California-Philadelphia would give the NDL its first Finals rematch in its young history, with the two teams having met here in 2018. While quite a lot had changed in the past five years, Game 1 looked like a pair of teams that knew each other well. The game started slow and sloppy, as the Sea Lions went into halftime with a 44-41 lead. Despite the low score, the game wasn’t without excitement, as no team had led by more than 6 points during the first half, meaning just about every possession was hugely important. The game would stay quiet for most of the second half, but a couple minutes into the final inning, the pace increased dramatically, though the game would stay just as back-and-forth as it was before. Finally, with the Row up 1 and just 12 seconds left, Philly W/ZB Benny Ochoa intercepted a pass and would find F/ZB Elenio Field upcourt. While Field’s high-arcing shot was off the mark, it wasted most of the clock, giving the Row a win to start off the series.

The teams would keep up the quick pace heading into the second game. After struggling to score 40 points in the first half of Game 1, Game 2 saw both teams in the triple digits early in the second half, a rarity for two defenses that both allowed under 107 points per game in the regular season. With the fear of going down 0-2 at home starting to set in, the Sea Lions would pull ahead late, winning 171-161 and tying up the series. Unfortunately for fans of scores like that, the defenses would return to form in Game 3. The trend of tight games would continue, though. California would stick in the dagger when W/K Will Orleans’ three-point toss to F/C Robby Wheeler put them up 6 with just 17 seconds to go.

Now it would be Philadelphia looking to avoid a two-game deficit in the series, but with their home crowd behind them once again in Game 4, their defense would get in the zone. F/K Ray Thomas and B/K LaVarius McCargo were their usual dominant selves, but 38-year-old B/C Patrick Sanders Jr. really stepped it up, with the trio only allowing 31 of the Sea Lions’ 114 total points. California’s defense wouldn’t make it easy, but the Row would tie the series up heading into an all-important fifth game back on the West Coast.

Game 5 started out innocently enough, and was, like every other game in the series thus far, really tight during the first half. The second half, though, would completely change things. California was rolling while Philadelphia couldn’t seem to convert any of their scoring attempts. They would score only 7 points in the whole fifth inning and the Sea Lions would take a 20-point lead when W/ZB Jay Moth opened up the 7th with a long 3-point bucket. When B/ZB Howie King returned the favor on the other end, it seemed inconsequential, but it was anything but. The Philly D-squad put on an offensive show, completely erasing that deficit by the time they switched to defense, and when they did, the O-squad would pick up right where they left off, giving the Row a statement come-from-behind win. With the First Trophy in the Wells Fargo Center two nights later, they would keep the momentum up on a deflated Cali team, throwing the knockout punch in the form of a 40-point victory and winning their first ever NDL Championship.

August 4, 2023
After going 4-96 over two seasons and recording the first winless season in NDL history, the Colorado Pinnacles have announced their intention to fold. As you could imagine, it was pretty hard to convince people to show up and watch a team that lost by an average of 61 points every night, and while some opposing fans showed up knowing they could see a guaranteed win, the Pepsi Center was almost completely empty more often than not. NDL Commissioner Justin Ross has said he is already in talks to have a replacement expansion team by next season, though he has not given any hints as to where that team will be located.

August 6, 2023
Things are really shaking up in the National Dashball League. Just days after the Colorado Pinnacles folded, the Phoenix Palms have finally been sold. New owner Frank Richardson led the Miami expansion bid in 2019 (a bid that got no votes on the Expansion Board) and has announced that he plans to move the team there. Richardson has said the team will likely keep their name but will almost certainly undergo a total rebrand. GM Scott Ivory has also retired; rumor has it that Richardson may not have kept him around anyway, though neither chose to comment on it.

