Úrvalsdeild karla (basketball)

Úrvalsdeild karla (English: Men's Premier League), also known as Bónus deild karla for sponsorship reasons, is the highest men's professional basketball competition among clubs in Iceland, where play determines the national champion. It is organized by the Icelandic Basketball Federation (Icelandic: Körfuknattleikssamband Íslands - KKÍ). The season consists of a home-and-away schedule of 22 games, followed by an eight-team playoff round. Quarterfinals, semifinals and finals series are best-of-five. The bottom clubs are relegated, and replaced by the top team from the regular-season phase and the four-team playoff round winner of the second-level First Division (Icelandic: 1. deild karla).

Úrvalsdeild karla

Founded	1951; 73 years ago (1951)
First season	1952
Country	Iceland
Confederation	FIBA Europe
Number of teams	12
Level on pyramid	1
Relegation to	1. deild
Domestic cup(s)	Bikarkeppni KKÍ
Supercup	Meistarakeppni karla
Current champions	Valur (4th title)
Most championships	KR (18 titles)
All-time top scorer	Valur Ingimundarson
CEO	Hannes S. Jónsson
TV partners	Stöð 2 Sport
Website	www.kki.is
2024–25 Úrvalsdeild karla

History

Creation and first years 1951-1959

The league was founded in 1951 as 1. deild karla (English: Men's 1st division) and its first season was played in April 1952 with five teams, Íþróttafélag Keflavíkurflugvallar (ÍKF), Íþróttafélag Reykjavíkur (ÍR), Íþróttafélag Stúdenta (ÍS), Gosi and Glímufélagið Ármann, participating. The team of ÍKF had the advantage of its close proximity with the US Naval Air Station at Keflavík International Airport and therefore could play competitive games with American players who had high school and college experience. They were furthermore coached by two American naval personnel, Gene Crowley and John Wahl. During the tournament, ÍKF won all four of its games with an average of 10.8 points.^[1]

For the first years decade the league was dominated by ÍKF (with 4 wins) and ÍR (with 3 wins); with ÍS finally breaking their dominance in 1959.

ÍR's dominance and the arrival of the Americans 1960-1980

From 1960 to 1964, ÍR, under the leadership of Helgi Jóhannsson, won five straight championships followed by KR winning four straight. From 1969 to 1977, ÍR added seven championships in 9 years. Its last victory in 1977 marked an end of an era and the rise of the Suðurnes rivals Keflavík and Njarðvík.

In September 1975, Jimmy Rogers became the first foreign born professional basketball player in Iceland^[2] when he signed a three-month contract with Ármann in preparations for their games against Honka Playboys in the FIBA European Cup Winners' Cup.^[3] Shortly later, KR signed fellow American Curtis Carter who immediately caught the attention of the fans and media with his powerful play and dunks.^[4] Together, they were credited for revolutionizing the Icelandic basketball scene.^[5][6] More Americans followed, including Rick Hockenos, Tim Dwyer and Danny Shouse.

Njarðvík's leadership

The next two decades, exactly from 1980–81 season to the 1997–98 season, Njarðvík (known as ÍKF until 1969)^[7][8] lead the league with 10 wins. In the same period, Keflavík won 4 titles and the KR won their eighth title.

Modern era

From the 2000–01 season, many teams have divided the lead of the league. In the 2005–06 season, the Njarðvík won their thirteenth title. In the following season, the 2006–07 season, the KR won their tenth title and one more year later, in the 2007–08 season, the Keflavík won their ninth title.

