14-639: The Nueva Ecija Patriots were a professional basketball team in the now-defunct Metropolitan Basketball Association from 1999 to 2001. The Patriots were derived from the province's origin during the Philippine revolution against the Spanish colonial rule in the late 19th century. In 1999, the MBA added three more franchises to increase their number of clubs to 15 with Nueva Ecija , San Juan, Metro Manila and Surigao . Under former national team coach Joe Lipa ,
28-792: 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,
42-650: The Pangasinan Waves as they held the third-worst record in the league at 7–23 win-loss slate. In 2000, Nueva Ecija improved its record by three games but missed the playoffs for the second straight year with a 10–16 record. A year later, Miller left the team to join the Philippine Basketball Association . The Patriots went 3–11 both phases of the tournament. After the season, the Patriots ceased operations and did not return for
56-506: The 2002 season. 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, the MBA teams represented a particular city, province or island in the country. The MBA played its first game on March 7, 1998 at
70-609: The Chaneco brothers Joel and Jerome and comebacking cagers Ramil Cruz and Dodong Postanes. The Patriots played their home games in Araullo University Gym. The Patriots lost in the first-ever match against fellow expansion team San Juan Knights at the Cuneta Astrodome . The Patriots struggled throughout the 1999 season despite Miller ranking among the top 10 leaders in scoring, Crisano was later traded to
84-604: 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
98-450: The NBN officially take over the coverage in 2002. ABS-CBN Sports ABS-CBN Sports was a sports division of the Philippine media conglomerate ABS-CBN Corporation , which aired some of the notable sporting events in the Philippines . ABS-CBN Sports began in 1998 as the main broadcaster for the network-backed basketball league Metropolitan Basketball Association which introduced
112-729: The Patriots will parade Fil-American Alex Crisano , who played in Cortez High School back in the United States and was a slamdunk champion in a Filipino community in New York. Former Letran Knight Willie Miller , who at that time had an existing contract playing for Tanduay Rhum in the Philippine Basketball League . Aside from Crisano and Miller, there is the youthful Rensy Bajar, Julius Vinuya, three-point specialist John Verrayo, Ferdinand Ninoc,
126-546: 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
140-490: 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
154-555: The home-and-away play format in the Philippine basketball landscape. Simultaneous with that (shortly before the MBA collapsed), it acquired the broadcast rights to the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) and National Collegiate Athletic Association (Philippines) (NCAA) collegiate basketball leagues, which bolstered Studio 23 's ratings and at the same time aligned further toward
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#1732797621713168-548: 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
182-405: The said channel's programming thrust to the youth. ABS-CBN Sports also supplant contents to their sports channel S+A aired on UHF Channel 23 (main channel) and Sky Cable Channel 166 (HD channel). The division also maintains their official website, sports.abs-cbn.com, one of the top sports news websites in the Philippines. On July 16, 2020, the final buzzer sounded as the staff and employees of
196-554: The sports division became part of a series of retrenchments, following the July 10 vote of the House Committee on Legislative Franchises denied the network a congressional franchise , officially ceased its operations on August 31. Following the closure, several sports rights were transferred to the different TV channels (including TAP Sports and Premier Sports , both owned by TAP Digital Media Ventures Corporation ). Despite
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