Current season, competition or edition: 2016–17 ABL season |
|
Sport | Basketball |
---|---|
Founded | 2009 |
Owner(s) | Tune Group |
No. of teams | 6 |
Countries |
Hong Kong (1 team) Malaysia (1 team) Philippines (1 team) Singapore (1 team) Taiwan (1 team) Vietnam (1 team) |
Continent | FIBA Asia (Asia) |
Most recent champion(s) |
Westports Malaysia Dragons (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, 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. The league was proposed in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and launched on 1 October 2009.
Basketball officials from 6 ASEAN nations gathered in Metro Manila on 1 September 2009 to officially launch the new league.
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.
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.