September 3, 2023
It’s been confirmed: the city of Atlanta and Michael Wisk are suing the National Dashball League. Here are the important takeaways from the Commissioner’s press conference today:

- Ross said the league had been in talks with Wisk, whose 2019 expansion bid lost by only one vote, about granting the city an expansion team in the event the Pinnacles folded. The Palms moving to Miami, though, had Ross concerned about overloading the Southeast, a region that had just a few years ago been completely devoid of an NDL presence. Ross abruptly ceased talks in Atlanta, hoping instead to rush things through in a more western market (Salt Lake City is the popular speculation). Unsurprisingly, Wisk decided to sue.
- The league will be moving forward with 11 teams in 2024, with expansion postponed to 2025 (probably in Atlanta). Divisional alignment will be as follows: Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, and Toronto in the East; Miami, Nashville, Orlando, and Texas in the Central; California, Los Angeles, and Seattle in the West.
- The schedule will be similar in format to previous years, but with some adjustments to fit the unbalanced divisions. Divisional play will be expanded, with the West playing 10 games and the East and Central playing 8 games against each divisional opponent and all teams playing 4 games against each team outside their division. This will result in a 52-game season. The playoff format will stay the same.
- Former Pinnacles players still under contract will have those contracts delayed for a season and will become eligible to sign one-year deals with any team for 2024. Assuming there is a new expansion team in 2025 (which Ross seemed convinced of), that team will pick up their original contracts where they left off.

September 29, 2023
For the second straight offseason, the New York Chargers and California Sea Lions have agreed to a major trade. California will send B/K Gregg Larkin and F/C Robby Wheeler to Manhattan in return for F/C Billy Moses and W/K Larry Dal. The Sea Lions will also receive New York’s second round pick in next weekend’s draft. Moses has spent the last 5 years with the Chargers and led the team’s defense during their only playoff run in 2022, but missed much of last year with a torn ACL. Larkin, meanwhile, has spent most of his career between Chicago and Toronto, and won a ring with each as a starting keeper in the 2019 and 2020 Finals.

October 6, 2023
Here’s our wrap-up of NDL Draft round 1:

1. TOR (from NY) - F/ZB Osi Isaac (Nigeria)
2. SEA (from LA) - B/C Wesley Wallace (North Carolina)
3. NY (from NSH via TOR) - B/K Tobias Bischoff (Cal State Bakersfield)
4. CAL (from CHI) - B/K Rick Delaney (Boston College)
5. NY (from TOR) - W/ZB Chung Song (China)
6. ORL - W/ZB Brian Roe (Cornell)
7. MIA - B/ZB Stan Gotta (Florida International)
8. SEA - B/ZB Ben Bingham (UC Davis)
9. TEX - W/ZB Aureliano Armenta (North Carolina State)
10. CAL - B/ZB Donny Harper (Colorado State)
11. PHI - W/ZB Rolland Allen (Oklahoma State)

With all of Colorado’s picks getting thrown out, New York got the first pick, but traded down with Toronto. The Hogs selected Osi Isaac, a good call for a team with a need at forward; no other forwards were taken in the first round and the second round is projected to be completely forward-less. For their part, the Chargers got two players who should see starting roles this year. Seattle seems to be the other winner of this draft, picking up a pair of solid (and alliterative) players in Wallace and Bingham.

November 19, 2023
After floating through a sea of rumors for over a year, 2-time NDL MVP Michel Blanchard has left the Windy City and has signed an 8-year, $72 million deal with the Nashville Fugitives. Said Blanchard, “it was starting to feel like I wasn’t as important anymore in Chicago, with all the money they were giving out to my teammates. I also wanted to get off the doorstep and into the playoffs again. I think a change of scenery was the right way to go.” Head Coach Leonard Fisher seemed surprised, saying “it didn’t cross my mind” that the forward/center might sign elsewhere. “We’ll just have to work a little extra this year.”

January 5, 2024
One of the last former Pinnacles to sign with a team, F/K Chris Gray has signed an $8 million deal with the Seattle Sawyers. Seattle has signed the top three Colorado players this offseason; Gray will join former Pinns teammates W/ZB Pacifico Ugalde and B/ZB Jack Odom. Is it a coincidence that all three of those players went to another state with weed culture? Probably; both Gray and Ugalde started their careers in Seattle, but it's worth thinking about. Anyway, if the Sawyers are going to make a run, this will need to be their year, since none of those players will be back in 2025.

