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The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) is a men's professional basketball league in the Philippines composed of ten company-branded franchised teams. It was the first professional basketball league in Asia and is the second oldest in the world after the NBA.[1] The league's regulations are a hybrid of rules from FIBA and the NBA.
The league played its first game at the Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City on April 9, 1975.[2] Its individual team offices are directed out of PBA head offices located in Eastwood City in Quezon City. The league is currently headed by CommissionerChito Salud.
HistoryLeopoldo Prieto, the coach for the Philippines at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, was appointed as the first commissioner and Domingo Itchon of Tanduay was chosen as the league's first president. The first game of the league was held at the Araneta Coliseum on April 9, 1975, featuring Mariwasa-Noritake and Concepcion Carrier.The Philippine Basketball Association was founded when nine teams left the now-defunct Manila Industrial and Commercial Athletic Association (MICAA), which was tightly controlled by the Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP; now defunct), the FIBA-recognized national association at the time.[3] With the BAP controlling the MICAA, the league was de jure amateur, as players were only paid allowances. This is much like what was done in other countries to circumvent the amateur requirement and to play in FIBA-sanctioned tournaments such as the Olympics. With the PBA out of the BAP's control, they could freely pay salaries to their players, making the PBA the oldest professional basketball league outside the United States. However, this also led to the league's players being barred from playing in FIBA-sanctioned tournaments.
The league's first 10 years was known for the intense rivalry of the Crispa Redmanizers and the Toyota Tamaraws, still considered as one of the greatest rivalries in league history. Big names such as Robert Jaworski, Ramon Fernandez, Francis Arnaiz,Atoy Co, Bogs Adornado and Philip Cezar played for those squads before the two teams disbanded in 1983 and 1984 respectively. Following their disbandment, the league moved from the Araneta Coliseum to ULTRA in Pasig. There, the league continued to be popular, as several former Toyota and Crispa players suited up for different teams.
During the mid to late 80s, Jaworski and Ginebra San Miguel became the league's most popular squad for its "never say die" attitude.[4] The team had intense rivalries with theTanduay Rhum Masters and Jaworski's then-rival Fernandez, and later the expansion Purefoods Corporation and players Alvin Patrimonio, Jerry Codiñera, Jojo Lastimosa and Fernandez.
By the end of the 1980s, San Miguel Beer won numerous championships that included the 1989 Grand Slam, led by coach Norman Black and former national team stars Samboy Lim and Hector Calma.
In 1989, FIBA voted to allow professionals to play in their sanctioned tournaments, hence the PBA's players are now able to represent the country internationally. In 1990, the league sent its first all-professional squad to the Asian Games, earning a silver medal. The PBA would later send three more all-pro squads to the event.
The early 1990s saw Ginebra and Shell forming an intense rivalry that included Ginebra's walkout in 1990 finals against Shell and the team's dramatic comeback from a 3-1 deficit to beat Shell in the 1991 First Conference. Patrimonio, Allan Caidic, and a host of others became the league's main attraction.
By 1993, the league moved to the Cuneta Astrodome in Pasay and later saw the Alaska Milkmen win the 1996 grand slam and nine titles in the decade.
From 1999-2000, the PBA endured controversy. Several expatriate cagers arrived on the scene (such as Asi Taulava, Danny Seigle and Eric Menk). Their lineage was questionable and most of them were deported for falsifying documents. The arrival of dozens of these players was a counter to the fledging Metropolitan Basketball Association, a regional-based professional league formed in 1998. After ABS-CBN's 2001 abandonment, the MBA faced mounting expenses and would fold within a year. Despite the MBA's disbandment and the arrival of those players to the PBA, attendance went sour for the PBA in 2002 and was even worse the following year.
In 2004, the league introduced drastic scheduling changes, when it decided to begin the season in October instead of January. The change in starting the season allowed the league to accommodate international tournaments held from June to September and it fit better with college hoops, the NCAA and the UAAP, whose seasons run from June to October. The league also reduced the number of conferences from three to two, renaming the All-Filipino Cup as the Philippine Cup and introducing a new import laden tournament named as the Fiesta Conference. To accommodate these changes, a transitional tournament, the 2004 PBA Fiesta Conference was held from February to July, which was won by the Barangay Ginebra Kings. The league also began to hold the annual All-Star weekend in the provinces, alternating from Luzon and Visayas/Mindanao provinces every year.
The league gained some popularity by this year, thanks in large part to Barangay Ginebra's three PBA championships led by Menk and Mark Caguioa. Solid marketing and arrival of collegiate stars from the UAAP and the NCAA also worked in the PBA's favor.
