North European Basketball League

North European Basketball League (NEBL) - was short-lived basketball league founded in 1998 by Šarūnas Marčiulionis. This league was first commercial project of regional league in Europe, and initially intended for participation of best basketball teams from 5 countries - Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Sweden & Finland. In 1999 first competition took place involving 8 teams from aforementioned countries. Eventually tournament started to loose its regional characteristics involving more clubs from Central (Poland, Czech Republic), Western (Denmark, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, UK) and Eastern (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus) Europe; then, from Southern Europe (Bulgaria, Macedonia, Romania, Serbia) and even from Israel & Turkey. There were 31 teams from 19 countries (from Israel to UK) participating in 2001-2002 tournament. Final Four of the NEBL was always played in Vilnius, Lithuania.

By 2002 top-clubs like CSKA Moscow, Žalgiris and Maccabi lost their interest to the competition in favor to newly organized and much more commercially attractive Euroleague.

In season 2002-2003 a body (group stage) of the tournament wasn't held - four best teams of Northern Conference FIBA Champions Cup played for last NEBL title in Final Four.

The NEBL would later be transformed (since 2004) into today's Baltic Basketball League with 10 best basketball teams from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia participating in it.

Seasons

Season	Winner	Finalist	Total teams	Total countries
1998-1999	Žalgiris	ASK/Brocēni/LMT	8	5
1999-2000	CSKA Moscow	BC Lietuvos Rytas	14	9
2000-2001	Ural Great	Žalgiris	16	12
2001-2002	BC Lietuvos Rytas	Ural Great	31	19
2002-2003	UNICS Kazan	BC Lietuvos Rytas	4	3