All statistics correct as of 28 April 2018.1 Sponsored league name, referring to
Úrvalsdeild karla.
The 2017–18 Úrvalsdeild karla was the 67th season of the
Úrvalsdeild, 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
Tindastóll 3–1 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,
Tindastóll announced that
Antonio Hester would likely miss several months because of an ankle injury. Initially it was thought that the ankle was broken.[19] Tindastóll signed Brandon Garrett while Hester was recovering.[20]
On November 13,
KR's point guard, Arnór 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
Skallagrímur.[23]
On December 12,
Grindavík 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 Matthías Orri Sigurðarson,
Kári Jónsson,
Sigtryggur Arnar Björnsson and
Hlynur Bæringsson.
Borce Ilievski of
ÍR was named the best coach of the first half of the season while Urald King was named the best defender and
Kári Jónsson the best young player of the first half.[30]
On December 19,
Þór Akureyri signed Nino Johnson to replace injured Marques Oliver.[31]
On December 21,
J'Nathan Bullock signed with
Grindavík for the rest of the season. He previously played with Grindavík during the
2011–12 season, helping the club to the national championship.[32]
On January 7,
Þór Akureyri won
Keflavík, 100-98, for the first time in
Keflavík in the Úrvalsdeild karla with Ingvi Rafn Ingvarsson scoring Þór's last thirteen points of the game.[35] They had lost their previous 21 games in Keflavík.[36]
On January 8,
Tindastóll's Chris Caird announced he was retiring from playing basketball due to injuries and had accepted to become an assistant coach to
Israel Martín. 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
Njarðvík's Kristinn Pálsson 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 Njarðvík'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
Ísak Ernir Kristinsson ejected a fan from a game between
ÍR and
Njarðvík's after the fan had leaned over him from the sidelines and called him a racist.[45][46]
On January 25,
Höttur ended its 14-game losing streak with an 86-75 overtime victory against
Þór Akureyri.[47] It was
Andrée Michelsson, Höttur's point guard, first Úrvalsdeild victory in 35 games. He had started his career with
Snæfell the
previous season when it went 0-22.[48]
On January 26,
Tindastóll signed Chris Davenport to replace Brandon Garrett, who was released shortly after Tindastóll's
Icelandic Basketball Cup win on January 13.[49]
On January 26,
Keflavík signed Christian Jones with the intention on having him split minutes with
Dominique Elliott.[50] They also released point guard Hilmar Pétursson, who subsequently signed with
Haukar.[51]
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,
Þór Þorlákshöfn announced that
Einar Árni Jóhannsson would leave his post as head coach at the season's end and would be replaced by assistant coach Baldur Þór Ragnarsson.[54][55]
On February 20,
Haukar'sKári Jónsson 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 Úrvalsdeild 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
ÍR.[60]
On March 20,
Kári Jónsson scored 6 of his 27 points in the last 3.4 seconds in game two of
Haukar's first round series against
Keflavík, 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 Keflavík, Haukar stole the inbound pass allowing Kári 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
ÍR's first round playoffs series against
Stjarnan.[62]
On April 14, it was announced that
Marcus Walker had been called up to
KR for the rest of the playoffs due to injuries to
Jón Arnór Stefánsson. He had played with KR-b in the
Icelandic Cup earlier in the season.[63]