SunKings | 24 | 8 | .742 | 0 |
| Albany Patroons | 19 | 10 | .655 | 3.5 |
| Ohio Cardinals/Bootleggers[a] | 17 | 11 | .607 | 5.0 |
| Kansas City Tornados | 15 | 15 | .500 | 8.0 |
| Nevada Desert Dogs | 14 | 15 | .483 | 8.5 |
| Kentucky Thoroughbreds | 14 | 19 | .424 | 10.5 |
| Rochester Razorsharks | 11 | 18 | .379 | 11.5 |
| Vancouver Knights | 7 | 25 | .219 | 17.0 |
- ^ The Cardinals earned a 12–11 record prior to the ownership transfer and is counted towards the Bootleggers' record in the NAPB standings.
Season award winners
edit| Award | Winner | Team |
|---|---|---|
| Most Valuable Player | Edwin Ubiles | Albany Patroons |
| Rookie of the Year | Xavier Moon | Albany Patroons |
| Defensive Player of the Year | Renaldo Major | Yakima SunKings |
| Person of the Year | Jelan Kendrick | Nevada Desert Dogs |
| New Comer of the Year | Charlton Jones | Kansas City Tornados |
| 6 Man of the Year | A.J Gaines | Nevada Desert Dogs |
| Coach of the Year | Paul Woolpert | Yakima SunKings |
Source:[4]
Playoffs
editThere were eight teams in the league with the top four teams seeded one to four for the playoffs. Each round of the playoffs were played a best-of-three series.[5]
| Semifinals (Best-of-3) | Finals (Best-of-3) | ||||||||
| 1 | Yakima SunKings | 2 | |||||||
| 4 | Kansas City Tornados | 1 | |||||||
| 1 | Yakima SunKings | 2 | |||||||
| 2 | Albany Patroons | 0 | |||||||
| 2 | Albany Patroons | 2 | |||||||
| 3 | Ohio Bootleggers | 1 | |||||||
Draft
editThe inaugural player draft for the league was held on December 3, 2017,[6] and the league's eight charter teams took turns selecting players who had all competed at the college level in the United States at some point.
Vance Cooksey of Youngstown State University was the first overall NAPB selection taken by Vancouver Knights.[6] Consequently, this makes him the first-ever selection in the history of the league.
Although some of the players chosen in the draft had played semi-professional or professional basketball after college graduation, only the United States colleges they attended are listed.
| Pos. | G | F | C |
| Position | Guard | Forward | Center |
References
edit- ^ "Bootleggers to Join the NAPB". NAPB. March 27, 2018. Archived from the original on March 28, 2018.
- ^ "North American Premier Basketball Facebook". Facebook. Retrieved May 13, 2018.
- ^ "NAPB standings". North American Premier Basketball. Archived from the original on December 22, 2017. Retrieved January 1, 2018.
- ^ "North American Premier Basketball Facebook". Facebook. Retrieved May 2, 2018.
- ^ "Playoff Time: Yakima, Albany the Two Top Seeds". NAPB. April 28, 2018. Archived from the original on April 29, 2018. Retrieved April 28, 2018.
- ^ a b "NAPB Draft". NAPB.com. December 3, 2017. Archived from the original on December 23, 2017. Retrieved December 22, 2017.