Philippine Patriots had only harsh words on themselves for their defeat against Singapore Slingers last week and will hope to mend their bruised ego in their debut home game against Thailand Tigers this weekend, while the Slingers will face their first road test in Brunei.
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@moh:
I share your worries about the Tigers. Apparently, they could not even get someone to do the FIBAlivestats for their first game, so we can only rely on the boxscore after the match for the stats.
As for number of teams in Singapore, I thought 2 could be nice, just to give a few more players a chance to rub shoulder with the best in the region regularly. No more, because fan-base would be dilute, but also probably no less, to develop more local players.
About expanding to East Asia, I wonder what incentive they would have to play against us right now. Think about it, even PBA opted out of ABL. East Asia has a much higher standard than Philippines, mind you. However, India may be a workable expansion location, as their standard is roughly that of Asean.
I too hope there are strict financial criteria put in place before any new franchise is accepted into the ABL. Any closure of a franchise will cause very bad publicity for the ABL as a whole – we better learn from what is happening in the NBL and do not repeat their mistakes.
As far as Singapore is concerned, I really think there should only be one team from here in order to not dilute away the fanbase. Since Singapore is only one city, it is very difficult to build loyalty and excitement for different teams within the same city – just look at the small crowds in the S-league. For bigger countries, different cities can still hope to set up individual franchises as it is possible to build up support within a ciy for a team.
I was thinking that expansion should actually be to other countries – maybe a team each from Japan, Korea, India, China?
Of course, the farther the league goes, the more planning there has to be in terms of scheduling. Teams will have to be on the road for an extended period of time and try to knock off 3-4 games at one shot – they can’t keep flying back to their home base and travelling again the following week.
Anyway, all these things are far into the future. I think the most important thing is that out of the 6 teams, every single one comes back next season. I am worried about the Thailand Tigers – apparently the first home game was free entry and still almost noone showed up – on TV it looked like it was an empty stadium. Hope they find ways to get some revenue in quickly. For the rest of the teams, all look to be in decent shape – should be a shoo in for next season.
@mart & Les:
I think we have to realise that the circumstances of Asean football is different from Asean football. Allow me to explain further from what I have observed.
As much as we, Singapore football fans, are frustrated by the lack of support and seeming stagnate domestic league, the same cannot be apply to other regional leagues. Indonesia, for example, have a very well support league. They are also guarantee a place in the AFC Champions League. The Vietnamese and Thai league are also quite well-supported.
It would not go down well should these domestic leagues with varying degree of success end up having to play second feeder to a new Asean Football League. Coupled with the fact that dates have to be set aside for national team matches, and some according to FIFA schedule, the situation would become more complicated. Add these to the fact that AFC actually wants each country to have it’s own domestic league, the idea of an Asean football league may not go down well to a lot of people.
Basketball is different. Other than PBA, and maybe IBL in Indonesia, there isn’t any established domestic league. Furthermore, this initiative is supported by FIBA Asia, so things was a little easiler, just there are incentives to consolidate.
Another thing…
I do not understand why FIBA rule is considered “amateur”, because that is the rule use in the Olympics and World Championship. Also in most other competitions worldwide other than NBA and PBA. This idea is very American-centric, disregarding the rest of the world.
wow, expanding to 20 teams is too ambitious…
I hope ABL would accept only those teams that have financial muscle to endure some growing pains.
They should have extended game play to 48 minutes instead of the FIBA/amateur 40 minutes. 40 minutes is just too short.
Once the ABL becomes stable, some PBA players will try their luck on ABL teams.
Is it true they might also launch a football version of the ABL?
I think they should hold off on that. People might just turn their attention to football.
Here in Singapore, Slingers can be viewed only in ESPN, star sports, and @HDSling (or HD@sling???)…hope that they’ll broadcast replays on free tv.
@mart: It won’t be on free tv because MediaCorp wanted to charge Slingers a huge sum of money to broadcast their games.
It’s no more on SlingHD because SlingHD lost their broadcast rights to ESPN.
Football version of ABL is possible only if the ASEAN Football Federation can get their act together.
The people behind the ABL wanted to do football first but football (AFF) couldn’t make up their mind.
