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Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League

Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL)
Most recent season or competition:
2024 MPBL season
SportBasketball
FoundedAugust 29, 2017; 7 years ago (2017-08-29)
FounderManny Pacquiao
First season2018
COOZaldy Realubit
CommissionerKenneth Duremdes
MottoAng Liga Ng Bawat Pilipino (The League of Every Filipino)
No. of teams29
CountryPhilippines
HeadquartersPasig
ContinentFIBA Asia (Asia)
Most recent
champion(s)		Pampanga Giant Lanterns (2nd title)
Most titlesPampanga Giant Lanterns (2 titles)
TV partner(s)Cignal TV
Media Pilipinas TV
Pilipinas Live
Facebook
YouTube

The Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL) is a men's professional basketball league in the Philippines consisting of 29 teams as of the 2024 season.

Founded in 2017 by eight-division boxing world champion Manny Pacquiao, the MPBL is not intended to be a competitor to the top-flight Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), but rather to provide a gateway for local, homegrown talents to showcase their skills. The league uses a home-and-away format, similar to the defunct Metropolitan Basketball Association.[1] The MPBL started an amateur league before being granted professional status in 2021 by the Games and Amusements Board.[2]

The MPBL is the oldest in a series of leagues under the Maharlika Pilipinas name. It is followed by the Junior MPBL,[3] the Maharlika Pilipinas Volleyball Association (MPVA),[4] and the upcoming Women's Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (WMPBL).[5]

The Pampanga Giant Lanterns are the current defending champions, beating the Quezon Huskers in three games during the 2024 MPBL finals. They are also the team with the most championships with two.[6]

History

Founding

Pacquiao formally launched the MPBL on August 29, 2017, with the intent to feature both the commercial and barangay-level side, with teams on the commercial side to have a home locality in addition to a corporate sponsor.[7][8] The plan was for the league to begin with Luzon-based teams only and then expand to Visayas and Mindanao later on. The expanded league would have two divisions, North and South, where one team from both divisions face in a finals series similar to the format of the National Basketball Association (NBA) in North America.[1] The league was planned to start as early as September 23, 2017 with at least six teams.[9] A preseason tournament was held with the Bulacan Kuyas finishing as champions.[10] Snow Badua was the league's inaugural commissioner, but he did not take on the role when the first season eventually began as six-time PBA champion Kenneth Duremdes succeeded Badua as league commissioner on November 22, 2017.

Amateur era

The Smart Araneta Coliseum (left) served as the venue for the league's inaugural gameday on January 25, 2018. The Mayor Vitaliano D. Agan Coliseum (right) is home to the Zamboanga Master Sardines, one of sixteen teams that joined during the league's national expansion.

The MPBL began its inaugural season on January 25, 2018, at the Smart Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City. The inaugural season featured ten teams, all based in Luzon, with the requirement of each team having three homegrown players.[11][12] In the opening game, the Parañaque Patriots scored a 70–60 victory over the Caloocan Supremos.[13] The playoffs only had eight teams due to the small size, concluding with the Batangas City Athletics winning the inaugural title in the 2018 finals against the Muntinlupa Cagers

In the 2018–19 season, the league added sixteen expansion teams, bringing the total to 26 teams. Five of the sixteen expansions are based in Visayas and Mindanao, thus marking the league's national expansion.[14][15] The North and South Divisions were introduced and the playoff pool doubled to sixteen teams, eight per division.[16] The league also placed roster restrictions on teams, only allowing one Filipino-foreigner and up to five ex-professional players. This season also saw the inaugural edition of the MPBL All-Star Game, which was held at the SM Mall of Asia Arena in Pasay. The San Juan Knights would win the title that season against the Davao Occidental Tigers in the 2019 national finals, which is to date, the only series to go the full length of five games.

The following 2019–20 season featured 31 teams participating in the league, the most the league had in its history, adding six expansion teams but also saw its first departing team, the Mandaluyong El Tigre. Roster restrictions were also relaxed, allowing more Filipino-foreigners and ex-professional players to play in the league.[17] In December 2019, Chooks-to-Go of Bounty Agro Ventures became the title sponsor of the league under what was initially a five-year deal.[18] This season also saw the debut of the International Invasion series, which saw games being played in the United Arab Emirates and in Canada.

