PBA will join the newly-formed EASL in 2022 and battle with other best teams in the region.
IT’S not just the players who are going overseas, now it’s the whole league going global.
It’s official, the Philippine Basketball Association will be joining the newly launched East-Asia Super League (EASL) to kickoff in October 2022.
The new Asia-wide professional basketball league will be backed by several ex-NBA stars that have plans to base a franchise in Hong Kong ahead of its first season.
The first season of the home-and-away “champions league of Asia” format will see eight champions or runners-up from Japan’s B.League, South Korea’s KBL, Philippines’ PBA, and Taiwan’s P. League+ for the US$1 million crown of regional champion.
The eight teams will be split into two groups of four and will play a round-robin format.
The top two teams from each group will advance to the Final Four and play in sudden death semifinals and championship matches in March 2023.
EASL intends to double the number of teams and expand into new territories by its third season.
For the PBA, Ricky Vargas and commissioner Willie Marcial, along with Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas President Al Panlilio signed a multi-deal contract with the EASL.
"We will be sending a representative to be a board member of the EASL," Vargas said in the PSA Forum.
"The intention why we wanted to be there is that we can also have a stronger ties with the five leagues in the region. When we do have stronger ties there, we will be able to see to it that we respect each other’s league in terms of movements of players."
Vargas further explained that they will be picking the top teams from the top four clubs in the league of the previous season to represent the PBA in the continental tournament.
There is also a possibility to field in the Gilas Pilipinas team in the future.
“We want to be competitive and we will be competitive and that’s how we look at it,” he added.
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