NBL owner Larry Kestelman will be imminently free of his equity in the league's clubs amid the escalating war between head office and Illawarra Hawks majority owner Jared Novelly.
The dispute between Kestelman and Novelly landed in the NSW Supreme Court this week, only days after the latter requested the NBL be investigated by basketball's international governing body FIBA.
At the centre of Novelly's concerns are a perceived lack of financial transparency from the NBL, and whether Kestelman's equity in three of its clubs has presented a conflict of interest given his ownership of the league as a whole.
The NBL is receptive to the second of those concerns, a spokesperson said.
A FIBA spokesperson confirmed to AAP the organisation was assessing the matter, but said it would not comment further.
American billionaire Novelly, who has owned the Hawks since 2020, lobbied all seven of the non-Kestelman clubs to advocate for change in the NBL's ownership and operation in January.
Kestelman has since stressed the league is not for sale.
However, AAP has been told the Dodo co-founder is in the process of selling his last remaining stake in a club.
Kestelman sold out of the Tasmania JackJumpers in February before also getting out of Melbourne United around six weeks ago.
Only his shares in the Brisbane Bullets remain, and a deal to sell those is understood to be well into its latter stages.
Privately, the NBL is unfazed by claims of financial transparency issues, with a recent audit from PWC coming back clean.
The NBL has engaged its own administrator KordaMentha to conduct a review of the Hawks' financial operations given the team's long-standing financial struggles.
The league has boomed since Kestelman took ownership in 2015, selling out 55 games this season and welcoming more than 1.1 million punters through the gates - an all-time record.
But despite this, only four of the NBL's teams - Perth, Melbourne United, Tasmania and Cairns - currently run at a profit.
The Hawks are the worst financial performers of the remaining six.
They are expected to post a seven-figure loss for the recent season despite an excellent campaign culminating in the club's second championship.
No team has folded since Kestelman bought the NBL, with the league hopeful of ensuring the future of the Hawks, the last remaining foundation club.
Brian Goorjian, the most successful coach in NBL history, was eager for the saga to be resolved before the next season that is set to tip off in September.
Sydney Kings coach Goorjian could see the spat from both Kestelman and Novelly's perspectives.
He led the Hawks for two seasons under Novelly's ownership and also coached in the then-financially decimated NBL during the 2000s before Kestelman's ownership.
"I worked for Jared for two years and had an incredible relationship and think the world of him, and when I left the NBL (in 2009), it was in a basket. I didn't even know if we'd have basketball," he told AAP.
"What (Kestelman) has done has been incredible.
"I hate to see it, I hate to see what's going on, I really do, because there's so much good going on right here (in the NBL)."
The Hawks did not respond to AAP's requests for comment this week.
