Auckland Huskies

In 2016, sights were set on an Australian NBL franchise returning to Tasmania,[1] with the state having no representation in the national league since the demise of the Hobart Devils in 1996. Former Tasmanian premier David Bartlett became the president of the Hobart Chargers, a fledgling SEABL club in dire financial strain.[1] Bartlett's immediate aim was to have the club be "NBL ready" in three years and win least one championship over those three years.[2] Additionally, he secured a deal which saw basketball in Hobart return to its spiritual home, the Derwent Entertainment Centre (DEC).[3] For more than a decade, the Chargers had played at the Hobart Netball and Sports Centre.[4] Bartlett also had a vision of averaging 3,000 fans for SEABL matches.[3]

In 2018, basketball was considered on the rise in Tasmania, with the popularity of the sport hitting peak interest for the first time since the 1990s during the halcyon days of the Hobart Devils.[5] In July, 3,000 fans turned out to watch the state's four SEABL teams do battle in a double header at the DEC.[5] Then in August, the Chargers men's team won the SEABL championship.[6]

Getting the Chargers out of debt was one thing but leveraging the club's transformation into a fully fledged bid for a Tasmanian NBL team was another.[5] Around that two-month period of July and August 2018, plans to get the Chargers into the NBL morphed into an overarching Tasmanian bid for a proposed new franchise to be called Southern Huskies.[5] The NBL bid and its NBA-style branding was well received upon being unveiled, with born-and-bred Tasmanian, and former Devils player, Justin Hickey deciding to back the team financially as franchise owner.[5] At the crux of his proposal was the DEC, having made an unsolicited bid to buy the arena and renovate it.[5] The Huskies bid for an Australian NBL licence was delayed in October, when Hickey's bid to acquire the DEC was rejected.[7] Furthermore, the league believed there were several hurdles to Tasmania's bid, including the potentially small television audience and the expensive cost of broadcasting games, as well as the lack of local corporate sponsorship opportunities.[8] As a result, the Australian NBL licence for the 2019–20 season instead went to the South East Melbourne Phoenix.[9]

In November 2018, reports began to surface that the Southern Huskies would be entering the New Zealand NBL in 2019, with the Huskies viewing the New Zealand league as a launch pad to the Australian NBL and the stronger competition more appealing than the various Australian state leagues.[9][10][11] The inclusion, while an exciting one for the New Zealand league, did present a number of unprecedented challenges for the competition, with flights to Tasmania problematic for New Zealand's less financially well-off franchises, while double or triple-headers on New Zealand trips for the Huskies were a looming issue.[9] Despite these concerns, NBL chairman Iain Potter said the move had the support of the existing eight franchises.[10]

On 5 December 2018, a five-year contract was signed between the New Zealand NBL and the Southern Huskies,[12] marking the first time in New Zealand sporting history that an overseas team had joined a New Zealand owned league.[13] The 2019 season saw each New Zealand team visit Tasmania to play the Huskies at least once, while the Huskies played every New Zealand team in New Zealand as well, playing double-headers each time they crossed the Tasman. As part of the agreement, the Huskies assisted with the cost for New Zealand teams to travel to Tasmania to play, with the NBL Board not wanting to increase the New Zealand teams' expenses through this move.[14] The Huskies' nine home games in 2019 were split between the Derwent Entertainment Centre in Hobart and the Silverdome in Launceston.[7][15] Coached by former Australian NBL player Anthony Stewart, the inaugural squad included imports Jalen Billups and Tre Nichols alongside Harry Froling, Marcel Jones, Craig Moller and Jordan Vandenberg.[16] The Huskies concluded their first season in the New Zealand NBL missing the post-season with a fifth-place finish and a 9–9 record.[17]

On 27 June 2019, the Huskies announced that they would rebrand as the Tasmanian Huskies for the 2020 season in order to remove any stigma of a division within the state.[18] This announcement came days after it was revealed that any new team from the state in the Australian NBL must be branded Tasmanian.[18] However, on 9 August 2019, the Huskies withdrew from the New Zealand NBL after they claimed their relationship with Basketball Tasmania became untenable,[19] with mounting debts also cited as a factor for disbanding.[20]

On 17 December 2018, following the Hobart Chargers' decision to withdraw from the Victorian-managed NBL1, an affiliate program known as the Hobart Huskies was entered into the NBL1 by the Southern Huskies organisation.[21] In conjunction with the Southern Huskies withdrawing from the New Zealand NBL on 9 August 2019, the organisation also abolished their Hobart Huskies NBL1 teams after one season.[19]

In May 2020, the Southern Huskies reemerged and relocated permanently to Auckland, New Zealand, and became the Auckland Huskies.[22][23] They subsequently entered the 2020 New Zealand NBL season, a competition that was revised and modified following the coronavirus pandemic.[24] Coached by former Australian and New Zealand NBL player Kevin Braswell, the 2020 squad featured Leon Henry and Tohi Smith-Milner.[25]