In July 2024, supermarket chain Bónus became the main sponsor of KKÍ, with the Úrvalsdeild taking the name Bónus deild karla.^[9]

Teams

The Úrvalsdeild karla originated in 1951 and, currently, consists of 12 teams. The current Úrvalsdeild karla teams for the 2021–22 season are:

Team	City, Region	Arena	Founded	Colours	Head coach
Álftanes	Álftanes	Forsetahöllin	2007		Kjartan Atli Kjartansson
Grindavík	Grindavík	HS-Orku Höllin	1972		Jóhann Þór Ólafsson
Haukar	Hafnarfjörður	Ásvellir	1971		Máté Dalmay
Höttur	Egilsstaðir	MVA Höllin	1974		Viðar Örn Hafsteinsson
ÍR	Reykjavík	Hertz Hellirinn	1950		Borce Ilievski
Keflavík	Keflavík	Blue Höllin	1974		Pétur Ingvarsson
KR	Reykjavík	DHL Höllin	1956		Jakob Sigurðarson
Njarðvík	Njarðvík	Ljónagryfjan	1952 (as ÍKF)		Benedikt Guðmundsson
Stjarnan	Garðabær	Mathús Garðabæjar Höllin	1993		Arnar Guðjónsson
Tindastóll	Sauðárkrókur	Sauðárkrókur	1907		Pavel Ermolinskij
Valur	Reykjavík	Origo Höllin	1951 (as Gosi)		Finnur Freyr Stefánsson
Þór Þorlákshöfn	Þorlákshöfn	Icelandic Glacial Höllin	1991		Lárus Jónsson

