| 2008–09 NLB League season | |
| League: | Liga ABA |
| Sport: | Basketball |
| Pixels: | 180px |
| No Of Teams: |  Serbia (5 teams)(4 teams) (3 teams) (1 team) |
| Season: | Regular season |
| Season Champs: | Partizan |
| Top Scorer: | Dragan Labović (17.96 ppg) |
| Finals: | Final four |
| Finals Link: | NLB League#Champions |
| Finals Champ: | Partizan |
| Seasonslist: | NLB League#Champions |
| Seasonslistnames: | NLB League |
| Prevseason Link: | 2007–08 ABA NLB League |
| Prevseason Year: | 2007–08 |
| Nextseason Link: | 2009–10 ABA NLB League |
| Nextseason Year: | 2009–10 |
The ABA NLB League 2008–09 season was the 8th season of the Liga ABA. This season saw a return to the competition system in use in 2003–04, when the Final Four Tournament was played at the end of the regular season.
A total of 14 teams from Slovenia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia participated in the NLB League season: Union Olimpija, Helios, Krka, Cibona, Zagreb, Zadar, Split, Bosna, Crvena zvezda, Partizan, FMP Železnik, Hemofarm, Vojvodina, Budućnost.
There were 26 round played in the regular part of the season. The best four teams later qualified for the Final Four Tournament, which was played in Belgrade between April 16 and April 18 (Partizan, Cibona, Hemofarm, Crvena zvezda).
Partizan became the 2009 League Champion.
| Country | Teams | Team | City | Venue (Capacity) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| align=center rowspan=6 | 5 | |||
| Pionir Hall (8,150) | ||||
| Millennium Center (5,000) | ||||
| Pionir Hall (8,150) | ||||
| Železnik Hall (3,000) | ||||
| SPC Vojvodina (8000) | ||||
| align=center rowspan=5 | 4 | |||
| Dražen Petrović Basketball Hall (5,400) | ||||
| Krešimir Ćosić Hall (9,200) | ||||
| Trnsko (2,000) | ||||
| Arena Gripe (6,000) | ||||
| align=center rowspan=4 | 3 | |||
| Hala Tivoli (6,000) | ||||
| Dvorana Komunalnega centra (2,180) | ||||
| Leon Štukelj Hall (2,000) | ||||
| align=center rowspan=2 | 1 | |||
| Dvorana Mirza Delibašić (6,500) | ||||
| align=center rowspan=2 | 1 | |||
| Morača Sports Center (4,570) |
| width=15 | width=220 | Team | width=20 | W | width=20 | L | width=20 | Pts | width=20 | PF:PA | width=30 | Diff | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 23 | 3 | 49 | 1966:1771 | 195 | ||||||||
| 2 | 19 | 7 | 45 | 2088:1945 | 143 | ||||||||
| 3 | 19 | 7 | 45 | 2082:1987 | 95 | ||||||||
| 4 | 19 | 7 | 45 | 2010:1913 | 97 | ||||||||
| 5 | 17 | 9 | 43 | 2139:1935 | 204 | ||||||||
| 6 | 15 | 11 | 41 | 2017:1972 | 45 | ||||||||
| 7 | 11 | 15 | 37 | 2025:2062 | -37 | ||||||||
| 8 | 10 | 16 | 36 | 2071:2094 | -23 | ||||||||
| 9 | 10 | 16 | 36 | 1981:1999 | -18 | ||||||||
| 10 | 10 | 16 | 36 | 1899:2014 | -115 | ||||||||
| 11 | 9 | 17 | 35 | 1897:2041 | -144 | ||||||||
| 12 | 8 | 18 | 34 | 1897:2010 | -113 | ||||||||
| 13 | 8 | 18 | 34 | 1983:2100 | -117 | ||||||||
| 14 | 4 | 22 | 30 | 1967:2179 | -212 |
| Qualified for Final four | ||
| Did not qualify for next season |
