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28-724: After the Metropolitan Basketball Association (MBA) folded up in 2002, the clamor for a regional basketball did not die down. Several leagues with the community-based concept started to surface but none of them lasted. On such league was the National Basketball League (NBL), owned and operated by the Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP), the former Philippine basketball governing body. In 2003,

56-561: A new theme, calling the PBL as the "faster league". Yeng Guiao replaced Favis, when Guiao left the coaching ranks. The league gained early success with the dominance of the Tanduay Rhum Masters , the arrival of Eric Menk and Asi Taulava , and the holding PBL games at the air-conditioned Makati Coliseum. In 2000, former Vintage Sports commentator Chino Trinidad replaced Guiao, when the commissioner resigned to coach Red Bull in

84-792: A three-conference format, similar with the PBA. The MBA had a set of its unique rules compared to the PBA: Teams in bold won the MBA National Championship. The MBA on ABS-CBN was a branding for presentation of the Metropolitan Basketball Association games by the ABS-CBN Sports . The MBA on ABS-CBN premiered on March 7, 1998, when the league inaugurated its first season, and ended on December 19, 2001. After that,

112-528: The Philippine Amateur Basketball League (PABL). It was the successor of the defunct Manila Industrial and Commercial Athletic Association (MICAA), which folded during the early-1980s. During the inaugural PABL tournament, 37 teams divided into four divisions from collegiate and commercial ranks participated in the tournament that was played in the historic Rizal Memorial Coliseum . De La Salle University emerged champion in

140-666: The Philippine Basketball Association , the country's premier professional basketball league. The PBL's popularity grew, inviting commercial teams bannered by single collegiate teams, and the league also gained a stable broadcast partner in Studio 23 (now S+A ). In 2007, PBL broke away from Studio 23 and signed an agreement with cable channel Basketball TV to broadcast the games. Chino Trinidad announced in March 2010 that he would be retiring as commissioner of

168-490: The " PBA Developmental League ", or the PBA D-League, on their own after merger talks between PBL and Liga Pilipinas failed. In 2011, the PBL's board of governors named Nolan Bernardino, son of former PBA commissioner Emilio "Jun" Bernardino, as the new PBL commissioner, while Sports Vision, the company behind the success of Shakey's V-League , was named as the group that would handle PBL's day-to-day operations. However,

196-623: The "Challenge to Champions", Sixteen teams saw action. The cast included 12 commercial teams and 4 collegiate squads especially the NCAA and UAAP champions, San Sebastian College and University of the East . In the 1990s, the league was renamed as the Philippine Basketball League under Andy Jao, who would later return to the broadcasting panel of the PBA coverage on Vintage Sports. Jao's replacement, Charlie Favis later adopted

224-559: The 2006 season, new expansion team joined the league, Pagadian Explorers of Mayor Sammy S. Co, the tournament was divided into two conferences, similar to the format used by the Philippine Basketball Association and the Philippine Basketball League . Ozamiz Cotta won the first conference title in Game 3 against the expansion team Pagadian Explorers, the first ever expansion team in league history to reach finals, while

252-758: The BAP had asked the NBL group to give back the "National Basketball League" name and rights to the BAP. The NBL officials did so, regrouped, and came up with a new name: the National Basketball Conference , a league totally independent of the BAP. In 2004, the NBC played its first season with 8 teams participating, forming two divisions, Northern (Baguio Cardinals, Forward Taguig, Laguna Springs and Batangas 29ers) and Southern (Iloilo Warriors, Tribu Sugbu-Cebu, Cagayan de Oro Stars, Ozamiz Cotta). It still adopted

280-463: The Cagayan de Oro Stars. The game went into double overtime with the visitors prevailing 114–110. Iloilo's Carlos Sayon registered 30 points in the win. Tribu Sugbo (then owned by businessmen Lito Gillamac and Albert Tan and coached by former PBA player Al Solis) defeated Forward Taguig (owned by Taguig Freddie Tinga and coached by former FEU mentor Danny Gavieres) in a thrilling three-game series to cop

308-785: The MBA teams represented a particular city, province or island in the country. The MBA played its first game on March 7, 1998 at the Don Narciso Ramos Sports Complex in Lingayen, Pangasinan . The MBA was widely viewed as broadcast giant ABS-CBN 's attempt to undermine the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) after failing to snatch its broadcast rights in 1998, even as far as raid the PBA for talent in order to compete. Metroball allowed foreigners to play for their teams, not requiring Philippine passports of them, nor requiring those foreigners to have Filipino blood. All

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336-425: The MBA's Home and Away format, but introduced the "Road Swing" wherein which cross-division contests required a team to tackle all its opposition in one road trip (usually lasting a little more than one week). This formula was drawn up by then Basketball Operations chief Noel Zarate, who was also the voice behind the original NBC broadcasts. The opening game featured a matchup between the visiting Iloilo Warriors against

364-548: The NBN officially take over the coverage in 2002. Philippine Basketball League The Philippine Basketball League (PBL) was a commercial semi-professional basketball league in the Philippines . The league was composed of several commercial teams with several collegiate and provincial stars. The PBL was formed on May 6, 1983, a brainchild of San Miguel Corporation chairman Danding Cojuangco , under its original name

392-506: The PABL scored a big breakthrough. Faced with an economic crisis, the league was able to get the sponsorship of San Miguel Corporation . Eighteen teams joined the 1st SMC-sponsored Invitationals with ESQ Marketing winning its third straight title against a strong Lagerlite crew. With the tremendous success of the tournament, San Miguel again agreed to be the sole sponsor of the second PABL conference that year, won by Army Jungle Fighters, dubbed as