Champions

Season	Champion	Score	Runner-up	Champion's coach
1952	ÍKF	League	ÍR	Gene Croley and Jom Wahl[10]
1953	ÍKF (2)		ÍR
1954	ÍR		ÍKF	Helgi Jóhannsson[11]
1955	ÍR (2)		Gosi	Helgi Jóhannsson[11]
1956	ÍKF (3)		ÍR
1957	ÍR (3)			Helgi Jóhannsson[11]
1958	ÍKF (4)		ÍS
1959	ÍS[12]		ÍR
1960	ÍR (4)		KFR	Helgi Jóhannsson[13]
1961	ÍR (5)		KFR	Helgi Jóhannsson[14]
1962	ÍR (6)		Ármann	Helgi Jóhannsson[15][16]
1963	ÍR (7)		Ármann	Helgi Jóhannsson[17][18] and Einar Ólafsson
1964	ÍR (8)		Ármann	Helgi Jóhannsson[19]
1965	KR	64–54[a]	ÍR	Philip Bensing[b][20]
1966	KR (2)	League	ÍR	Philip Bensing or Thomas Curren[c]
1967	KR (3)	72–43[d]	ÍR	Einar Bollason
1968	KR (4)	League	ÍR	Gordon Godfrey
1969	ÍR (9)	68–41[e]	KR	Einar Ólafsson[23]
1970	ÍR (10)	2–0[f]	Ármann	Einar Ólafsson[24]
1971	ÍR (11)	League	KR	Einar Ólafsson[25]
1972	ÍR (12)	85–76[g]	KR	Einar Ólafsson[26]
1972–73	ÍR (13)	91–73[h]	KR	Einar Ólafsson[27]
1973–74	KR (5)	85–84[i]	Ármann	Einar Bollason
1974–75	ÍR (14)	League	KR	Einar Ólafsson[28]
1975–76	Ármann		ÍR	Ingvar Sigurbjörnsson
1976–77	ÍR (15)		KR	Þorsteinn Hallgrímsson
1977–78	KR (6)	96–88[j]	Njarðvík	Andrew Piazza
1978–79	KR (7)	77–75[k]	Valur	Gunnar Gunnarsson
1979–80	Valur	League	Njarðvík	Tim Dwyer
1980–81	Njarðvík (5)*		Valur	Danny Shouse
1981–82	Njarðvík (6)		Fram	Hilmar Hafsteinsson
1982–83	Valur (2)		Keflavík	Tim Dwyer (2)
1983–84	Njarðvík (7)	2–0	Valur	Gunnar Þorvarðarson
1984–85	Njarðvík (8)	2–1	Haukar	Gunnar Þorvarðarson (2)
1985–86	Njarðvík (9)	2–0	Haukar	Gunnar Þorvarðarson (3)
1986–87	Njarðvík (10)	2–0	Valur	Valur Ingimundarson
1987–88	Haukar	2–1	Njarðvík	Pálmar Sigurðsson
1988–89	Keflavík	2–1	KR	Jón Kr. Gíslason
1989–90	KR (8)	3–0	Keflavík	Dr. László Németh
1990–91	Njarðvík (11)	3–2	Keflavík	Friðrik Ingi Rúnarsson
1991–92	Keflavík (2)	3–2	Valur	Jón Kr. Gíslason (2)
1992–93	Keflavík (3)	3–0	Haukar	Jón Kr. Gíslason (3)
1993–94	Njarðvík (12)	3–2	Grindavík	Valur Ingimundarson (2)
1994–95	Njarðvík (13)	4–2	Grindavík	Valur Ingimundarson (3)
1995–96	Grindavík	4–2	Keflavík	Friðrik Ingi Rúnarsson (2)
1996–97	Keflavík (4)	3–0	Grindavík	Sigurður Ingimundarson
1997–98	Njarðvík (14)	3–0	KR	Friðrik Ingi Rúnarsson (3)
1998–99	Keflavík (5)	3–2	Njarðvík	Sigurður Ingimundarson (2)
1999–00	KR (9)	3–1	Grindavík	Ingi Þór Steinþórsson
2000–01	Njarðvík (15)	3–1	Tindastóll	Friðrik Ragnarsson and Teitur Örlygsson
2001–02	Njarðvík (16)	3–0	Keflavík	Friðrik Ragnarsson (2)
2002–03	Keflavík (6)	3–0	Grindavík	Sigurður Ingimundarson (3)
2003–04	Keflavík (7)	3–1	Snæfell	Falur Harðarson and Guðjón Skúlason
2004–05	Keflavík (8)	3–1	Snæfell	Sigurður Ingimundarson (4)
2005–06	Njarðvík (17)	3–1	Skallagrímur	Einar Árni Jóhannsson
2006–07	KR (10)	3–1	Njarðvík	Benedikt Guðmundsson
2007–08	Keflavík (9)	3–0	Snæfell	Sigurður Ingimundarson (5)
2008–09	KR (11)	3–2	Grindavík	Benedikt Guðmundsson (2)
2009–10	Snæfell	3–2	Keflavík	Ingi Þór Steinþórsson (2)
2010–11	KR (12)	3–1	Stjarnan	Hrafn Kristjánsson
2011–12	Grindavík (2)	3–1	Þór Þorlákshöfn	Helgi Jónas Guðfinnsson
2012–13	Grindavík (3)	3–2	Stjarnan	Sverrir Þór Sverrisson
2013–14	KR (13)	3–1	Grindavík	Finnur Freyr Stefánsson
2014–15	KR (14)	3–1	Tindastóll	Finnur Freyr Stefánsson (2)
2015–16	KR (15)	3–1	Haukar	Finnur Freyr Stefánsson (3)
2016–17	KR (16)	3–2	Grindavík	Finnur Freyr Stefánsson (4)
2017–18	KR (17)	3–1	Tindastóll	Finnur Freyr Stefánsson (5)
2018–19	KR (18)	3–2	ÍR	Ingi Þór Steinþórsson (3)
2019–20	Season discontinued due to the COVID-19 outbreak[29]
2020–21	Þór Þorlákshöfn (1)	3–1	Keflavík	Lárus Jónsson (1)
2021–22	Valur (3)	3–2	Tindastóll	Finnur Freyr Stefánsson (6)
2022–23	Tindastóll (1)	3–2	Valur	Pavel Ermolinskij (1)

Notes

1. As KR and ÍR tied at the end of the season, an extra game was played for tiebreaking.
2. Last name sometimes spelled Benzing.
3. The Icelandic Basketball Association lists Bensing as the coach of the 1966 team^[21] but other sources state that he left the job in December 1965 and that Curren started coaching at the club in January 1966. Curren was the head coach of the team during its games in the 1966–67 FIBA European Champions Cup in December 1966.^[22]
4. As KR and ÍR tied at the end of the season, an extra game was played for tiebreaking.
5. As ÍR and KR tied at the end of the season, an extra game was played for tiebreaking.
6. ÍR won the championship after the leagues first playoffs.^[24] A playoff format was not used again until the 1983–84 season.
7. As KR and ÍR tied at the end of the season, an extra game was played for tiebreaking.
8. As KR and ÍR tied at the end of the season, an extra game was played for tiebreaking.
9. As KR and Ármann tied at the end of the season, an extra game was played for tiebreaking.
10. As KR and Njarðvík tied at the end of the season, an extra game was played for tiebreaking.
11. As KR and Valur tied at the end of the season, an extra game was played for tiebreaking.