On Tuesday, 20 January 2009 around 10:40pm at the Split Airport, Red Star Belgrade players were attacked by a group of 20 Croatian hooligans, members of Torcida Split hooligan firm, and supporters of KK Split.[1] The attack occurred inside the airport building as the players and club staff were checking-in for the charter flight back to Belgrade after beating KK Split 62-67 earlier that night in Gripe Hall. The hooligans entered the airport building, stormed the main hall, and attacked the Red Star group with sticks, glass bottles, and rocks, before escaping out of the building using another entrance.[2] The attack did not appear to be organized.[3]
No serious injuries were reported except for Red Star's American shooting guard Andre Owens who got a laceration on his knee[4] as he jumped over the check-in counter to avoid the charging hooligans.[5]
In a press release prompted by the incident, KK Split's management distanced themselves form the behaviour of their fans, expressing regret over the incident.[6] Club president Dino Rađa also publicly apologized.[7]
| Rank | Name | Team | Points | Games | PPG | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Dragan Labović | 467 | 26 | 17,96 | ||
| 2. |  Eddie Shannon | Split | 406 | 26 | 15,62 | |
| 3. | Nicholas Jacobson | 390 | 25 | 15,60 | ||
| 4. | Richard Shields | Krka | 388 | 25 | 15,52 | |
| 5. | Ante Tomić | 371 | 24 | 15,46 |
| Rank | Name | Team | Rebounds | Games | RPG | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Ante Tomić | Zagreb | 206 | 24 | 8,58 | |
| 2. |  Todor Gečevski | Zadar | 204 | 26 | 7,85 | |
| 3. | Novica Veličković | Partizan | 180 | 26 | 6,92 | |
| 4. | Dejan Ivanov | Zadar | 151 | 22 | 6,86 | |
| 5. | Predrag Samardžiski | FMP Železnik | 178 | 26 | 6,85 |
| Rank | Name | Team | Assists | Games | APG | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Rok Stipčević | 117 | 26 | 4,50 | ||
| 2. | Dušan Djordjević | Bosna | 116 | 26 | 4,46 | |
| 3. | Eddie Shannon | Split | 111 | 26 | 4,27 | |
| 4. | Jure Močnik | Helios | 98 | 26 | 3,77 | |
| 5. | Filip Čović | FMP Železnik | 73 | 21 | 3,48 |
| Rank | Name | Team | Efficiency | Games | Average | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Ante Tomić | Zagreb | 538 | 24 | 22,42 | |
| 2. | Dragan Labović | FMP | 508 | 26 | 19,54 | |
| 3. | Todor Gečevski | Zadar | 484 | 26 | 18,62 | |
| 4. | Novica Veličković | Partizan | 457 | 26 | 17,58 | |
| 5. | Eddie Shannon | Split | 439 | 26 | 16,88 |
| Round | Player | Team | Efficiency |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ante Tomić | Zagreb | 36 |
| 2 | Vladan Vukosavljević | Hemofarm | 39 |
| 3 | FMP | 37 | |
| 4 | Vojvodina | 29 | |
| 5 |  Vladimir Golubović | Olimpija | 35 |
| 6 | Zagreb | 35 | |
| 7 | Zagreb | 32 | |
| 8 | Dejan Borovnjak | Vojvodina | 34 |
| 9 | Antonio Grant | Split | 31 |
| 10 | Zagreb | 32 | |
| 11 | Richard Shields | 32 | |
| 12 | Marko Kešelj | 33 | |
| 13 | Dragan Labović | 32 | |
| 14 | Novica Veličković | 40 | |
| 15 | Rok Stipčević | 35 | |
| 16 | 30 | ||
| 17 | Alan Anderson | 38 | |
| 18 | Nicholas Jacobson | 37 | |
| 19 | Lorinza Harrington | 34 | |
| 20 | Eddie Shannon | 34 | |
| 21 | 32 | ||
| 22 | Stefan Marković | 33 | |
| 23 | Charron Fisher | 31 | |
| 24 | 37 | ||
| 25 | Jovo Stanojević | 36 | |
| 26 | 26 | ||
| 27 | 27 | ||
| 28 | 22 | ||