COVID-19 disruption

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines, the league suspended play on March 12, 2020. Nearly a year later, on March 6, 2021, the league announced the resumption of its playoffs. The remainder of the league's 2020 playoffs was held at a bubble at the Subic Bay Gymnasium.[19] In a rematch of the 2019 national finals series, the Davao Occidental Tigers won the 2021 national finals against the San Juan Knights.

Because of the restrictions imposed by the government due to the pandemic, the league's 2020–21 season would be cancelled. The league's fourth season would be postponed multiple times before it eventually began in 2022.[20][21] In October 2021, Chooks-to-Go took over the league's basketball operations.[18]

Professional era

On November 9, 2021, it was announced that the MPBL would turn into a professional league. A month later, on December 9, 2021, the MPBL was granted professional status by the Games and Amusements Board (GAB).[2] This also allowed the league to feature collegiate players on team rosters, as long as the player itself is a Special Guest Licensee. The league's first professional event was the 2021 Invitational. During which, all roster restrictions were lifted.[22][23]

The 2022 season would finally begin over a year after last season's conclusion, which featured 22 of the 31 teams from the previous season. The season marked a new sponsorship with sports betting platform OKBet, succeeding Chooks-to-Go as the title sponsor.[24] The Nueva Ecija Rice Vanguards became the first team to achieve a regular season sweep and subsequently won the 2022 national finals against the Zamboanga Family's Brand Sardines. The succeeding 2023 season featured 29 teams, including two expansion teams and five returning teams.[25] The season culminated with the homegrown-laden Pampanga Giant Lanterns sweeping the Bacoor City Strikers in the 2023 national finals.

During this time, a trend began of teams participating in other leagues during the MPBL offseason. This first occurred in FilBasket during the Subic 2021 and Summer 2022 championships, which saw multiple teams participate due to the long gap between the 2019–20 and 2022 seasons.[26][27] In recent years, teams that were eliminated for the season would compete in the Pilipinas Super League (PSL) during the offseason.[28] It is also around this time where multiple PBA prospects, such as Justine Baltazar, CJ Cansino, and Adrian Nocum, began playing in the MPBL before declaring for the draft.[29][30][31]

The 2024 season featured 29 teams, which includes the arrival of two expansion teams but also the departure of three teams. The ex-professional player limit was removed, allowing teams to sign any number of professional players onto their rosters.[32] In April 2024, the league began exploring the possibility of joining the East Asia Super League.[33] However, this was later refuted by EASL CEO Henry Kerins in October that year, stating that "there were no exploratory talks" while also sharing his respect for the league.[34] The season culminated with the first back-to-back championship after Pampanga defeated the Quezon Huskers in three games in the 2024 MPBL finals.[35]

Further developments

Following the success of the MPBL, Pacquiao has made further developments in grassroots-based sports. On June 15, 2023, the Junior MPBL was unveiled in a press conference. The youth-oriented league's inaugural season began on July 9, 2023, with teams competing in 14-under, 16-under, and 18-under divisions.[36] The junior league will soon feature a 21-under division, billed as the "Junior MPBL D-League", which will commence in May 2024. In the same press conference announcing the junior league, Pacquiao also shared intent to create a volleyball counterpart similar to the MPBL that will cater to female players.[3] That league would be known as the Maharlika Pilipinas Volleyball Association (MPVA) and began on October 22, 2023, with eight teams.[4][37] On October 27, 2024, it was reported that a direct women's counterpart, the Women's Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League, will begin its inaugural campaign in January 2025. UST Growling Tigers coach Haydee Ong is set to be the first commissioner of the women's league.[5]

On November 7, 2023, the league launched its social arm, the MPBL Kalinga, with the goal of providing medical assistance to MPBL players, former and current, as well as league officials and staff.[38] In October 2024, a party-list sharing the same acronym, the Maharlikang Pilipino sa Bagong Lipunan party-list, was created in an effort to extend their grassroots program into other sports.[39]

