ASEAN Basketball League
 | This article needs additional citations for verification. (October 2015) |
| Most recent season or competition: 2017–18 ABL season | |
| File:ASEAN Basketball League.png | |
| Sport | Basketball |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2009 |
| Owner(s) | Tune Group |
| No. of teams | 9 |
| Countries |  China (1 team)  Hong Kong (1 team)  Indonesia (1 team)  Malaysia (1 team)  Philippines (1 team)  Singapore (1 team)  Thailand (1 team)  Taiwan (1 team)  Vietnam (1 team) |
| Continent | FIBA Asia (Asia) |
| Most recent champion(s) | Hong Kong Eastern (1st title) |
| TV partner(s) | Cable TV Skynindo ABS-CBN StarHub Sportcast HTV |
| Official website | www |
The ASEAN Basketball League, often abbreviated to the ABL, is a men's professional basketball league in Southeast Asia, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. 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]
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 in early 2013, but after one season he left the league to rejoin his family in the US. [citation needed]
League expansion
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.[citation needed]
In 2012, San Miguel Beermen and Bangkok Cobras joined the league aside from Saigon Heat. Unfortunately, after one season, the Cobras left the league with the Beermen leaving after they won the title in 2013.
In 2014, Laskar Dreya South Sumatra (INA) joined ABL, but they left after the 2014 season.
In 2015, Pilipinas MX3 Kings and Mono Vampire joined the league. Unfortunately, both teams left the league in 2016.
On 17 July 2016, it was announced that Kaohsiung Truth, a team from Kaohsiung, Taiwan will participate in the 2016–17 season.[2] On 30 July 2016, the Eastern Basketball Club confirmed its participation in the league.[3] The two teams were the first teams from outside Southeast Asia to compete in the league. The Philippines made their return in the league with the joining of Alab Pilipinas on 6 August 2016.
On September 2017, the league confirmed the entry of four new teams: CLS Knights Surabaya, Formosa Dreamers, the returning Mono Vampire Basketball Club[4], and the Nanhai Kung Fu[citation needed]. Kaoshiung Truth disbanded after the 2016-17 season.
League format
The league, as of the 2015–16 season, is held via a quadruple home and away format where each team faces each other four times during 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. In the fifth season, the playoff format was changed into a best-of-3 format both in the semi-finals and the finals. Starting in the sixth season, the league reverted its playoff format to a best-of-3 in the semi-finals and a best-of-5 series in the finals, similar to the first season's playoff format.[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.[citation needed]
So far, No ABL team have played in the FIBA Asia Champions Cup since 2011, until Westports Malaysia Dragons won the ABL title in 2016, thus earning a slot in the tournament.
Teams
| Team | City / Region | Arena | Capacity | Founded | Joined ABL | Head coach |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tanduay Alab Pilipinas
|
Metro Manila | Mall of Asia Arena, Pasay | 25,000 | 2016 | Jimmy Alapag
| |
| Filoil Flying V Centre, San Juan | 5,500 | |||||
| Baliuag, Bulacan | Baliuag Star Arena | N/A | ||||
| Santa Rosa | City of Santa Rosa Multi-Purpose Complex | N/A | ||||
| Antipolo | Ynares Center | 7,500 | ||||
| Hong Kong Eastern
|
Hong Kong | Southorn Stadium, Wan Chai | 2,000 | 1932 | 2016 |  Eduard Torres
|
 Formosa Dreamers
|
Changhua | Changhua Stadium | N/A | 2017 | Hsu Hao Cheng
| |
| CLS Knights Indonesia
|
Surabaya | GOR Kertajaya Surabaya | 3,000 | 1946 | 2017 | Koko Heru Setyo Nugroho
|
| Mono Vampire
|
