BNT was founded as Northern Territory Basketball Association (NTBA) in 1948.[3] Basketball was administered by NTBA until 1963, when its Constitution was amended and the Darwin Amateur Basketball Association (DABA) was formed. The lease on Darwin's main basketball court at Daly Street was transferred from NTBA to DABA in 1974. In the 1980s DABA became known as Darwin Basketball Association (DBA) and in the 1990s NTBA became known as Basketball Northern Territory.[3]
In 2022, the NBL1 North had a club from Darwin – the Darwin Salties – represented for the first time under the joint management of DBA and BNT. It saw the NBL1 become the first Australian sport league to have clubs based in and playing out of every state and territory in Australia.[4]