Teams

See also: Timeline of the MPBL
MPBL expansion and contraction
Season No. Exp. Dep. Diff.
2018 10 10 — Increase 10
2018–19 26 16 0 Increase 16
2019–20 31 6 1 Increase 5
2022 22 0 9 Decrease 9
2023 29 7 0 Increase 7
2024 29 3 3 Steady 0

The MPBL began with ten Luzon-based teams in 2018, which was then increased to 26 teams following the national expansion in 2018–19. As of 2024, the league has 29 active member teams, with Abra Weavers and Pangasinan Heatwaves as the newest expansion teams.

The league divides the teams into two divisions based on geographic location: the North Division and the South Division. Metro Manila has the most teams out of any region with nine followed by Calabarzon with five and Central Luzon with four. In terms of island groups, most of the teams are located in Luzon, which has 22 teams. Meanwhile, Mindanao has four teams while Visayas has three.

Overview of MPBL teams
Division Team Locality Primary venue Capacity Founded
(lineage) 		Joined Head coach[a]
North Abra Weavers Abra University of Abra 1,500 2024 Yong Garcia
Bataan Risers Bataan Bataan People's Center 4,000 2018 Goody Ilagan
Bulacan Kuyas Bulacan Baliwag Star Arena[b] 5,000 2017 2018 Jonathan Reyes
Caloocan Batang Kankaloo Caloocan Caloocan Sports Complex 3,000 2017 2018 Alexander Angeles
Manila Batang Sampaloc Manila[c] San Andres Sports Complex 3,000 2018 Ariel Vanguardia
Marikina Shoemasters Marikina Marikina Sports Center[b] 7,000 2018 Rysal Castro
Nueva Ecija Rice Vanguards Nueva Ecija Nueva Ecija Coliseum 3,000 2019 Don Dulay
Pampanga Giant Lanterns Pampanga Bren Z. Guiao Convention Center 3,000 2018 Dennis Pineda (de facto)
Frederick Dimatulac (acting)
Pangasinan Heatwaves Pangasinan Calasiao Sports Complex 4,000 2024 Jerson Cabiltes
Pasay Voyagers Pasay Cuneta Astrodome 12,000 2018 Marlon Martin
Quezon City Toda Aksyon Quezon City Amoranto Arena 200 2018 Egay Macaraya
Rizal Golden Coolers Rizal Ynares Center 7,400 2018 Ralph Rivera
San Juan Knights San Juan Filoil EcoOil Centre 5,500 2018
(1999) 		2018 Jinggoy Estrada (de facto)
Randy Alcantara (acting)
Valenzuela Classic Valenzuela WES Arena 1,100 2017 2018 Eric Martinez
South Bacolod Fyr Fyter Bacolod, Negros Occidental La Salle Coliseum[b] 8,000 2019 TBA
Batangas City Tanduay Rum Masters Batangas City, Batangas Batangas City Sports Coliseum 4,000 2018 Cholo Villanueva
Bicolandia Oragons Bicol Region Ibalong Centrum for Recreation[b] 8,000 2019 Raymond Valenzona
Biñan Tatak Gel Biñan, Laguna Alonte Sports Arena 6,500 2018 Boyet Fernandez
Davao Occidental Tigers Davao Occidental[d] Davao City Recreation Center[b] 2,500 2018 Manu Iñigo
Iloilo United Royals Iloilo Passi City Arena[b] 2,000 2019 MC Abolucion
Imus Agimat Imus, Cavite Imus Sports Complex[b] 1,000 2018 Eric Sy
Mindoro Tamaraws Mindoro Pola Gymnasium N/A 2019 Rodney Santos
Muntinlupa Cagers Muntinlupa Muntinlupa Sports Center[b] 3,000 2018 Mixson Ramos
Negros Muscovados Negros La Salle Coliseum[b] 8,000 2021 2023 Bonnie Garcia
Parañaque Patriots Parañaque Olivarez College 3,500 2017 2018 Michael Saguiguit
Quezon Huskers Quezon Quezon Convention Center 7,000 2023
(2004) 		2023 Eric Gonzales
Sarangani Marlins Sarangani Sarangani Capitol Gymnasium[b] 1,000 2019
(1998) 		2019 John Kallos
South Cotabato Warriors South Cotabato Lagao Gymnasium[b] 6,000 2018
(2005) 		2018 Elvis Tolentino
Zamboanga Master Sardines Zamboanga Peninsula Mayor Vitaliano D. Agan Coliseum 12,000 2019
(2018)[e] 		2018 Louie Alas

