History
The PBL was formed in May 6, 1983, a brainchild of San Miguel Corporation chairman Danding Cojuangco, under its original name 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, over 36 collegiate and commercial teams participated in the tournament that was played in the historic Rizal Memorial Coliseum.
The PABL became a breeding ground for future Philippine Basketball Association superstars Jun Limpot, Johnny Abarrientos, Allan Caidic, Samboy Lim, Bong Alvarez, Alvin Patrimonio, Jojo Lastimosa and Benjie Paras. In the early days, the league even invited some foreign squads to beef up the tournament.
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 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 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. In 2007, PBL broke away from Studio 23 and signed an agreement with cable channel Basketball TV to broadcast the games.
Chino Trinidad announced (March 2010) that he would be retiring as commissioner of the PBL and said he would be focusing his career as reporter of GMA-7 and sportscaster for Solar Sports.
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 was planned 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 the "D-League" on their own after merger talks (PBL & Liga Pilipinas) failed.
In 2011, PBL 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, the league experienced great difficulty finding 6 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 the PBL hibernating again.
Read more about this topic: Philippine Basketball League
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