420-525: The PBL and said he would be focusing his career as correspondent of GMA Network . Eventually, Trinidad left GMA in 2023. Through an agreement between the PBL and the Liga Pilipinas , a joint tournament was held in June 2010. The agreement was made as dry-run of a proposed "Developmental League", which was initiated by the Philippine Basketball Association , just like NBA 's D-League . The tournament

448-494: The PBL being disbanded. Beginning the 2007 season, the PBL games were seen on Basketball TV (a channel of the Solar family of cable networks) after several years of being shown on UHF television station Studio 23 . Games were televised every Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays from 5-9 pm Philippine time plus rebroadcasts on BTV in the wee hours of the morning. RPN also had a delayed telecast of Tuesday's second game, but this

476-546: The Southern Conference composed of Visayas - and Mindanao -based teams. The season concluded with the MBA National Finals, where the champions of both conferences face off to determine the season champions. After the league adapted a semi-commercial format, in which teams are sponsored by companies, several methods were used to in determining the champion. In their final season, they have adapted

504-589: The first NBC National Championship. Egay Echavez of Ozamiz was the first league MVP. In 2005, new teams joined the league that included the Parañaque Jets, who made headlines by defeating the Basketball Association of the Philippines -sponsored RP-Cebuana Lhuillier Team in the NBC Preseason tournament. The Jets, though, failed to make the playoffs as the Ozamiz Cotta won the championship. For

532-415: The games were usually put on airtime slots. With ABS-CBN, the league initially forged a deal in 2003 as a blocktimer, then in 2004 renewed ties to make ABS-CBN Sports its official TV producer/coverer and Studio 23 its official carrying station of the games. DZSR Sports Radio 918 kHz , a government station, had been airing the PBL games on radio since the start of the PABL back in the mid-1980s. In 2002,

560-490: The high expenses in funding a regional basketball league, with ABS-CBN also withdrawing the funding for the league. Several players went to the semi-professional Philippine Basketball League en route to the PBA. The MBA had a format similar to that of North America's National Basketball Association (NBA). The teams were divided into two conferences: the Northern Conference composed of Luzon -based teams, and

588-418: The league experienced great difficulty finding six teams for the 2011 opening tournament when four of the teams that had earlier confirmed their participation jumped ship to the PBA D-League, namely Pharex, Agri Nurture-FCA, Cafe France and Cobra Energy Drink. PBL Commissioner Nolan Bernardino said he had already been informed of the matter and that he respected the transferring teams' decisions. This resulted in

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616-470: The league opened its official website, myPBL.com, powered by E-Highway. In 2007, the website transferred to a new address at PhilippineBasketballLeague.org with the alternate address, PBL.org.ph. These sites are now defunct. The Philippine Basketball Association , the premier basketball league in the country, has a special relationship with the PBL; several teams in the PBL are owned by companies also having PBA teams (such as San Miguel Corporation 's PBL team

644-548: The league required was that these players be born in the Philippines. As a direct result of this practice, the MBA and its foreign-born players began attracting attention away from the PBA, forcing the PBA to escalate their own players' salaries and practically rendering the PBA draft useless through a "direct hiring" process. This allowed PBA teams like Talk 'N Text and Tanduay to negotiate directly with MBA players or MBA prospects (like Asi Taulava and Sonny Alvarado) for their services. The league then folded on July 26, 2002, due to

672-647: The league's dry-run. Towards the end of 1983, 16 teams founded the PABL and the league held its first official tourney, the Founder's Cup. Arellano University was the champion of the tournament. During their second year in 1984, three PABL tournaments were held: the Ambassador's Cup won by Development Bank of Rizal, the President's Cup and the Invitationals, the two latter won by ESQ Marketing. In 1985,

700-436: The new Liga Pilipinas . and many others National Basketball Conference games are broadcast via Basketball TV and Prime Channel Metropolitan Basketball Association The Metropolitan Basketball Association ( MBA ), also shortened as Metroball , was a professional basketball league in the Philippines that ran from 1998 until 2002. The league used a home-and-away system, in which teams represent companies,

728-611: The second conference is also won by Ozamis Cotta via sweep against the Batang Tagaytay Springs. For the 2007 season, a new team joined the league, GenSan-MP Pacman Warriors of boxing legend Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao from General Santos . The League has its TV partners the 24-hour Basketball TV and Viva Prime Channel. In 2008, it merged with the Mindanao Visayas Basketball Association (MVBA), and Third Force Inc. (TFI) to form

756-422: Was moved to IBC-13 on Saturdays, until the season-ending 2008 Lipovitan Amino Sports Cup. The coverage eventually returned to RPN named as C/S 9. The telecast of the games were live but the other games were delayed subject to prior coverage of the games until 2010. Prior to BTV, previous broadcasters included ABS-CBN , People's Television Network , Silverstar Sports, Solar Sports and Vintage Television , as

784-527: Was to be named "Tournament of the Philippines". Tournament of the Philippines started June 9, 2010, and used the Liga Pilipinas ' home-and-away leg format with 9 teams involved, 3 from the PBL and 6 from Liga Pilipinas . M.Lhuillier Kwarta Padala-Cebu Ninos became the 1st (and last) TOP champions by defeating Misamis Oriental Meteors , 3–2. After the tournament, merger talks between the 2 leagues went sour and were put off for good. The Philippine Basketball Association then announced that they would organize instead

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