ULEB
The
ULEB (
Union of European Leagues of Basketball) was founded in
1991, with the aim to help the cooperation and development of
European professional
basketball leagues. Its headquarters are located in
Barcelona.
The ULEB started in 1991 with Società Pallacanestro Serie A (sometimes referred as
LEGA Basket A) (
Italy),
Asociación de Clubs de Baloncesto (
Spain), and
Ligue Nationale de Basketball (
France), and were joined in
1996 by
Hellenic Basketball Clubs Association (
Greece) and
Liga dos Clubes de Basquetebol (
Portugal). In
1999, the
Basketball League Belgium (
Belgium),
British Basketball League (
England), and
Ligue Nationale de Basket (
Switzerland) were added.
ULEB then expanded with the
Deutsche Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) of
Germany,
Federatie Eredivisie Basketballclubs (
Netherlands), and
Polska Liga Koszykówki (Poland) in
2001. The Adriatic Basketball Association (sanctions the
Goodyear League in the area) was added in February
2002, while October
2002 brought along the
Österreichische Basketball Bundesliga (
Austria), with the
June 2003 membership of the (
Lithuania), the
2004 membership of the
Asociace M. Prvoligovych Klubu (
Czech Republic), and in July
2005, the
Basketball Superleague of Israel joined the ULEB.
In 2000, the ULEB decided to break from
FIBA and begin the new
Euroleague in
2001, featuring a five-game series (instead of the one-game final), but that was dropped after one year. ULEB also broke away from the FIBA and adopted rules closer to the
NBA, with the NBA's jump ball and 24-second rules being the first to be adopted, in 2002 and 2003, respectively. The hope was the ULEB would play with rules which would favour players, and spectators, which the FIBA did not feature.
In 2004, the ULEB adopted rule changes which made their game similar to the NBA. The jump ball rule, which was the NBA rule, would remain similar to the NBA (no possession arrow, unlike FIBA), and NBA-type rules regarding position of the ball in the final two minutes following a time out (center line) and block and charge fouls within 1.22 metres (4') within the basket were added. LEGA A also adopted an instant replay rule which led to the championship being decided by instant replay as a field goal made in the final second of the game which determined if a team had won or had been forced to a deciding game had to be reviewed for minutes by officials.
For 2005, FIBA decided to make the Euroleague part of the FIBA championships, FIBA rules would replace the NBA-type rules, eliminating the jump ball and block-charge arc.
*
ULEB website*
ULEB website: what is ULEB