Bangkok | Stadium 29 | 5,000 | 2014 | 2015 |  Douglas Clark Marty
|
| Chong Son Kung Fu
|
Nanhai District, Foshan | Nanhai Gymnasium | 4,000 | 2017 |  Charles Dubé-Brais
| |
| Saigon Heat
|
Ho Chi Minh City | CIS Arena | 2,500 | 2011 | 2012 | Kyle Julius
|
| Singapore Slingers
|
Singapore | OCBC Arena, Kallang | 3,000 | 2006 | 2009 | Neo Beng Siang
|
 Westports Malaysia Dragons
|
Kuala Lumpur | MABA Stadium | 2,500 | 2009 | Chris Thomas
| |
Former teams
| Country | Team | Years | |
|---|---|---|---|
| From | To | ||
 Brunei
|
Brunei Barracudas | 2009 | 2011 |
| Indonesia
|
Indonesia Warriors | 2012 | 2014 |
| Laskar Dreya South Sumatra | 2014 | ||
| Satria Muda BritAma | 2009 | 2011 | |
| Philippines
|
AirAsia Philippine Patriots | 2009 | 2012 |
| Pilipinas MX3 Kings | 2015 | 2016 | |
| San Miguel Beermen | 2012 | 2013 | |
| Thailand
|
Bangkok Cobras | 2012 | |
| Hi-Tech Bangkok City | 2009 | 2016 | |
| Chinese Taipei
|
Kaohsiung Truth | 2016 | 2017 |
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 |
| 2016–17 | HKG
|
Hong Kong Eastern Long Lions^ | 3–1 | SIN
|
Singapore Slingers | PHI
|
Alab Pilipinas | VIE
|
Saigon Heat |
| 2017–18 | |||||||||
- ^ finished regular season with the best win-loss record.
Individual awards
The league awards five (5) individual awards: the Local MVP, World Import MVP, ASEAN Heritage MVP and the Defensive Player of the Year awards to its players and the Coach of the Year award given to the league's best head coach.
Prior to the 2015–16 ABL season, there was only one (1) MVP award for imports and was called the Best Import award. It was divided into two for World Imports (for players hailing from outside Southeast Asia and to the ASEAN Heritage Imports (for players from other Southeast Asian countries or players with at least one Southeast Asian parent).
Also, the Defensive Player of the Year and Coach of the Year awards were only awarded since the 2012 season.
Most Valuable Players
Locals
|
Imports
|
Finals
|
|
Defensive Player of the Year
Coach of the Year
| Season | Player | Nationality | Team |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Todd Purves |  United States
|
Indonesia Warriors
|
| 2013 | Leo Austria | Philippines
|
San Miguel Beermen
|
| 2014 | Ariel Vanguardia | Philippines
|
Westports Malaysia Dragons
|
| 2015–16 | Neo Beng Siang | Singapore
|
Singapore Slingers
|
| 2016–17 | Edu Torres | Spain
|
Eastern Long Lions
|
References
- ^ a b "FIBA Asia – ASEAN Basketball League takes off". FIBA. Archived from the original on 16 August 2009. Retrieved 8 February 2008.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ Taiwan's Kaohsiung Truth Joins ABL as League Expands
- ^ Hong Kong Eastern Confirms Participation In ABL
- ^ Lee, David (25 September 2017). "Nine teams for new ABL season". New Strait Times. Retrieved 1 October 2017.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|dead-url=(help) - ^ a b Tan, Les (20 July 2010). "Attaporn MVP win highlight of losing ABL season for Thailand Tigers". Red Sports. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
- ^ a b "Mario Wuysang MVP Sesi Reguler ABL" [Mario Wuysang is ABL Regular Season MVP]. Republika. 5 March 2011.
{{cite news}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Belen, Reynaldo (28 June 2012). "Beermen's Avenido is ABL Local MVP". InterAksyon. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
- ^ "San Miguel's Taulava named ABL MVP". ABS-CBNnews.com. 5 June 2013. Retrieved 30 July 2016.
- ^ Slingers’ Wong Wei Long Wins 2014 ABL Local MVP
- ^ Basketball: Slingers’ Wong Wei Long named ABL Local MVP
- ^ [1]
- ^ AirAsia Philippine Patriots’ Anthony Johnson Scoops Up ABL's Best Import Award 2012
- ^ Bangkok City's Chris Charles Wins Second Consecutive ABL Import MVP Award
External links
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