The London Lightning is an inactive Canadian professional basketball team based in London, Ontario, which played its home games at Canada Life Place. The team formerly competed in the National Basketball League of Canada and the Basketball Super League. History The Lightning name was announced on August 12, 2011. The team was a charter member of the National Basketball League of Canada (NBL) that began play for the 2011–12 season and won the league's first championship. The Lightning have won the most NBL championships with six. On August 17, former Albany Patroons and Lawton-Fort Sill Cavalry head coach Micheal Ray Richardson was announced as the Lightning's first head coach. The Lightning would go on to win the 2012 NBL championship, defeating the Halifax Rainmen 116-92 on March 25, 2012 at the John Labatt Centre to take the best-of-five championship series three games to two.
Carlos Knox was unveiled as the new Lightning head coach on July 17, 2014. He led the team to an 18–14 record. Knox was dismissed in August 2015 after hiding player Jonathan Mills' positive drug test results from Vito Frijia and the league. He was replaced by former Mississauga Power head coach Kyle Julius later in the month.
Julius would lead the Lightning to back-to-back championship appearances in 2016 and 2017, winning the championship in the latter. He would be replaced by former Niagara College and interim Niagara River Lions head coach, Keith Vassell. Vassell led the Lightning to another championship in 2017–18, but was fired after a 4–4 record in the 2018–19 season.
After the NBL folded in 2023, the Lightning joined the new Basketball Super League (BSL) alongside some other former NBL franchises.
After struggling to draw crowds at Canada Life Place during their last several seasons and amid the team's concerns over changes to governance of the BSL, the team announced on October 3, 2025, that it would not play in the upcoming 2025-26 BSL season. Lightning general manager Mark Frijia emphasized that the decision was not necessarily permanent and that the team would "keep [its] options open for the future."
Home arenas Originally opened in 2002 as the John Labatt Centre and later Budweiser Gardens, Canada Life Place is a sports-entertainment centre in downtown London, Ontario, Canada. The arena has a capacity of 9,000. The Lightning shared the arena with London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League; their lease expired in 2025 and was not renewed due to the Lightning's absence from basketball in 2025-26.
Personnel
Season-by-season record SeasonCoachRegular season PostseasonWonLostWin %FinishWonLostWin %Result2011–12Micheal Ray Richardson288.7781st 5 2 .714 Champions2012–13337.8251st 6 2 .750 Champions2013–142317.575 4th 6 6 .500 Conference semi-finals2014–15Carlos Knox1814.563 3rd 2 3 .400 Conference quarter-finals2015–16Kyle Julius2614.6501st 10 6 .500 League runners-up2016–17Kyle Julius 35 5 1st 11 2 Champions2017–18Keith Vassell 27 13 1st 11 6 Champions2018–19Keith VassellElliott Etherington 22 18 1st 2 3 Division Semifinals2019–20 Doug Plumb 15 9 Season curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic2023–24Doug Plumb 20 12 2nd 2 1 -Totals 227 105 53 30 4 championships
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