The Otago Nuggets first played in the National Basketball League in 1990. During this memorable era their home games sold out with over 3,000 fans packing the Dunedin Stadium to watch players such as Jerome Fitchett, Glen Denham and Leonard King, these players all became part of our region’s proud sporting history.

The Otago Nuggets went onto make five playoffs during the 1990s, including three trips to the semi-finals. These were exciting times for basketball in our region.

The hype of the 1990s wavered as the Otago Nuggets went through an inevitable rebuilding phase in the early 2000s, but they successfully returned to the playoffs in 2013 when former Otago Nuggets and Tall Black Mark Dickel returned to Dunedin and suited up for his team again.

Unfortunately, due to the high costs of participating in the NBL, the Otago Nuggets had to make the difficult decision to withdraw from the league at the end of the 2014 season. The team missed the next five seasons due to the franchise’s financial position … before a small group of passionate and determined supporters formed a working group, which enabled the Otago Nuggets to gain provisional entry into the 2021 NBL season. Otago was back in the NBL!