Last edited by ItDoesntMatter (9/04/2019 6:52 pm)

Steelman wrote:

Wild offseason! Richardson really threw a wrench in the works, didn’t he? If I was Wisk, I’m not sure I’d want Colorado’s leftovers at all, but he definitely got shafted by the commish who seems hellbent on doing his own thing. I hope he wins the suit. Atlanta seems more primed for a team than Miami. I think Richardson won’t last long anyway, though Ross probably doesn’t want to admit that. Could we see the lawsuit bring a larger expansion by three teams instead of one to level the east-west balance? Send that Colorado remnant to Salt Lake along with another west coast team and give Wisk his Atlanta team. Wisk seems like a bright guy, I know I wouldn’t want any part of the worst team in league history and would want to start fresh even if it meant waiting longer. Though I see the opportunity of the league needing to fill a slot pretty soon. Should be a fun storyline!

Hopefully Texas can bounce back with a healthy Red Planet and make a deep run again.

Yeah, I realized I was a bit overdue for some crazy stuff going down, so I figured this might make up for 7 years of relative stability from a new league. The current word on the street is that Atlanta will conduct an expansion draft in addition to the players they will inherit from Colorado, which will hopefully be enough to make the team more competitive. There will more than likely be more expansion in the next few years to help spread things back out as well.

I dig that brand upgrade! Hits the spot on all counts. My only gripe is I kinda want to see massively oversized back numbers like the Oregon Ducks do these days. I feel like with the whole neon thing it would fit the look and vibe. The blackout court is dope. I wanted to hate these guys but that's an awesome brand package.

The 2024 regular season saw the codominance of a pair of teams, one which was becoming quite familiar to NDL viewers. The return of B/K Ares Preciado and a record-breaking offensive performance from B/K Semarias Garcia - to the tune of 35.3 points per game - led the Redbacks to a 50-2 record. Meanwhile, the Seattle Sawyers, always-dominant B/ZB James Terry, and their slew of Pinnacles castoffs finished at 49-3. To put those records in perspective a little better, remember that those teams played each other four times, meaning they combined for one loss against everyone else in the league. Ultimately, a 2-point loss at California would be the difference for Seattle, and a late injury to W/ZB Pacífico Ugalde will leave the Sawyers weakened come July.

The Sea Lions, to their credit, finished 34-18, good enough for the four seed. That’s pretty impressive, given that they had to play the Sawyers 10 times, but they also had to play the Sabertooths just as often. Just one year after the Pinnacles finished the NDL’s first ever winless season, the Tooths nearly one-upped them, with a 12-point road win in Toronto the only thing standing between them and 0-52. Making matters worse, LA won’t even get to pick first, with an Atlanta expansion team all but confirmed for next year.

The Palms’ first season in Miami wasn’t as disappointing as the Tooths’, but it didn’t do much to inspire confidence. Playing in the same division as the Redbacks never helps, but B/C Steve Locke had to battle a hip injury for much of the season and wasn’t super effective. Miami also had to go up against two other playoff teams in their division. The Orlando Orbits claimed the sixth seed for the second year in a row, thanks in large part to solid performances by W/ZB Zebedeo Perilla and B/C Andi Effendi. This year, though, they were one-upped by their expansion cousins in Nashville, who recaptured the magic from their inaugural year. New addition F/C Michel Blanchard had one of his best seasons yet, and along with B/C Sora Matsuѕhita, the team had the 2-point ring locked down for much of the season.

Meanwhile, if anyone’s wondering about the defending champs, so are most Philadelphians. The Row finished at a more-than-respectable 35-17 and won the East Division handily, locking up the third seed with a too-close-for-comfort win over New York in their final game. Home fans, though, are concerned they may simply be a product of a weak division, as none of the other East teams finished with more than 21 wins. With a sub-.500 record outside of the division and a disappointing 0-10 record on the road against playoff teams, Philly may be in trouble come playoff time.