Future teams

Team Locality Primary venue Capacity Founded Joining
(Returning) 		Head coach
Basilan MPBL team Basilan Lamitan Capitol Gymnasium 3,000 2018 2018
(2025)[40] 		TBA

Former teams

Team Locality Primary venue Capacity Founded
(lineage) 		Joined Left
Bacoor City Strikers Bacoor, Cavite Strike Gymnasium 1,500 2018 2023
Cebu Casino Ethyl Alcohol Cebu Southwestern University 7,000 2018 2020
Makati OKBet Kings Makati Makati Coliseum 12,000 2018 2023
Mandaluyong El Tigre Mandaluyong José Rizal University 1,000 2018 2019
Navotas Uni-Pak Sardines Navotas Navotas Sports Complex 1,000 2018 2020
Pasig City MCW Sports Pasig Ynares Sports Arena 3,000 2018
(1998) 		2018 2023
Tarlac United Force Tarlac Tarlac State University N/A 2024[f]
Notes
  1. ^ Teams may have two head coaches: a de facto head coach and an acting head coach. For the purposes of this table, both coaches are listed.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k The team did not play any home games in the 2024 season. The venue indicated is their primary venue from the last season they played at home.
  3. ^ Despite being named after the district of Sampaloc, the Manila Batang Sampaloc play their home games in Paco and Malate.
  4. ^ The Davao Occidental Tigers play their home games within the Metro Davao area.
  5. ^ Should one also consider the Zamboanga Valientes, whose MPBL side split from the team to form the now-Zamboanga Master Sardines in 2019, the team's lineage can be dated back to 2006.
  6. ^ The team withdrew mid-season.

Roster regulations

There is no draft held during the off-season, instead teams acquire their players through the signing of contracts. Teams must have a minimum of 15 players in their roster, with the maximum being 22. In each game, however, teams can only field a 15-man roster into the court. All local players are eligible, although teams can also sign up to two Filipino-foreigners. The league currently doesn't allow imports.[41]

Being based in the grassroots level, each team is required to have at least three homegrown players who come from the team's home locality. Since 2022, with the transition to professional status, the league has also allowed collegiate players to join as long as the player is granted a Special Guest License from the Games and Amusement Board.[42] Since June 1, 2024, the NCAA no longer allows SGLs to play professionally.[43][44] The league also had an ex-professional player limit, where teams were allowed to sign limited number of players with prior professional experience. This was replaced with an ex-PBA player limit in 2022, and in 2024 the limit was scrapped in its entirety.[32] The league schedules a window during the middle of the season where teams can propose trades, all to be approved by the commissioner's office.

Season format

Preseason

Main article: MPBL Preseason Invitational

Before the regular season begins, an invitational tournament is usually held as part of the preseason. The tournament is divided into two phases: the group stage and the playoffs. In the group stage, the participating teams are divided into multiple groups, where each team will play against their group opponents once. The top two teams of each group advance to a single-elimination playoffs.

Regular season

See also: List of MPBL seasons

The regular season utilizes a single round-robin tournament format, where each team plays against all of the other teams once, regardless of division alignment. The league uses FIBA rules for all of its games. The league uses the number of wins as its first metric for determining rankings and any ties are broken using the quotient system.[45]

Two or three games are scheduled each day to be played in a single venue, thus a majority of the league's games are considered neutral-site games. The home team typically plays in the final game, although in some occasions, it may also be a neutral-site game. Should any games be postponed or suspended, most commonly due to natural disasters like typhoons, the games would be moved towards the end of the regular season schedule. The affected games will only be played or resumed if there are any playoff implications for any of the teams involved.[46]

Similar to the PBA, league also schedules series of out-of-town games throughout the regular season, known as Invasion series, where consecutive gamedays take place in areas far from the Greater Manila Area, such as Visayas and Mindanao. Invasion series also cover the league's international games.

