ASIAN PRO LEAGUE PLANNED TO RIVAL NBA
Manila, Aug. 28, 1998 - The president of the Asian Basketball Association revealed plans to create a new professional league in Asia that would rival the National Basketball Association of North America.
ABC president Carl Ching Meng-ky told sports writers that the new league, known as the Asian Professional Basketball League (APBL) will gather "the best of the best" in the region.
"The reason why I am here in the Philippines is because I want to see Philippine basketball. I'm inviting Filipinos to participate in the new Asian league because it would be so nice to see the best Filipinos, Chinese, Koreans and Japanese play side by side with probably an American import," Meng-ky said.
The proposed league intends to start with eight teams: the Philippines, China, South Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia and Chinese-Taipei. Countries participating in the league will have their teams named after their capital cities.
The league's inaugural season is expected to last 3 months, and will cost US$10 million to stage. A purse of $120,000 is to be given to the champion team.
Philippine Basketball League commissioner Joseller Guiao commented that the proposal looks good, but he still has to consider other options, details of which he did not reveal to media men.
Reported by: Sol Jose Vanzi
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