North European Basketball League

In 1999, the first North European Basketball League competition took place, involving eight teams, from the aforementioned countries.

Eventually, the tournament started to lose its regional characteristics, as it began involving more clubs from Central (Germany, Poland, Czech Republic), Western (Belgium, the Netherlands), and Eastern (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Bulgaria, Romania) Europe; then, from Southern Europe (Macedonia, FR Yugoslavia), and even from Israel and Turkey.

There were 31 teams, from 19 countries (from Israel to the United Kingdom), participating in the 2001–02 season's tournament.

[citation needed] By 2002, top clubs like CSKA Moscow, Žalgiris, and Maccabi, had lost their interest in the competition, in favor of the newly organized, and much more commercially attractive, EuroLeague.

In the season 2002–03 season, a body (group stage) of the tournament was not held – the four best teams of the Northern Conference FIBA Champions Cup played for the last NEBL title in a Final Four.