1979 NBL season

Here are results and statistics from the National Basketball League's inaugural season of 1979.

End of Season Ladder

This is the ladder at the end of season, before the finals. In all, 90 games were played, 18 for each team. The top two teams then played a sudden death grand final.

	Team	Played	Won	Lost	%	Won %
1	St. Kilda Saints	18	15	3	118	83
2	Canberra Cannons	18	13	5	104	72
3	Nunawading Spectres	18	13	5	107	72
4	West Adelaide Bearcats	18	12	6	109	67
5	Brisbane Bullets	18	10	8	100	57
6	Newcastle Falcons	18	8	10	98	44
7	City of Sydney Astronauts	18	8	10	95	44
8	Illawarra Hawks	18	5	13	95	28
9	Bankstown Bruins	18	3	15	91	17
10	Glenelg Tigers	18	3	15	88	17

There was only one final played in this season and it was contested by the Top 2 teams.

Grand Final

• Played at Albert Park Stadium, Melbourne

St. Kilda Saints 94 to Canberra Cannons 93

The Saints won on a reverse layup just before the buzzer by Peter Vitols.

Awards

Award	Player	Team
NBL MVP	Ken Richardson	West Adelaide Bearcats
Grand Final MVP	Larry Sengstock	St. Kilda Saints

Stats

Points Per Game

1. Calvin Bruton - 33.2 PPG (18 games for the Brisbane Bullets)
2. Ken Richardson - 26.2 PPG (18 games for the West Adelaide Bearcats)
3. Dave Ankeney - 26.1 PPG (18 games for the Newcastle Falcons)
4. Jim Slacke - 23.8 PPG (18 games for the Illawarra Hawks)
5. Cal Stamp - 23.3 PPG (18 games for the Canberra Cannons)

Field Goal %

1. Dave Ankeney - 50.0% (18 games for the Newcastle Falcons) (165/330)
2. Dan Riley - 50.0% (18 games for the Newcastle Falcons) (146/292)
3. Glen Ryan - 50.0% (17 games for the Newcastle Falcons) (63/126)
4. Darrell Corcoran - 50.0% (18 games for the West Sydney Westars) (66/132)
5. Richard Dunphy - 50.0% (16 games for the West Sydney Westars) (109/218)

Foul Shot %

1. Jim Slacke - 80.8% (63/78)
2. David Leslie - 80.6% (54/67)
3. David Symth - 78.7% (48/61)
4. Calvin Bruton - 78.5% (113/144)
5. Gary Fox - 77.8% (49/63)