Windsor Express to take on London Lightning in NBL final

The Windsor Express punched their ticket to the National Basketball League of Canada (NBL) final with a 108-99 win in the deciding game of their semi-final series against Sudbury Sunday.

The Windsor Express is advancing to their first NBL of Canada final since 2015.

“It's really exciting to be able to participate in the finals again with the opportunity to bring another championship, a third one, back to Windsor,” said team CEO Dartis Willis.

Windsor will square off against the defending champion London Lightning in the final championship series of the NBL of Canada as we know it today. The league has announced three of their teams have agreed to join an international premium pro outfit called the Basketball Super League (BSL) next season.

“Really what this is an evolution of where we'd like to see this go into or grow into,” said league commissioner Audley Stephenson.

Stephenson explained the league never fully recovered from the pandemic.

“What we've also seen in the last couple of years is the success with the partnership with the TBL so we know it works,” he said.

Stephenson says Kitchener-Waterloo, London and Sudbury will join the super league following a two-year experiment with TBL teams from the U.S.

“The NBL Canada has a tremendous opportunity to be a foundational pillar of the Basketball Super League,” he said.

Former NBL commissioner David Magley agrees.

“There's a natural progression that allows us to grow nationally,” He said. “I've always thought that with the NBL we have to get further west than Windsor.”

The current BSL president envisions a league that mirrors the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) with teams on both sides of the border from coast to coast in venues with minimum capacity of 2,500.

“BSL will be like AA-plus. We're not triple-A cause that's the (NBA's) G-League but somewhere between those two could be a really good level of basketball,” Magley said.

The BSL plans to launch in late-December.

The Express is aware of the BSL but say they are focused on their return to the final at the moment. The final is slated to begin this weekend in London. Games 3 and 4 will be played at the WFCU Centre May 23 and 25.

“Great group. A lot of parts to put together and they put it together,” said Willis “Not without a lot of challenges but this group has come together and peaked at the right time.”