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]