The PBA joins the East Asia Super League as one of its pioneer members along with other leagues from China, South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan.
In a Philippine Star article dated November 5, 2021 that the paper’s sports editor Nelson Beltran wrote, “We’re to field two teams. It will be determined by drawing lots among the top four (in a certain PBA tourney that serves as the qualifier),” said PBA chairman Ricky Vargas.
The PBA first joined the EASL in the second edition of its Super 8 in Macau in 2018, with the NLEX Road Warriors and the Blackwater Elite competing with the Guangzhou Long Lions, the Xinjiang Flying Tigers, the Seoul Samsung Thunder, the Incheon Electroland Elephants, the Rizing Zephyr Fukuoka and the Formosa Dreams. NLEX finished fourth behind Guangzhou, Seoul and Incheon.
In 2019, EASL rebranded from its initial name Asia League and drew the participation of Blackwater, the TnT KaTropa and the San Miguel Beermen in its Terrific 12 edition. San Miguel entered the semis but lost a nail-biter against the Zhejiang Lions, 91-89.”
The EASL is a tough league to compete in as no PBA team has gotten past the semifinals. As mentioned earlier by Mr. Beltran, San Miguel lost a barn burner against one of the top teams in the Chinese Basketball Association or CBA, the Zhejiang Lions, 91-89.
The PBA can learn a lot from the EASL and vice versa. We understand that there are invitations from the B League of Japan and the KBL of South Korea for PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial to visit and perhaps see and observe how both countries run their domestic leagues.
The PBA will be given plenty of opportunities to have conversations with other leagues to perhaps, exchange best practices and transfers of knowledge. Even if the PBA is Asia’s first play for pay league, the association can learn a lot and gain knowledge on considering “lending” or “loaning” players to other leagues with knowledge and subject approval from their mother teams.
Through this development, we’ll see a smoother movement of players among East Asian leagues and across the five basketball playing nations. Look for cooperation among the five countries in the areas of information gathering on players and cooperation and collaboration on other areas like game officiating and management.
With Japan, Korea, China, Taiwan and even the NBL in Australia now implementing an Asian players quota, the PBA must study adapting the measure to add some variety although the league has had Asian imports before. #internationalball #eastasiasuperleague #philippinebasketballassociation #eastasiabasketball