'93 was certainly memorable for the extreme angst!

I think it's hard to go past 1990. It was a top 6 format, so 3 rounds, and the Cats finished 5th, so never had HCA for a series. They swept the Tigers in the elims. In the semis they faced the minor premiers the Giants, and game 3 went to OT. The GF against Brisbane also went to 3 games, with the Cats again winning on the road.

'98 was pretty special for the Sixers.
The Magic absolutely dominated throughout the season, with Adelaide finishing a distant 2nd. Yet when they finally faced off in the GF, the 6's swept them in 2, absolutely thrashing the Magic on their home court.

I don't know if I'd rank this year's series up there too highly based on games 1 and 2. Relatively close, but not exactly thrilling basketball, unless you like fouls, free throws, and rebounds.

^+1

Another one for the list is the 09 South Dragons win over the Tigers. Went the full 5 games, and had highlights aplenty.

This series gets points for tension and competitiveness, but not much in the way of memorable moments so far. eg. two of the main characteristics of today's game IMO were sloppiness and poor decisions.

86, 98, 98/99, 02 because the team that won those is awesome ;)

My favourites have been 12 NZ v Perth, 08 Melbourne v Sydney, 01 Wollongong v Townsville, 93 Melbourne v Perth, and though it was before my NBL time, 86 between Adelaide and Brisbane would have to be up there by all reports.

@ Luuuc, I didn't rate the 09 series, the games just went with the home team, there was only one game with a single-figure margin, and that wasn't a cliffhanger by any means. I thought that was a disappointing series to be honest.

If Sunday produces a great Game 3 this year's will go down as a pretty good series, but not a classic by any means. Too much physical scrappy play that hasn't allowed the skills to really shine through.

When both games end up with both sets of fans feeling like their team has plenty of improvement in them for the next game, that's not a good sign that you're in a great series.

Oh and I second Anon 1761 re the Kings-Razors series. Very entertaining one.

'04 Syd vs West Syd

'98 Adel vs SE Melb

'09 South vs Melb

'94 North vs Adel

'99 Adel vs Vic or '03 Syd vs Perth

would be my Top 5

I think it's hard to go past 1990.

Only in the sense that if you were listing the best grand finals ever, you'd get to that one around the time you ran out of grand finals to list.

though it was before my NBL time, 86 between Adelaide and Brisbane would have to be up there by all reports.

Really? Game one was great, but the other two were blowouts. Pearce and Bruton were awesome in game two, but I honestly don't even remember anything about game three.

I know these things are always better when you're actually seeing them unfold live (whether in person or not), but even looking back now I can see why anyone outside Perth would nominate 1993. 1986, not so much.

'98 Adel vs SE Melb

'94 North vs Adel

'03 Syd vs Perth

All sweeps featuring a blowout in game two. After a fantastic game one, mind you, and Feaster going for 40 in 03 gives it some rewatch value (I'm not familiar enough with the other game twos to comment on those), but I wouldn't have them on a 'best series of all time' list.

Great grand final games in otherwise dull series? 1994 G1 would be up there, along with 2011 G2 and 2015 G2.

To be honest, I did not accurately reply to the OP, :-(
I focussed on finals, rather than just the GF.
Still the 1990 GF was good, with Perth recording a rare road win.

Seriously though, the NBL needs to review this.
When game 2 has everyone saying "that was shit, hopefully our opponents will get more shittier that we do for game 3."

The most memorable series for me was 1995, with the Chris Jent led North Melbourne Giants winning in Perth and Andrew Vlahov in beast mode to rescue the cats in Melbourne to keep the series alive and then unfortunately in hindsight the blowout with JC being unbelievable in game 3.

2001 was epic also and I watched the 1997 series a few months back and although it wasn't close I enjoyed it maybe for nostalgic reasons more so than anything.

Didn't 97 end up setting the record for biggest winning margin? Or was that 96?

After game three, I think we can officially end any discussion of this year's being a contender. Probably the worst since at least 2011, possibly 2005. At least 2013 served up a tight finish to game two and was nice enough to wrap up in two games.