The 2021–22 NBA G League season was the 21st season of the NBA G League, the official minor league basketball organization owned by the National Basketball Association (NBA). The prior season, the league played a shortened season with 18 teams and all games were held at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Bay Lake, Florida, in similar to the 2020 NBA Bubble due to the ongoing restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic.[1][2] The 2021–22 season consisted of two phases: a Showcase Cup from November 5 to December 22, with all 30 teams participating before 28 of the league teams underwent a traditional regular season intended to span 36 games for each team from January 5 to April 2 before postseason. Untimely postponements, however, would lead to a varying level of games played before the end of the season, which meant roughly 31-35 games were played by each team.[3]
League changes
The NBA G League added one new team, had three teams relocate, and two teams rebrand for the 2021–22 season:
The Capitanes de Ciudad de México were initially planned to start playing in the G League for the 2020–21 season, but pushed back their debut in the G League to the 2021–22 season due to the pandemic.[4] As the travel restrictions continued in the scheduling of the 2021–22 season, the Capitanes played during the Showcase Cup from November 5 to December 22 and were not able to play any home games in Mexico City.
The Denver Nuggets affiliated with the Grand Rapids Drive, which had previously been affiliated with the Pistons, and the Drive rebranded as the Grand Rapids Gold.[8][9]
Divisions were abolished in place of having the top six teams of each conference make the postseason (the last season with divisions was the 2019–20 NBA G League season, as the 2020–21 season had the top eight of the eighteen teams make the playoffs).
Additionally, the Westchester Knicks temporarily relocated their home games from White Plains, New York, to Bridgeport, Connecticut, as their home arena, the Westchester County Center, was still being used as a COVID-19 vaccination site.[10] The Capitanes de Ciudad de México also set up their season in Fort Worth, Texas as a temporary home for this season in order to play in the G League this season without circumventing border restrictions at the time.
The league changed its season format to be played in two stages: a 14-game Showcase Cup and then an intended 36-game regular season with a playoff. All 30 teams played in the Showcase Cup that ended with the NBA G League Winter Showcase on the weekend of December 19 to 22. The regular season was then set to start on December 27, but was then pushed back to January 5.[11] The league standings reset for the start of the regular season for qualifying for the playoffs. The NBA G League Ignite and Capitanes de Ciudad de México will not participate in the regular season or playoffs, but will play a few exhibition games that do not count towards the other teams standings.[3]
Other changes
This season is the first for Wilson as the G League's official ball brand. On May 14, 2020, the NBA announced a multi-year partnership with Wilson as the manufacturer and supplier of G League game balls,[12] to succeed Spalding, which supplied the league since 2001 as the National Basketball Development League (NBDL).[13]
For the fifth time in the best-of-three series era and for the first time since 2018, a team went undefeated in postseason play, as the Rio Grande Valley Vipers went 4–0 to win their fourth league title, defeating the Delaware Blue Coats in two games. The Vipers set a couple of records during the G League Finals, most notably in Game 1 when they scored 145 points in a 145–128 victory, which was the most points scored by a team in G League Finals history. Trevelin Queen scored 44 points, the second most scored in a Final; two triple-doubles were recorded by the Vipers: Daishen Nix scored 31 points, 12 rebounds, and 11 assists and Anthony Lamb scored 10 points, 10 rebounds, and 10 assists. This was the first time a triple-double had been recorded in the League since 2013 and it was the first Finals game to feature two triple-doubles in the same game. Mfiondu Kabengele recorded eight blocks, a Finals record. The Blue Coats became the first team since the Santa Cruz Warriors (2013, 2014) to lose back-to-back G League Finals.[16][17][18][19][20]
^"National Basketball Development League Announces Inaugural". Bloomberg. Business Wire. November 15, 2001. Retrieved October 18, 2021. The NBDL will use the Spalding NBA Infusion basketball, a new basketball that can be inflated with a Micro-Pump(TM) that is incorporated into the ball, as the league's official game ball, it was also announced today.
