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The National Basketball League Canada has taken its share of body blows over eight hard-scrabble seasons.

The country’s longest running pro basketball loop started out with seven franchises in 2011 and grew to 10 teams by 2015, but it was forced to cut back to eight this season after allowing the Saint John Riptide and Cape Breton Highlanders to take time off in hopes of restructuring for next year.

Teams like the Quebec Kebs, Oshawa Power, Montreal Jazz and Orangeville A’s have come and gone, but the league has rolled with the punches, adapted and survived into its ninth season.

NBLC deputy commissioner Audley Stephenson said it’s been an up-and-down climb and a perpetual challenge to promote minor professional basketball in Canada, but the quality of play and the entertainment level have always been strong and continue to improve.

“I often challenge people to come to a game with me and not have a good time and not enjoy themselves,” Stephenson said.

That’s the hard part, however: getting people to come out to games and see for themselves.