Football’s loss is basketball’s gain.
But if ABL works, you can bet the football boys will agree. Nothing like success to encourage others to jump in. Time will tell.
@those who are still thinking that the ABL is a national team tournament, please stop saying things like if singapore has no imports etc. If we have Kobe Bryant, we will thrash the RP national team. Stop using the ‘ifs’….
And please stop waving that national flag to block people who want to watch the game. My group only managed to watch half the game because half the time we saw the flag instead of the court. It is very very annoying. I hope people can be more considerate.
Was reading all the comments. But people, Patriots is not RP national team, neither is Slingers SG NT. So let’s just enjoy the game.
But as a Singapore sports fan, I do get a bit excited about the potential talent coming up. We have the Slingers with 8 locals (@ Les: I think you count 7 because you excluded Prasad Sadasivan, any idea whether is he an official Slingers? I’m putting 8 so that people will not think it’s 5 foreigners, because it’s 4).
Then we have a team in Guangxi recently, finishing 4th in the China-Asean basketball tournament. To add to that, our U-16 to play in the Asian championship in Malaysia next month. Plus the AYG/YOG team. Plus the Cagers team developing youngsters(where are they now? Haven’t heard of them since last year).
I was dreaming that, perhaps in 3 to 5 seasons, we can have an establish ABL, with maybe 12-18 teams, of which 2 are Singaporeans. One of them will be the Slingers, but now with only 2 foreign imports with 10 locals, the best of us all, challenging at the top for the title. The other will be a new franchise, with 2 imports and maybe 1 Asean player, guiding the younger and less promising journeyman, doing respectably in the ABL.
So when the 2 meets, it will be the ABL Singapore Derby!
I awaits the day that to happens…
@nameless: You’re right. There is Prasad. He trains with them. If I remember correctly, each team is allowed to have 20 in their squad but they can only name no more than 12 and no less than 10 for a game. So Prasad tends to get left out unless one of the other 7 Singaporeans gets injured (hopefully not of course, but with a long season, anything can happen).
The ABL is shooting to expand the league to 20 in a few years’ time. Ambitious. But if they pull it off, it will be a different league altogether. Imagine 35-50 games a year, not counting playoffs? That would be some league and give players a chance to make a living year round.
Good for Singapore.
@jake hate mails? I think you need an eye check instead of us having a grammar check. 😉 If you really want to, check YOUR (no no, not you’re) language usage first
do you guys even know how to play basketball, please check you’re grammar i can’t understand your hate mails… hahaha way to go ABL…
Well said Les!!
To the pinoy fans, we have already discussed these things so many times over the last season, this is a commercial team in the sports entertainment industry. The goal of the slingers is two fold – to improve basketball in Singapore and to provide quality sports entertainment to Singaporeans.
One of the smartest things the Slingers did was to get the national coach installed as an assistant right from the start 4 years ago. The national team will only get more and more better with greater exposure in the ABL.
Perhaps by the third or fourth season, once all the countries have gained a lot of experience, the ASEAN import rule can be dropped and then it will 2 imports and the rest of the players as locals.
I look forward to a season 5-6 years from now when there will be sold out stadiums, local players making million dollar salaries, top notch sponsors like nike, adidas sponsoring the players. If it can happen in the US then why not over here, it just all depends on how big crowds can be built up 🙂
Now this is some proper bantering!
In my humble opinion, Les is absolutely right! Slingers is just a club from Singapore and do not represent the country in its entirety. We are happy that the slingers are doing well and I hope that this will improve the standard of basketball on the whole. Whether we are better than Phillippines is another issue altogether!
do you think slingers will have a chance of beating patriots if they used 3 singaporeans + 2 american imports against patriots 3 pilipinos + 2 american import3 on court? My answer is a big NO!
@critico: The intelligent, sensible, reasonable Singaporean will also give the same answer as you but it’s a question only you are concerned with.
Nobody’s saying Singaporeans are better than Filipinos in basketball at national level.
Do Singaporeans have talents? Yes.
Do they have exposure to play at a higher level? No.
The ABL now gives the best Singaporean players that exposure.
So just relax with your flag waving. Wrong event. Wait for the SEA Games.
