ASEAN Basketball League History
ASEAN Basketball League, known as ABL, is the father of professional basketball league in Asia. It started back in 2009 after proposing the league in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and has since made leaps throughout the years with their high-tiered competitions.
ABL aims to promote sportsmanship and camaraderie for basketball through the provision of avenues for teams through professional competition and fair play (ABL, n.a.). As of now, the ABL consists of men’s basketball teams from East Asia and Southeast Asia, including Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.
Foundation of ASEAN Basketball
Taking a look at its history, the ABL was founded back in 2009 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Still, its inauguration was held in Metro Manila, the Philippines, on September 1, 2009. For its first season, there were six different teams from Southeast Asia, namely: Brunei Barracudas (Darussalam, Brunei), KL Dragons (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia), Philippine Patriots (San Juan, Philippines), Saltria Muda BritAma (Jakarta, Indonesia), Singapore Slingers (Kailang, Singapore) and Thailand Tigers (Thailand).
As of 2016, the ABL has since extended its competition to East Asia by allowing teams coming from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, and the Philippines to compete.
ASEAN Basketball League Expansion
As for their expansion, it started back in 2011 when the Brunei Barracudas left the league during its third season who was then replaced by Saigon Sports Academy, which was the first official team coming from Vietnam. San Miguel Beermen and Bangkok Cobras joined in 2011 as well, but the former left post winning the league in 2013, whereas Cobra left in 2012.
Laskar Dreya South Sumatra joined in 2014. In 2015, Mono Vampire and Pilipinas MX3 Kings joined and left the league in 2016. Eastern Basketball Club, Kaohsiung Truth, and Kaohsiung Taiwan joined in 2016. The Philippine basketball team returned with Alab Pilipinas in 2016.
As for 2017, four new teams joined: CLS Knights Indonesia, Formosa Dreamers, Mono Vampire Basketball Club, and Nanhai Kung Fu (Now known as Macau Black Bears). In 2018, Zhuhai Wolf Warriors were added, and in 2019, Taipei Fubon Braves joined after the Kaohsiung Truth disbanded.
As for championships, the Philippines currently holds the most won championships with a total of 3, next are Indonesia and Thailand with 2, Malaysia and Hongkong with 1.
In terms of clubs, HI-Tech Bangkok City won 2 championships, Kuala Lumpur Dragons, AirAsia Philippine Patriots, Indonesia Warriors, San Miguel Beermen, Hongkong Eastern, San Miguel Alab Pilipinas, and CLS Knights Indonesia won 1 each.
ASEAN Basketball League Teams
Here are the current teams in ASEAN Basketball League: San Miguel Alab Pilipinas from the Philippines, Hong Kong Eastern Basketball Team from Hong Kong, Mono Vampire from Thailand, Saigon Heat from Vietnam, Singapore Slingers from Singapore, Kuala Lumpur Dragons from Malaysia, Macau Black Bears from Macau, Taipei Fubon Braves from Taiwan, Formosa Dreamers from Taiwan, and Wolf Warriors from Macau.
ASEAN Basketball League Format
The ABL has a unique set of rules which boasts quadruple home rounds and away rounds format. For the regular season format, they have the representing teams. Each team will play the others twice at their home court and twice away. The total games per team 20 games per team (current total of 10 teams) for a total of 60 games in the season (ABS-CBN, 2016).
As for the playoff format: in the end, the regular teams are seeded by their play record. The top four teams with the highest wins will make the playoffs, which only consists of four out of ten teams. All four teams will play in a best of three in the semi-final rounds then the two winners will play a best of five to determine the season’s champion. Whichever team that will be better seeded has a higher chance of home-court advantage in the league. A total of 67 of 71 games per season are played (ABL, n.a.).
Whichever team dominates the league will represent the Southeast Asia Basketball Association in the FIBA Asia Champions Cup (ABL, n.a.).
ASEAN Basketball League Salaries
The ASEAN Basketball League started with a salary of $100 000 per annum for imported players, which was then changed into $10 000 per month, totaling to $120 000 per annum. A top player from the Philippines could earn more than this, as high as $15 000 per month per each import (SBSO, 2014).
ASEAN Basketball League Tryouts & Imports
For import players, teams were allowed to recruit 3 ASEAN players. Since 2014, this has been reduced to 2 only per team and is optional (ABL, n.a.). As of 2018, there were numerous speculations on how players are recruited for both local and imported professionals. For the past six seasons, ABL allowed teams to have two global imports and two heritage imports. A heritage import is a basketball player who has at least one parent whose passport belongs to the country which participates in the ABL. A local player is a player who has a passport of the country participating in the ABL they are playing for with a residency of AT LEAST 3 years.
Recent reports showed though that the ABL decided to allow three global imports, removing the heritage imports. Additionally, local players also had a change in requirements, and this is allowing them to play for the country even without a local passport but needs to show proof that one of their parents are/were a citizen of the country. The aforementioned applies to the Philippines; however, for China, Macau, and Hong Kong, they would still allow heritage players (Lim, 2018).
ASEAN Basketball Tryouts
Tryouts for an ASEAN team is like any other tryout, except each country has their own specific set. I will talk about a general way of trying out. First is you have to pick your country of choice. Once you are done picking, you then have to contact them, and should they accept you for tryouts, you have to submit their requirements, which mostly consists of paperwork and fill out their forms.
Once you complete all the necessary paperwork, you then tryout for their teams in a set of games and drills per skill level. Each coach has their way of testing a player, so be prepared for anything. Oh, and be reminded that your attitude will count, especially if you are just a starting player.
Lastly, once you pass the tryout, be always reminded to bring out your best because anything goes for any game. All professional basketball teams have a notorious reputation of removing their members should they continue to underperform, so always aim high and stay positive along the way (DPT, n.a.).
There are many positives to playing internationally. Especially if you are a Western player, you will have the chance to travel and get exposure to a different venue than the ones you are used too. However, take into account that a change in demographic can also be difficult since you can get an overwhelming sense of pressure, especially that your stay in the team at the very start will not be stable unless you really work hard and make a name for yourself so always do your best, not just in practice, but in every game.
Where to Watch ASEAN Basketball League
There are many avenues for watching the ASEAN Basketball League games such as those from their local streaming media, but since 2012, the ABL has since used their website with the link: http://www.aseanbasketballleague.com/live.
Learn more about playing basketball internationally.
ASEAN Basketball References:
ABS-CBN. (2016). 7 Things you need to know about the ABL. Retrieved on April 4,
2020 from https://sports.abs-cbn.com/basketball/news/2016/12/06/7-things-need-
know-abl-18912
ASEAN Basketball League (n.a.) About Us. Retrieved on April 4, 2020, from
https://aseanbasketballleague.com/about-us/.
Dick’s Pro Tips. (n.a.). What to Expect at Basketball Tryouts. Retrieved on April 4, 2020
from https://protips.dickssportinggoods.com/sports-and-
activities/basketball/expect-basketball-tryouts
Lim, K. (2018). ABL Player Eligibility Changes Inbound? ASEAN Sports. Retrieved on
April 4, 2020 from http://aseansports.com/basketball/abl-imports-and-local-players-
eligibility-changes-inbound/.
Sports Betting Sites Org. (2014). 2014 ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) Betting.
Retrieved on April 4, 2020 from https://sportsbettingsites.org/asean-basketball-
league/.