All statistics correct as of 28 April 2018.1 Sponsored league name, referring to
Ărvalsdeild karla.
The 2017â18 Ărvalsdeild karla was the 67th season of the
Ărvalsdeild, the top tier men's basketball league in
Iceland. The season started on October 5, 2017 and ended on April 28, 2018.
KR won its fifth title in a row by defeating
TindastĂłll 3â1 in the Finals.
Competition format
The participating teams first played a conventional round-robin schedule with every team playing each opponent once home and once away for a total of 22 games. The top eight teams qualified for the championship playoffs whilst the two last qualified were relegated to Division 1.[1]
On November 10,
TindastĂłll announced that
Antonio Hester would likely miss several months because of an ankle injury. Initially it was thought that the ankle was broken.[19] TindastĂłll signed Brandon Garrett while Hester was recovering.[20]
On November 13,
KR's point guard, ArnĂłr Hermannsson, broke his hand and was expected to miss four to six weeks.[22] Due to his injury and others, KR signed American Zac Carter who had recently been released from
Division I club
SkallagrĂmur.[23]
On December 12,
GrindavĂk released
Rashad Whack, after averaging a team leading 22.8 points in 10 games.[29]
On December 15,
Ryan Taylor was named the best player of the first half of the season and to the All-First team of the first half of the season, along with MatthĂas Orri SigurĂ°arson,
KĂĄri JĂłnsson,
Sigtryggur Arnar Björnsson and
Hlynur BĂŠringsson.
Borce Ilievski of
ĂR was named the best coach of the first half of the season while Urald King was named the best defender and
KĂĄri JĂłnsson the best young player of the first half.[30]
On December 19,
ĂĂłr Akureyri signed Nino Johnson to replace injured Marques Oliver.[31]
On December 21,
J'Nathan Bullock signed with
GrindavĂk for the rest of the season. He previously played with GrindavĂk during the
2011â12 season, helping the club to the national championship.[32]
On January 7,
ĂĂłr Akureyri won
KeflavĂk, 100-98, for the first time in
KeflavĂk in the Ărvalsdeild karla with Ingvi Rafn Ingvarsson scoring ĂĂłr's last thirteen points of the game.[35] They had lost their previous 21 games in KeflavĂk.[36]
On January 8,
TindastĂłll's Chris Caird announced he was retiring from playing basketball due to injuries and had accepted to become an assistant coach to
Israel MartĂn. He had appeared in 9 games during the season, averaging 12.4 and 4.4 rebounds.[37]
On January 24, it was reported that
FIBA had recalled
NjarĂ°vĂk's Kristinn PĂĄlsson letter of clearance.[41] His former team,
Stella Azzura, had demanded training compensations of 65.000 euros for the player.[42] Kristinn was part of NjarĂ°vĂk's junior teams until the age of 16, when he joined Stella Azzura.[43] After two years with Stella Azzura, he joined
Marist College in 2015[44] before returning to Iceland in 2018.
On January 24, referee
Ăsak Ernir Kristinsson ejected a fan from a game between
ĂR and
NjarĂ°vĂk's after the fan had leaned over him from the sidelines and called him a racist.[45][46]
On January 26,
TindastĂłll signed Chris Davenport to replace Brandon Garrett, who was released shortly after TindastĂłll's
Icelandic Basketball Cup win on January 13.[49]
On February 3,
Stjarnan released Sherrod Wright and signed Darell Combs instead.[52]
On February 3,
KR signed American Kendall Pollard for the rest of the season.[53]
On February 17,
ĂĂłr ĂorlĂĄkshöfn announced that
Einar Ărni JĂłhannsson would leave his post as head coach at the season's end and would be replaced by assistant coach Baldur ĂĂłr Ragnarsson.[54][55]
On February 20,
Haukar'sKĂĄri JĂłnsson broke his right thumb on a practice with the
Icelandic national team and was expected to miss up to 4 weeks, including the national team games and the final three games of the regular season.[56]
On February 21,
Höttur announced they had released
Kelvin Lewis to allow him to sign with
Kauhajoki Karhu Basket in the Finnish
Korisliiga. Höttur was already religated and planned to play the final three games without a foreign player.[57]
On March 8,
Haukar defeated
Valur and finished with the best record in the Ărvalsdeild karla for the first time in its history.[58]
On March 15,
Stjarnanlockerroom was trashed by unknown individuals during the first game of its first-round series against
ĂR.[60]
On March 20,
KĂĄri JĂłnsson scored 6 of his 27 points in the last 3.4 seconds in game two of
Haukar's first round series against
KeflavĂk, giving them an 82-85 victory. After being fouled in the act of shooting with 3.4 second remaining, he made all three free throws and tied the game at 82-82. After a
timeout by KeflavĂk, Haukar stole the inbound pass allowing KĂĄri to heave up a cross-court shot from his own free throw line that went in.[61]
On March 25,
Danero Thomas scored the game winning and series clinching basket in game five of
ĂR's first round playoffs series against
Stjarnan.[62]