PBA is fielding a team in 2025 Basketball Champions League – BusinessWorld Online
THE PBA is preparing to field a team for the first time in the 2025 Basketball Champions League (BCL) Asia.
Asia’s first play-for-pay league is allotted one slot in the Continent’s highest club competition and is in the process of determining which champion squad in the three-conference Season 49 to send.
TNT reigned supreme in the season-opening Governors’ Cup with Barangay Ginebra as runner-up. The Tropang Giga and the Gin Kings are also contesting the trophy in the mid-season Commissioner’s Cup. The centerpiece conference, the Philippine Cup, will be disputed starting April 5.
“The board is finalizing the PBA bet,” Commissioner Willie Marcial said of the PBA’s bet in the BCL which is slated for a June tipoff.
The PBA champ will tangle with counterparts from the Japan B. League, the Chinese Basketball Association and the Korean Basketball League, the winner and runner-up of the FIBA West Asia Super League as well as the Top 2 of the Qualifiers that will be played over six windows from March 24 to May 16.
The PBA was originally set to compete in the competition’s inaugurals last year but begged off due to its stacked schedule in 2023, including the FIBA World Cup.
Over the years, the country has captured four championships in the tournament formerly called FIBA Asia Champions Cup via Northern Cement (1984), Swift-PABL (1988), Andok’s (1995) and Hapee (1996). The Meralco Bolts flew the Philippine flag in the 2018 edition and finished fourth.
Aside from the BCL Asia, the PBA is committed to participate in the next season of the East Asia Super League. Mr. Marcial said the two EASL berths are also up for determination by the PBA board.
In the recent Season 2 of the home-and-away league, the pro league tapped Season 48 Commissioner’s Cup ruler San Miguel Beer and Season 48 Philippine Cup kingpin Meralco for the EASL’s 2024-24 hostilities.
The Bolts logged a 2-4 record in Group B and missed a Final Four appearance by one victory while the Beermen crashed out winless in Group A. — Olmin Leyba