All-Star Game

Main article: MPBL All-Star Game

Near the end of the regular season, the league holds its seasonal All-Star Game. Two teams representing the North and South Divisions are composed of fifteen players from each division, all of whom are declared as the season's all-stars. Alongside the All-Star Game are the various festivities held at the same day, including the Executives' Game, Three-Point Shootout, and Slam Dunk Contest.

Playoffs

See also: MPBL finals

Since the 2018–19 season, top eight teams in each division advance to the playoffs. In the first round or the division quarterfinals, the first seed matches with the eighth seed, the second with the seventh, the third with the sixth, and the fourth with the fifth. The division semifinals will then have the winner of the 1–8 series match with the winner of the 4–5 series, and the winner of the 2–7 series with the winner of the 3–6 series. The winners of both series then meet in the division finals. All three divisional rounds are played in best-of-three series.

The champions of each division will then meet in the final round, dubbed as the MPBL finals or the MPBL national finals, where the two teams play in a best-of-five series to determine the series champion.

Homecourt advantage

During the first two rounds of the playoffs, two games from within the same division are played in the same gameday at the same venue. Because of this, a different system is used to determine homecourt advantage for those two rounds, shown in the table below. The division finals uses a 1–1–1 format, while the national finals uses a 2–2–1 format.

Seed Court
DQF DSF Game 1 Game 2 Game 3
1st Highest Home Neutral Home
2nd Home or
Neutral
3rd Second-highest Neutral Home
4th
5th Second-lowest Neutral Away Away or
neutral
6th
7th Lowest Away Neutral
8th Away
Notes
  • If one or two series feature a game 3, the highest-seeded remaining team hosts the games.
  • If more than two series feature a game 3, the two highest-seeded remaining teams host the games.

Awards

Main article: List of MPBL awards

A majority of the league's awards are given out during the national finals, such as the Most Valuable Player and Defensive Player of the Year awards. Two awards, the Finals MVP and Coach of the Year, are given out after the finals.

Championships

Main article: List of MPBL champions

As of 2024, five teams have won the championship, with the Pampanga Giant Lanterns being the only team to win two titles. Three teams have made two appearances in the national finals thus far.

† Team has since departed the league
Team Win Loss Total Year(s) won Year(s) lost
Pampanga Giant Lanterns 2 0 2 2023, 2024 —
San Juan Knights 1 1 2 2019 2021
Davao Occidental Tigers 1 1 2 2021 2019
Batangas City Tanduay Rum Masters 1 0 1 2018 —
Nueva Ecija Rice Vanguards 1 0 1 2022 —
Muntinlupa Cagers 0 1 1 — 2018
Zamboanga Master Sardines 0 1 1 — 2022
Bacoor City Strikers† 0 1 1 — 2023
Quezon Huskers 0 1 1 — 2024

Junior MPBL

Year Season Age group Champion Runner-up
2023 Season 1 14-Under Cavite City Aces Solar Mindoro Junior Disiplinados
16-Under Davao Red Cubs Quezon City 828 Junior Giants
18-Under Mandaluyong Junior Microsmith Davao Red Cubs
2024 Season 2 14-Under To be determined
16-Under To be determined
18-Under To be determined
D-League
(21-Under) 		To be determined

Rivalries

Due to the league using a single round-robin format in every season thus far, the league’s rivalries mostly revolve around their playoff match-ups, where they play mutliple games in a series. Others may involve contention within the division or the league overall, or the proximity of the teams.