It is not a material point for the ABL.
Way to go ballergirl! Well said!
If you live in Singapore you should support your team and country you are NOW in…support the guys that are putting your city and country on the map. When Singapore wins all of Phillipine supports WILL switch teams. Just the way “SOME” people are.
By the way Phillipine players didnt cross multiple time zones for all the excuses of WHY they lost. They lost and got they butts wooped and would have gotten beaten worse IF the refs werent cheating for them.Phillipines are taught to play DIRTY basketball becaus ethey cant HOLD or defend their player..THAT ISNT GOOD BALL PLAYER PRACTICE…(REFER TO THE NBA) Our Slingers couldnt buy a foul or charge… so learn ur basketball and give credit or just keep being a HATER!!This is just the start to Slingers great season and they are just getting into their groove!! EITHER WAY GOOOOOOO SLINGERS
TO …
ISNT ASIA TIMEZONE THE SAME! WHY IN THE WORLD WILL THERE BE A NEED TO ADJUST THE BIOCLOCK OF YOUR BODY? AND WE,SINGAPORES OR YOU ALL,SHOULDN’T COMMENT LIKE WHO IS BETTER WHO IS NOT,WHO IS BETTER HERE OR THERE. CAUSE THE MAIN POINT IS THAT ONCE THEY BATTLE,YOU KNOW WHO IS STRONGER,IF THIS TIME SLINGERS WON,SLINGERS IS STRONGER,IF NEXT TIME THE PARIOT WINS,THEY ARE STRONGER AT THAT POINT. PLEASE DO NOT USE HARSH WORDS TO CRITISE BASKETBALL WHERE PLAYERS TRAIN EVERYDAY JUST TO LET OTHERS KNOW THEY ARE STRONG, KNOW! NOT SAY! HOPE YOU GUYS UNDERSTAND THE MESSAGE HERE…
@….. I think you are a Filipino, supporting Philippines rather than Singapore. Philippines played their best and they lost. By the way, if you would like to argue in that way, Slingers only played their 50%, otherwise, Philippines Patriots will get whooped like a monkey.
@pakshet101, Philippines’ basketball supremacy feels threatened eh? Why is there a need to upgrade? Why not use the same team that played against the Slingers? Don’t need to show who’s boss. The fact that the team needs to upgrade just goes to show the current team is shaky and may not lead Philippines to win the ABL. SINGAPORE!!!!SINGAPORE!!!!SINGAPORE!!!!SINGAPORE!!!!
Well what more for the Patriots with three new players, (Acuña, Baclao, and Espiritu) beginning Sunday it would only make them stronger and will be resolved to show the Singapore Slingers who’s boss when the latter visit the Philippines… on November…
It’s just the home games, fellas. The real test would come when you guys start travlin’
Hey,Slingerrocks,if you had seen a philppines play at their best you will not say Slingers is the best in the ABL.And what is given i don’t think it’s a excuse.Just the boring way Slinger is playing.Just comparing it with how the Philipines ,the ball movement is way better.
Their is a thing call jet lagg for god-sake?never tried before?
When traveling across a number of time zones, the body clock will be out of synchronisation with the destination time, as it experiences daylight and darkness contrary to the rhythms to which it has grown accustomed: the body’s natural pattern is upset, as the rhythms that dictate times for eating, sleeping, hormone regulation and body temperature variations no longer correspond to the environment nor to each other in some cases. To the degree that the body cannot immediately realign these rhythms, it is jet lagged.IT MAKES PEOPLE TIRED OUT AND WILL NOT EVEN FOR 2 – 3 DAYS.The speed at which the body adjusts to the new schedule depends on the individual; some people may require several days to adjust to a new time zone, while others experience little disruption. Crossing one or two time zones does not typically cause jet lag.
That is a simple logic.Even though i am a Singaporean,i had to say this,that even though Slingers did won this game but,so what?What’s the big deal of winning this game if in the end Slingers gets knock out?
I AGREE TOTALLY!
As usual, Philippines is trying to find excuses for their defeat. Slingers won. Slingers was the better team. And the Patriots team had no chance against the Slingers. Period. Singapore is the best team in the ABL.