ASEAN Basketball League
Current season, competition or edition: 2015–16 ABL season |
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| Sport | Basketball |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2009 |
| Owner(s) | Tune Group |
| No. of teams | 6 |
| Country |  Thailand (2 teams) Malaysia (1 team) Philippines (1 team) Singapore (1 team) Vietnam (1 team) |
| Continent | FIBA Asia (Asia) |
| Most recent champion(s) | Westports Malaysia Dragons (1st title) |
| Most titles | Hi-Tech Bangkok City (2 titles) |
| TV partner(s) |  JakTV TV1 Basketball TV SuperSports True Sport, Mono 29 TV HTVpan-Asia: Fox Sports Asia |
| Official website | ASEANBasketballLeague.com |
The ASEAN Basketball League, often abbreviated to the ABL, is a men's professional basketball league in Southeast Asia. Six clubs from six different countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) competed in the league's 2009 inaugural season.[1] The league was proposed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and launched on 1 October 2009.[1]
Contents
History
Formation
Basketball officials from 6 ASEAN nations gathered in Metro Manila on 1 September 2009 to officially launch the new league.[citation needed]
Teams that participated in the inaugural season were the Brunei Barracudas, Kuala Lumpur Dragons, Philippine Patriots, SM BritAma, Thailand Tigers and former National Basketball League team, the Singapore Slingers. Mirroring the Euroleague in the west, the ABL has its own set of rules in terms of its roster makeup and salary caps. Teams are permitted two imports of non-ASEAN citizenship, three ASEAN imports, one player with one Southeast Asian parent, and seven local players. Teams are allowed to field a team of all local players if they wish to do so.[citation needed]
In July 2012, the league announced that Kuhan Foo, CEO since the ABL's inception, was moving on to a position leading additional regional sports properties. In his place, the league named Anthony Macri as the next CEO, and he will lead the ABL into Season 4, set to begin in early 2013.[citation needed]
League expansion
In the ABL Internship Program Press Conference held on 11 March 2011, ABL CEO Kuhan Foo reported that 3 teams are on talks for a possible entry as expansion teams, 2 of them are from the Philippines, one of them is San Miguel Corporation and another a Cebu-based company, the other is from Jakarta, Indonesia.
On 6 July 2011, the San Miguel Corporation, owners of three Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) teams will bring their winning tradition to the ABL, when they joined the league in a signing ceremony at their main office in Mandaluyong. Bobby Parks has been named as the team's head coach. The team, called the San Miguel Beermen will be a different team from the original PBA team that was then named as the Petron Blaze Boosters, formerly known as the San Miguel Beermen
On 5 August 2011, Bangkok Basketball Holdings joined the ABL in a signing ceremony at Golden Tulip Sovereign Hotel. The team was owned by Tom Griffin and Jeffrey Premer. The team was known as the Bangkok Cobras.
On 22 September 2011, the Brunei Barracudas announced that they were bowing out of the third season of ABL after participating for 2 seasons.[citation needed]
On 20 October 2011, the Saigon Sports Academy officially announced the participation of Saigon Heat into the third season of ABL, making them the first ever international professional basketball team to represent Vietnam.
After the 2012 ABL season, the AirAsia Philippine Patriots announced their withdrawal from the league. The Bangkok Cobras also withdrew from the league. After the 2014 season, the San Miguel Beermen withdrew from the league. This left the Philippines with no teams in the ABL. The SportsRev Thailand Slammers were then rebranded as Hi-Tech Bangkok City, and an Indonesian team, Laksar Dreya South Sumatra, were accepted.[citation needed]
On 26 July 2015, it was announced that Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao along with several businessmen, formed a team for the ABL. The team will be called PACMAN Mindanao Aguilas (now known as Pilipinas MX3 Kings) and will debut in the Season 6, along with Mono Vampire Basketball Club.[citation needed]
League format
ABL announced that the tentative start of Season 3 is on January 2012, this is due to FIBA Asia's calendar of tournaments for 2011 (2011 FIBA Asia Championship and 2011 Southeast Asian Games). From then on, ABL will start in January and ends in June coinciding with FIBA calendar of tournaments. Prior to the 2012, the season started on October and ended on February.[citation needed]
The league is held via a triple home and away format where each team faces each other 3 times per regular season; as such the number of total games per regular season varies depending on the number of participating teams in that year. At the end of the regular season, the four teams with the best records qualifies for the playoffs. In the best-of-three semifinals, the top 2 seeds will have the home court advantage against the lower seeds and will host the first and third (if necessary) games. In the first season, the finals was a best-of-five series, with the higher seed hosting the first two and the fifth (if necessary) games. The Finals format was changed to a best of three series for the second and third seasons, where the higher-ranked team earns home-court advantage and hosts the first and third (if necessary) games. For the fourth season, it will be a quadruple home and away format where each team faces each other 4 times with the semis,a best-of-five, and the finals, a best-of-five series.[citation needed]
The champions are supposed to represent the Southeast Asia Basketball Association (SEABA) in the FIBA Asia Champions Cup. However, since the tournament only limits one club per country, the 2010 champions Philippine Patriots were disallowed from participating since the Smart Gilas Philippine team had already qualified. In 2011, the Chang Thailand Slammers were supposed to represent SEABA but the Thailand Basketball Federation was then suspended by FIBA; this caused the Westports KL Dragons to represent SEABA, as the runner-up Patriots' slot was already taken by the Smart Gilas.