Titles per club

Titles	Club
18	KR
17	Njarðvík / ÍKF1
15	ÍR
9	Keflavík
4	Valur
3	Grindavík
1	Ármann, Haukar, ÍS, Snæfell, Tindastóll, Þór Þorlákshöfn

1. ÍKF merged into Ungmennafélag Njarðvíkur in 1969 and became its basketball subdivision. It is today known as Njarðvík. The club won 4 titles under the ÍKF name and added 13 more after the merger

Statistical leaders

The league has kept scoring stats since adopting the Úrvalsdeild karla name in 1978. During the 1988–1989 season, it added more categories, including rebounds, assists and steals and prior to the 1994–1995 season it added blocks.

Úrvalsdeild karla all-time scoring leaders

Player nationality set by the player's national team affiliation. In bold, active players.

Stats through end of 2018–19 Úrvalsdeild karla season:

Rank	Player	Games	Points	Average
1.	Valur Ingimundarson	400	7,355	18.4
2.	Páll Axel Vilbergsson	407	6,949	17.1
3.	Guðjón Skúlason	409	6,649	16.3
4.	Teitur Örlygsson	405	6,579	16.2

Úrvalsdeild karla all-time rebounding leaders

Player nationality set by the player's national team affiliation. In bold, active players.

Stats through the end of the 2020–21 Úrvalsdeild karla season:^[30][31]

Rank	Player	Games	Rebounds	Average
1.	Hlynur Bæringsson	344	3,635	10.6
2.	Guðmundur Bragason1	332	3,260	9.8
3.	Friðrik Erlendur Stefánsson	357	3,212	9.0
4.	Ómar Örn Sævarsson	366	2,847	7.8
5.	John Rhodes	136	2,548	18.8
6.	Páll Axel Vilbergsson	407	2,471	6.1
7.	Rondey Robinson	167	2,476	14.8
8.	Jónatan James Bow	221	2,118	9.6

¹ Statistics for rebounds where not kept during Guðmundur's first season. Overall, he played 348 games in the Úrvalsdeild.^[32]

Úrvalsdeild karla all-time assists leaders

Player nationality set by the player's national team affiliation. In bold, active players.

Stats through the end of the 2020–21 Úrvalsdeild karla season:

Rank	Player	Games	Assists	Average
1.	Justin Shouse	230	1,486	6.5
2.	Jón Arnar Ingvarsson	340	1,393	4.1
3.	Jón Kr. Gíslason1	214	1,359	4.1
4.	Hörður Axel Vilhjálmsson	225	1,337	5.9
5.	Eiríkur Önundarson	-	1,308	-
6.	Sverrir Þór Sverrisson	-	1,300	-

¹ Assists where not counted during Jón Kr. Gíslason's first five seasons where he played 93 games.

Awards and honors

Domestic All-First Team

Main article: Úrvalsdeild Men's Domestic All-First Team

The Men's Domestic All-First Team is an annual Úrvalsdeild honor bestowed on the best players in the league following every season.

Domestic Player of the Year

Main article: Úrvalsdeild Men's Domestic Player of the Year

Foreign Player of the Year

Main article: Úrvalsdeild Men's Foreign Player of the Year

Úrvalsdeild Men's Playoffs MVP

Main article: Úrvalsdeild Men's Playoffs MVP

Úrvalsdeild Playoffs MVP award is awarded annually to the player judged most valuable to his team during the Úrvalsdeild playoffs.

