List of NBA G League champions

The NBA G League (previously known as the National Basketball Development League (NBDL) from 2001 to 2005 and the National Basketball Association Development League (NBA D-League) from 2005 to 2017) Finals is the championship game or series for the NBA G League and the conclusion of the league's postseason.

Since the league's inception in 2001–02, a variety of formats has been used to determine the champion. From the inaugural postseason in 2002 through 2006, the four teams with the best records advanced to the postseason because there were no division or conference splits to divide the eight teams.[1][2][3][4][5] The first two seasons, both semi-finals and the Finals series were in a best-of-three format, whereby a team must win two of the three games to advance or win the championship[1][2] (the best-of-three would resume again in 2008 and is still used today).[6][7][8][9] Then, between 2004 and 2007, the playoffs used a single-elimination tournament among the four teams, with two semi-final games and one winner-takes-all championship match.[3][4][5][6]

In 2007, the league had expanded to 12 teams and was divided into Eastern and Western Conferences, comprising six teams apiece.[6] The playoffs pitted each conference's winner against one another, with the Eastern Conference's Dakota Wizards winning the championship 129–121 in overtime against the Colorado 14ers.[6] With the league's continued expansion to 14 and 16 teams over the next two years, respectively, the two-conference format was replaced with a three-division format consisting of Western, Southwestern and Central Divisions.[7][8] Both the 2008 and 2009 NBADL championship series were between teams representing the Western and Southwestern Divisions, with no Central teams ever making it to the finals.[7][8] These divisions split, with the Idaho Stampede of the Western Division winning in 2008, while the Colorado 14ers of the Southwestern Division won in 2009. Since 2010, the league has re-formatted to the Eastern and Western Conferences. Due to there being two more teams in the Western Conference (9) than the Eastern Conference (7), and because the top eight teams with the best regular season records qualify for the postseason irrespective of conference, the 2010 NBADL Finals consisted of two Western Conference teams.[9] No teams from the east had advanced beyond the first two rounds, and the NBADL champion that season was the Rio Grande Valley Vipers.[9]