North Division

  • Nueva Ecija–Pampanga rivalry
    • During the early to mid-2020s, the two teams have become consistent contenders in the North Division. With both teams being based in Central Luzon, this added geography to the rivalry. The two teams met in the playoffs twice, both in the division semifinals, with Nueva Ecija winning the 2022 meeting and Pampanga winning the 2024 meeting.[47][48]
  • Nueva Ecija–San Juan rivalry
    • Since the start of the professional era, both teams have become consistent contenders in the North Division. Although they only met in the MPBL playoffs twice, including a North Division finals match-up in 2022,[49] it has also extended into other leagues.
  • Pampanga–San Juan rivalry
    • A notable rivalry in the early to mid-2020s, both teams faced off in the playoffs three times in four seasons from 2020 to 2024, culminating in back-to-back battles for the North Division title in the latter two seasons, with Pampanga winning both.[50][51]

South Division

  • Batangas City–Zamboanga rivalry
    • Both teams met in the playoffs in three consecutive seasons from 2019 to 2022, with all three series going the full three-game length. The culmination of this streak was a South Division finals match-up which Zamboanga won.[52][53]

Interdivisional

  • Davao Occidental–San Juan rivalry
    • A notable rivalry during the amateur era, the two teams met in the national finals in back-to-back seasons (2019 and 2021), with San Juan winning the former and Davao Occidental winning the latter.[54]

Defunct

  • Bacoor City–Imus rivalry
    • The league's first intra-provincial rivalry,[55] Bacoor City and Imus fought for triumph in Cavite. The rivalry itself, however, wasn't as competitive as Bacoor City won all four meetings against Imus, none of which happened in the playoffs. The rivalry ended after the 2023 season following Bacoor City's departure.

Media coverage

Throughout the history of the MPBL, it has had multiple networks acquire the league's broadcast rights. In its first season, ABS-CBN became the league's first broadcast partner in 2018,[56] and aired the games on television via the main channel, S+A, Liga, its various regional stations in regional markets, and The Filipino Channel in international markets. The networ's iWantTFC streaming service aired the games worldwide. Due to the shutdown of ABS-CBN broadcasting, its last broadcast was the 2021 MPBL finals before the league had to find a new partner.

Other networks which previously held the broadcast rights include Fox Sports Asia, which held the broadcast rights for Monday games throughout the 2018–19 season. Afterwards, it was the Intercontinental Broadcasting Corporation broadcasting all games during the 2021 Invitational, with TAP Digital Media Ventures Corporation's TAP Go service streaming the games.

Current

Currently, Cignal TV holds the television broadcast rights. Since 2022, One PH airs the primetime game via delayed telecast while Media Pilipinas TV (MPTV) airs all games live since 2023. The games are also streamed on Cignal's Pilipinas Live streaming service. The league broadcasts all of the games online via its social media channels.

The league provides a single broadcast feed that is utilized across all platforms. It also employs its own broadcast team of commentators and analysts.

Criticisms and controversies

In 2018, ahead of its second season, the league was criticized for its classification of and restrictions on Filipino-foreigners. Intended to maintain parity and to keep in line with the league's grassroots foundations, the rule became controversial among fans, coaches, and players, particularly, Filipino-foreigners who have played in the PBA such as Rob Reyes and Abu Tratter.[57][58]

The league's officiating has also been criticized with a focus on physicality. Following dissatisfaction from a non-call during a 2023 playoff game against Zamboanga, Quezon team manager Donn Kapunan stated that “there's no problem with a physical game; that's part of it. But intentionally hurting someone, action should be taken by the officials to be fair to every team, so that that kind of incident does not happen again.”[59] In 2024, Manila player Greg Slaughter described the league's physicality as "fouling that isn't called" in an interview with SPIN.ph's Homer D. Sayson.[60]

The league has also been noted for its game-fixing problem, which has been one of its long-standing issues. The league began cracking down on game-fixing ahead of the 2019–20 season,[61] a season that went on to have multiple such cases.[62][63][64] Ahead of the 2024 season, the league banned 47 players and officials who were allegedly involved in such acts.[65]

Commissioners

Kenneth Duremdes, MPBL commissioner since November 2017.
No. Commissioner Tenure
From To
1 Snow Badua August 29, 2017 November 22, 2017
2 Kenneth Duremdes November 22, 2017 incumbent

See also

References

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Quelle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPBL