ASEAN Basketball League

ASEAN Basketball League (ABL)
Current season, competition or edition:
Current sports event 2015–16 ABL season
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) Malaysia Westports Malaysia Dragons (1st title)
Most titles Thailand Hi-Tech Bangkok City (2 titles)
TV partner(s) Indonesia JakTV
Malaysia TV1
Philippines Basketball TV
Singapore SuperSports
Thailand True Sport, Mono 29 TV
Vietnam HTV
pan-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]

Logo used for the first season with General Electric as the title sponsor.

History

Formation

Basketball officials from 6 ASEAN nations gathered in Metro Manila on 1 September 2009 to officially launch the new league.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

On 29 July 2015, Racal Motors has confirmed its participation in the ABL. According to team owner Jonito Racal, "ABL will enhance and broaden their market reach in the region". But on 4 September 2015, it was announced that Racal Motors withdrew from the league due to problems with its sponsors.

League format

Logo used from the second to the third season with AirAsia as the title sponsor.

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.

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.

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

Kings (alternate)
Kings (former)
Laskar Dreya (alt)
Laskar Dreya
Locations of ABL teams. Red pogs for current teams, while blue pogs for former teams. (Correct as of 2014 season)
Team City / Region Arena (capacity) Founded Joined ABL Head coach
Thailand Hi-Tech Bangkok City Bangkok Thai-Japanese Stadium, Bangkok (5,000)
Hi-Tech Gym, Bangkok (500)		 2009 2009 Philippines Jing Ruiz
Thailand 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 Thailand Mawinporn Soonphonthont
Philippines Pilipinas MX3 Kings San Juan City San Juan Gym (2,000)
Malolos Convention Center, Malolos, Bulacan (5,000)		 2015 2015 Philippines Jack Santiago
Vietnam Saigon Heat Ho Chi Minh City CIS Arena, Ho Chi Minh City (2,500) 2011 2012 England Anthony Garbelotto
Singapore Singapore Slingers Singapore OCBC Arena, Kallang (3,000) 2006 2009 Singapore Neo Beng Siang
Malaysia Westports Malaysia Dragons Kuala Lumpur MABA Stadium, Kuala Lumpur (2,500) 2009 2009 Philippines Ariel Vanguardia

Former teams

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

Awards

Season Local MVP World Import MVP ASEAN Heritage MVP
Nationality Player Team Nationality Player Team Nationality Player Team
2009–10  THA Attaporn Lertmalaiporn Thailand Tigers  USA Jason Dixon Chang Thailand Slammers None
2010–11  INA Mario Wuysang SM BritAma  USA Nakiea Miller Westports KL Dragons None
2012  PHL Leo Avenido San Miguel Beermen  USA Anthony Johnson AirAsia Philippine Patriots None
2013  PHL Asi Taulava San Miguel Beermen  USA Christien Charles Sports Rev Thailand Slammers None
2014  SIN Wei Long Wong Singapore Slingers  USA Christien Charles Hi-Tech Bangkok City None
2015–16  SIN Wei Long Wong Singapore Slingers  USA Reggie Johnson Westports Malaysia Dragons  PHL /  CAN Matthew Wright Westports Malaysia Dragons

References

  1. 1 2 "FIBA Asia – ASEAN Basketball League takes off". FIBA. Retrieved 8 February 2008. Archived 16 August 2009 at the Wayback Machine.

External links

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