The 2018 NAPB season was the inaugural season for the North American Premier Basketball. For 2018, the league consists of eight teams: the Albany Patroons, Kansas City Tornados, Kentucky Thoroughbreds, Nevada Desert Dogs, Ohio Cardinals, Rochester Razorsharks, Vancouver Knights, and Yakima SunKings.
The Ohio Cardinals were replaced after 23 games by the Ohio Bootleggers, a semi-professional team in the North American Basketball League that also apparently had taken over operations of the Vancouver Knights sometime during the season. The Knights also had become a travel team at that point and was transferred to a new ownership group that was never identified.
The season ended with the SunKings defeating the Patroons two-games-to-none in the best-of-three finals to win the inaugural NAPB championship.
Standings Final standings: Team Yakima SunKings 24 8 0 Albany Patroons 19 10 3.5 Ohio Cardinals/Bootleggers 17 11 5.0 Kansas City Tornados 15 15 8.0 Nevada Desert Dogs 14 15 8.5 Kentucky Thoroughbreds 14 19 10.5 Rochester Razorsharks 11 18 11.5 Vancouver Knights 7 25 17.0
Season award winners Award Winner Team Most Valuable Player Edwin Ubiles Albany PatroonsRookie of the Year Xavier Moon Albany Patroons Defensive Player of the Year Renaldo Major Yakima SunKings Person of the Year Jelan Kendrick Nevada Desert Dogs Newcomer of the Year Charlton Jones Kansas City Tornados 6 Man of the Year A.J Gaines Nevada Desert Dogs Coach of the Year Paul Woolpert Yakima SunKings Source:
Playoffs There were eight teams in the league with the top four teams seeded one to four for the playoffs. Each round of the playoffs were played a best-of-three series.
Draft The inaugural player draft for the league was held on December 3, 2017, and the league's eight charter teams took turns selecting players who had all competed at the college level in the United States at some point.
Vance Cooksey of Youngstown State University was the first overall NAPB selection taken by Vancouver Knights. Consequently, this makes him the first-ever selection in the history of the league.
Although some of the players chosen in the draft had played semi-professional or professional basketball after college graduation, only the United States colleges they attended are listed.
Pos.GFCPositionGuardForwardCenter Round Pick Player Position Nationality Team College Year graduated11 F/C Vancouver Knights Youngstown State201112 G Yakima Sun Kings Florida Atlantic University201613 F Rochester RazorSharks Buffalo State University201114 F Nevada Desert Dogs Sonoma State University201715 G Kansas City Tornados Valdosta State University201616 F Kentucky Thoroughbreds Samford University201617 G Ohio Cardinals Southeast Missouri State201618 G Albany Patroons Troy University201229 F Vancouver Knights Lincoln University 2015210 F Yakima Sun Kings Yakima Valley Community College2016211 G Rochester RazorSharks Southeastern Illinois College2016212 F Nevada Desert Dogs South Suburban College2017213 F Kansas City Tornados University of Sioux Falls2016214 G Kentucky Thoroughbreds William Paterson University2016215 G Ohio Cardinals West Virginia Tech2012216 G Albany Patroons North Carolina A&T2015
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