Scotland’s Jr. NBA League is a competition, held in partnership between the Jr. NBA and basketballscotland, that encourages kids aged 9-11 to participate in basketball through their school. The league replicates the NBA’s structure, with 30 teams playing across six Divisions, spread between two Conferences.
The Jr. NBA programme operates worldwide and engages thousands of players at a young age, with the aim of encouraging more youngsters to participate in basketball whilst growing the sport in each country. As part of basketballscotland’s commitment to developing pathways for young players, clubs are invited to work with the programme to provide a clear route for players to follow into club basketball upon completion of the Jr. NBA programme.
During the 2019/20 season, basketballscotland will operate two Jr. NBA Leagues across the country, with an additional wheelchair League – the first of its kind anywhere in the world. Scottish clubs are being offered the chance to run a five-team division, which will take place between September and December or January and April.
The structure of each division consists of a draft day, eight weeks of competition, a conference final and then Final Fours for the top teams.
Each Club or School participating in the Jr. NBA League will receive the following:
- Each school will receive 15 sets of Jr. NBA kit and a Jr. NBA polo shirt for the coach
- Each school will receive 2 Jr. NBA basketballs
- The opportunity to attend the Jr. NBA Draft and Final Fours
- The opportunity to meet an ex-NBA/WNBA player at Final Fours
- The opportunity to attend both player and coach Jr. NBA clinics
- Exposure on basketballscotland’s social media pages and website
- Training for potential Jr. NBA league referees/table officials in kind
In order to run a Division, basketballscotland and the Jr. NBA require clubs to meet the following criteria:
- Club will work alongside their basketballscotland RDO to run a Division however the club will have responsibility for the weekly running of it
- The club will choose 5 schools they either already work with or would like to work with to be part of their Division
- The club will provide a venue, fixtures, and officials for games
- The club will send weekly results to their basketballscotland RDO
- It will be the responsibility of the club to enforce the rules of the league, in particular the 50% gender split rule that must be adhered to in all games
- It will be the responsibility of the club to ensure schools have sent their player list and waivers to basketballscotland ahead of the programme beginning
Any club interested in running a Division is asked to email jr.nba@basketball-scotland.com, by June 14th, detailing how you would run the Division, making reference to the criteria above and including as much information as possible at this stage.
Any schools interested in being involved, please contact your local basketball club. A list of clubs can be found here