Teams
| Team | City / Region | Arena (capacity) | Founded | Joined ABL | Head coach |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hi-Tech Bangkok City |
Bangkok | Thai-Japanese Stadium, Bangkok (5,000) Hi-Tech Gym, Bangkok (500) |
2009 | 2009 | Jing Ruiz |
| Mono Vampire Basketball Club |
Bangkok | Mono Vampire Gym, Bangkok (1,000) Chulalongkorn University Gymnasium, Bangkok (2,000) Sripatum University Stadium, Bangkok (2,000) |
2014 | 2015 | Mawinporn Soonphonthont |
| Pilipinas MX3 Kings |
San Juan City | San Juan Gym (2,000) Malolos Convention Center, Malolos, Bulacan (5,000) |
2015 | 2015 | Jack Santiago |
| Saigon Heat |
Ho Chi Minh City | CIS Arena, Ho Chi Minh City (2,500) | 2011 | 2012 |  Anthony Garbelotto |
| Singapore Slingers |
Singapore | OCBC Arena, Kallang (3,000) | 2006 | 2009 | Neo Beng Siang |
| Westports Malaysia Dragons |
Kuala Lumpur | MABA Stadium, Kuala Lumpur (2,500) | 2009 | 2009 | Ariel Vanguardia |
Former teams
- AirAsia Philippine Patriots (2009–2012)
- Bangkok Cobras (2012)
Brunei Barracudas (2009–2011)- Indonesia Warriors (2009–2014)
- Laskar Dreya South Sumatra (2014)
- Racal Motors (2015 - withdrew before season started)
- San Miguel Beermen (2012–2013)
Champions
The finals was a best-of-5 (2–2–1) series (2010, 2013, 2016–present), it became best-of-3 (1–1–1) series from 2011–12 and 2014.
| Season | Finalists | Semifinalists | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country | Champions | Result | Country | Runners-up | Country | Semifinalist | Country | Semifinalist | |
| 2009–10 | PHI |
Philippine Patriots^ | 3–0 | INA |
Satria Muda BritAma | SIN |
Singapore Slingers | MAS |
Kuala Lumpur Dragons |
| 2010–11 | THA |
Chang Thailand Slammers^ | 2–0 | PHI |
AirAsia Philippine Patriots | MAS |
Westports KL Dragons | SIN |
Singapore Slingers |
| 2012 | INA |
Indonesia Warriors | 2–1 | PHI |
San Miguel Beermen^ | PHI |
AirAsia Philippine Patriots | MAS |
Westports Malaysia Dragons |
| 2013 | PHI |
San Miguel Beermen^ | 3–0 | INA |
Indonesia Warriors | MAS |
Westports Malaysia Dragons | THA |
Sports Rev Thailand Slammers |
| 2014 | THA |
Hi-Tech Bangkok City | 2–0 | MAS |
Westports Malaysia Dragons^ | SIN |
Singapore Slingers | VIE |
Saigon Heat |
| 2015–16 | MAS |
Westports Malaysia Dragons^ | 3-2 | SIN |
Singapore Slingers | THA |
Hi-Tech Bangkok City | VIE |
Saigon Heat |
- ^ finished regular season with the best win-loss record.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. Archived 16 August 2009 at the Wayback Machine
External links
- Official website
- ASEAN Basketball League on Facebook
- ASEAN Basketball League on TwitterLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
- ASEAN Basketball League on Instagram
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Men's basketball leagues
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- EngvarB from October 2015
- Use dmy dates from October 2015
- Articles with unsourced statements from October 2015
- Articles with unsourced statements from March 2016
- Official website not in Wikidata
- ASEAN Basketball League
- International club basketball competitions
- Sports leagues established in 2009
- Professional sports leagues
- Basketball leagues in Asia