By 2005, the league would take on the role of Philippine national representation under Chot Reyes, when FIBA lifted the suspension of the country following the formation of theSamahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas despite a ninth place finish in the 2007 FIBA Asia Championship. In 2009, however, the all-amateur Smart Gilas team became the country's official representative in international competitions. The PBA's role in forming a national team was thus reduced to sending up reinforcements to beef up the national squad.
After the appointment of Chito Salud, son of former commissioner Rudy Salud as the commissioner of the PBA, the league returned the three-conference format starting in the2010-11 season. This also ushered the return of the previously retired conferences, the Commissioner's and Governors' cups.
The beginning of 2010's also saw the dominance of the Talk 'N Text Tropang Texters, who nearly got the Grand Slam in the 2010-11 season and successfully defended the Philippine Cup in 2012, the first team to do so after Great Taste in 1985.
Season format
A season was usually composed of three conferences. From the 2010-11 season, the conferences were named Philippine, Commissioner's and Governors' Cups, usually ending in a best-of-seven series where the winner took the conference cup. If the same team won all of the conferences, the team was said to be the "Grand Slam" champion. A draft was held in August with the season-ending Governors Cup ending in July. An opening ceremonies is held before the start of the first game of the season.Unlike other leagues, there is no "season champion" of the PBA. Instead, the season is divided into conferences or tournaments (not to be confused with the definition of a "conference" in a sporting context as a grouping of teams based on geography or historical affiliation), wherein the teams compete for a conference cup. The winners of the conference cups do not face each other at the end of the season to determine the season; instead all conference champions are league champions, with the Philippine Cup being the most prestigious conference of the season.
TeamsAll franchises are owned by corporations. They are not based on geographic locale, so they do not play in a "home stadium." The league rents the different stadiums in which the teams play.A team's name is often divided into three parts; the first is the company name, then the product, then a nickname - usually connected to the business of the company. For example, the Petron Blaze Boosters is a team owned by San Miguel Corporation, with the " boosters" nickname denoting the Petron's Blaze product. Product names are sometimes omitted or merged with the team's nickname. Though the company name rarely changes, the product name and nickname change frequently, maximizing the publicity that the league can give to a company's goods. |
Friday, September 20, 2013
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The 2011–12 Air21 Express season is the first season of the franchise in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). The team, originally known as the Shopinas.com Clickers took over the original Barako Bull Energy Boosters franchise after it was sold to the Lina Group of Companies (which also owns the Air21 Express, renamed as Barako Bull starting this season) on July 2011. The team was renamed as Air21 Express before the start of the Commissioner's Cup.
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| BURTSCHER, Michael
Date of Birth: March 8, 1985
Place of Birth: Baden, Switzerland
School: Schulhaus Booststock
Jersey Number:
Height: 6′-5″
Draft year: 2009 (No. 6 overall, Alaska)
Position: Center
Team: Air21 Express
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| TAULAVA, Paul Asi
Date of Birth: March 2, 1973
Place of Birth: LA, California
School: Cal State-San Bernardino
Jersey Number: 88
Height: 6′-9″
Draft year: 2000 (TnT direct recruit)
Position: Center
Team: Air21 Express
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| MANUEL, Vic
Birthday: June 18, 1987
School: Philippine School of Business Administration
Jersey Number: 24
Height: 6′-4″
Draft year: 2012
Position: Forward
Team: Air21 Express
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| YEO, Joseph
Date of Birth: September 7, 1983
Place of Birth: Manila
School: De La Salle University
Jersey Number: 18
Height: 6′-0″
Draft year: 2006 (No. 3 overall, Coca-Cola)
Position: Guard
Team: Air21 Express
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| BORBORAN, Mark
Birthday: November 20, 1984
Place of Birth: Malinao, Albay
School: University of the East
Jersey Number: 16
Height: 6′-4″
Draft year: 2008
Position: Forward
Team: Air21 Express
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| MENOR, Rogemar
Birthday: December 4, 1986
Place of Birth: San Manuel, Isabela
School: San Beda College
Jersey Number: 11
Height: 6′-3″
Draft year: 2009 (No. 6 overall, Barako)
Position: Forward
Team: Air21 Express
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| REYES, Rob
Birthday: March 16, 1983
Place of Birth: Bethesda, Maryland U.S.A.
School: Flagler College
Jersey Number: 24
Height: 6′-6″
Draft year: 2008 (No. 3 overall, Talk ‘N Text)
Position: Center
Team: Air21 Express
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