Defensive Player of the Year

Main article: Úrvalsdeild Men's Defensive Player of the Year

Newcomer of the Year

Main article: Úrvalsdeild Men's Young Player of the Year

Coach of the Year

Main article: Úrvalsdeild Men's Coach of the Year

See also

• Icelandic Men's Basketball Cup
• Úrvalsdeild karla (disambiguation)
• Úrvalsdeild kvenna (basketball), the women's basketball league

References

1. Skapti Hallgrímsson (2001). Leikni framar líkamsburðum (in Icelandic). pp. 34–35. ISBN 9979-60-630-4.
2. "Ármenningar fá bandarískan risa". Morgunblaðið (in Icelandic). 10 September 1975. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
3. "Ármenningar sömdu við einn svartan í nótt!". Vísir.is (in Icelandic). 10 September 1975. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
4. ""Trukkurinn" vakti mikla hrifningu". Tíminn (in Icelandic). 14 October 1975. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
5. "Vallarstarfsmenn fyrstu meistararnir". Fréttablaðið (in Icelandic). 7 November 2008. Retrieved 27 July 2018.
6. Stefán Kristjánsson (27 February 1988). "Bylting í körfunni". Dagblaðið Vísir (in Icelandic). Retrieved 28 July 2018.
7. Ytri aðstæður og innri efling starfsins
8. Fram stofnar körfuknattleiksdeild
9. "KKÍ og Bónus gera með sér samstarfssamning". Icelandic Basketball Association (in Icelandic). 10 July 2024. Retrieved 10 July 2024.
10. Íþróttafél. Keflavíkurstarfsmanna vann Íslandsmótið
11. Ágúst Ásgeirsson (11 March 2007). Heil öld til heilla - Saga ÍR í 100 ár. Íþróttafélag Reykjavíkur. p. 569.
12. "Íþróttafélag stúdenta Íslandsmeistari í körfuknattleik 1959". Þjóðviljinn (in Icelandic). 17 April 1959. Retrieved 23 June 2018.
13. Í.R. vann verðskuldaðan sigur
14. ÍR Íslandsmeistari í körfuknattleik
15. "Tímarit.is".
16. ÍR Íslandsmeistari 1962
17. ÍR átti mótið
18. Takmarkið með þátttöku er aðöðlast reynslu í harðri keppni
19. ÍR í evrópukeppnina í haust
20. "KR Íslandsmeistari". Þjóðviljinn (in Icelandic). 4 May 1965. p. 5.
21. "Meistaratitlar karla". kki.is (in Icelandic). Icelandic Basketball Association. Retrieved 9 August 2019.
22. "Evrópumeistararnir Simmenthal leika við KR 18. þ.m." Þjóðviljinn (in Icelandic). 2 November 1966. Retrieved 9 August 2019.
23. ÍR-ingar endurheimta Íslandsmeistaratitilinn í körfuknattleik
24. "ÍR hlaut titilinn". Morgunblaðið (in Icelandic). 24 March 1970. Retrieved 29 April 2018.
25. Íslandsmeistarar 1971
26. Sigurinn blasti við HSK
27. Átök, en síðan yfirburðasigur
28. ÍR-ingar urðu íslandsmeistarar í körfubolta
29. Ingvi Þór Sæmundsson (18 March 2020). "Körfuboltatímabilið blásið af - Engir Íslandsmeistarar". Vísir.is (in Icelandic). Retrieved 18 March 2020.
30. "Körfuboltakvöld: Umræða um Sigga Þorsteins". Vísir.is (in Icelandic). 14 November 2021. Retrieved 14 November 2021.
31. "Heildartölfræði einstaklinga á úrvalsdeildarferlinum". kki.is (in Icelandic). Icelandic Basketball Association. Retrieved 14 November 2021.
32. "Guðmundur L Bragason: Ferillinn í úrvalsdeild". kki.is (in Icelandic). Icelandic Basketball Association. Retrieved 10 February 2020.

External links

• KKÍ
• Iceland Express deildin karla - kki.is
• EUROBasket - Icelandic Basketball
• EUROBasket - Express League