2001–02 National Basketball Development League season

The 2001–02 NBDL season was the inaugural season for the National Basketball Development League. The league started with eight teams: Asheville Altitude, Columbus Riverdragons, Fayetteville Patriots, Greenville Groove, Huntsville Flight, Mobile Revelers, North Charleston Lowgators and Roanoke Dazzle. The season ended with the Groove defeating the Lowgators 2–0 in the best-of-three Finals series to win the inaugural NBDL championship.^[1]

2001–02 NBDL season
League	NBDL
Sport	Basketball
Draft
Top draft pick	Chris Andersen
Picked by	Fayetteville Patriots
Regular season
Top seed	North Charleston Lowgators
Season MVP	Ansu Sesay (Greenville Groove)
Top scorer	Isaac Fontaine (Mobile Revelers) (17.4 ppg)
Finals
Champions	Greenville Groove
Runners-up	North Charleston Lowgators

Regular season standings

Team	W	L	PCT	GB
North Charleston Lowgators	36	20	.643	—
Greenville Groove	36	20	.643	—
Columbus Riverdragons	31	25	.554	5
Mobile Revelers	30	26	.536	6
Huntsville Flight	26	30	.464	10
Asheville Altitude	26	30	.464	10
Fayetteville Patriots	21	35	.375	15
Roanoke Dazzle	18	38	.321	18

Statistics leaders

Category	Player	Team	Stat
Points per game	Isaac Fontaine	Mobile Revelers	17.4
Rebounds per game	Thomas Hamilton	Greenville Groove	9.4
Assists per game	Omar Cook	Fayetteville Patriots	7.8
Steals per game	Fred House	North Charleston Lowgators	2.5
Blocks per game	Lee Scruggs	Asheville Altitude	2.1
Field goal percentage	Lorenzo Coleman	Roanoke Dazzle	60.6%
3-pt field goal percentage	Terry Dehere	North Charleston Lowgators	45.0%
Free throw percentage	Isaac Fontaine	Mobile Revelers	90.5%

Source: Basketball-Reference

Season award winners

Award	Winner	Team
Most Valuable Player	Ansu Sesay	Greenville Groove
Rookie of the Year	Fred House	North Charleston Lowgators
Defensive Player of the Year	Jeff Myers	Greenville Groove
Sportsmanship Award	Mike Wilks	Huntsville Flight

All-NBDL Teams

• First Team:
  • Forward: Tremaine Fowlkes – Columbus Riverdragons
  • Forward: Ansu Sesay – Greenville Groove
  • Center: Thomas Hamilton – Greenville Groove
  • Guard: Isaac Fontaine – Mobile Revelers
  • Guard: Billy Thomas – Greenville Groove
• Second Team:
  • Forward: Derek Hood – Mobile Revelers
  • Forward: Sedric Webber – North Charleston Lowgators
  • Center: Paul Grant – Asheville Altitude
  • Guard: Omar Cook – Fayetteville Patriots
  • Guard: Terrell McIntyre – Fayetteville Patriots
• Honorable Mention:
  • Forward: Nate Johnson – Columbus Riverdragons
  • Forward: Rahim Lockhart – Greenville Groove
  • Forward: Gabe Muoneke – Columbus Riverdragons
  • Forward: Greg Stempin – Fayetteville Patriots
  • Center: Jeff Aubry – Fayetteville Patriots
  • Center: Eric Chenowith – Huntsville Flight
  • Guard: Nate Green – North Charleston Lowgators
  • Guard: Artie Griffin – Roanoke Dazzle
  • Guard: Fred House – North Charleston Lowgators
  • Guard: Jimmie Hunter – Huntsville Flight
  • Guard: Jeff Myers – Greenville Groove

Source: NBA.com

Inaugural head coaches

• Asheville- Joey Meyer
• Columbus - Jeff Malone
• Fayetteville - Nate Archibald
• Greenville - Milton Barnes
• Huntsville - Bob Thornton
• Mobile - Sam Vincent
• North Charleston - Alex English
• Roanoke - Kent Davison

Playoffs

There were only 8 teams in the league. For the playoffs, the four teams with the best record in the league were seeded one to four. Each round of the playoffs were played a best-of-three series.

	Semifinals (Best-of-3)					Finals (Best-of-3)
	2	Greenville	2
	3	Columbus	1
						2	Greenville	2
						1	North Charleston	0
	1	North Charleston	2
	4	Mobile	1

List of Playoff games

• Semifinals
• March 28: Columbus 81, Greenville 78
• March 29: Greenville 96, Columbus 78
• April 6: Greenville 79, Columbus 78
• March 24: Mobile 78, North Charleston 75
• April 3: North Charleston 77, Mobile 70
• April 6: North Charleston 80, Mobile 78
• Finals
• April 8: Greenville 81, North Charleston 63
• April 10: Greenville 75, North Charleston 68

Greenville defeated North Charleston on April 10 to win the first NBDL championship.^[2][3]