Huskies pull out of NBL

The Southern Huskies have withdrawn from the National Basketball League after its relationship with Basketball Tasmania became ‘‘untenable’’, the team announced.

A statement released yesterday said Southern Huskies Basketball had invested almost A$2 million in the Tasmanian market since 2017 but circumstances over the past month have made it ‘‘impossible’’ to continue working with the state’s governing body.

The Huskies also decided not to renew their Australian NBL1 licence for its men’s and women’s programmes. ‘‘We believe our relationship with Basketball Tasmania is untenable and after investing over $1.7 million dollars in the Tasmanian Basketball market since 2017, we have made the difficult decision to remove ourselves,’’ the statement said.

NBL general manager Justin Nelson said he was disappointed with the decision and suggested it was caused by possible expansion of the ANBL into the state. ‘‘While we know there is a lot unfolding in Tasmania with regards to the possible arrival of the ANBL, it is unfortunate our league seems to have been caught in the crossfire between the Huskies and the ANBL,’’ he said.

‘‘We have seven teams being run by very good people and they are strongly engaged with their respective communities, plus we have the Otago Nuggets and Franklin Bulls preparing for entry into the competition in 2021.’’

Earlier this week, the struggling Auckland-based Supercity Rangers were kicked out of the competition for breaching financial agreements with the league.

‘‘Since that [Rangers] announcement we have received calls from multiple interested parties in getting an NBL team up and running in the Auckland region, probably as early as 2021,’’ Nelson said.

There will be just seven teams in the NBL next year, with each team set to play each other three times.

The league is expected to jump to nine teams in 2021, possibly 10 with interest being shown in Auckland.