From basketball to cycling back to basketball, Mikee Romero’s support to local sports has come full circle.
Romero, the youthful owner of seven-time Philippine Basketball League (PBL) champion Harbour Centre and newly-elected president of Integrated Cycling Federation of the Philippines, shifted his support back to basketball as he decided to assemble a team that will compete in the fledgling Asean Basketball League (ABL).
Featuring six of the finest teams in Southeast Asia, ABL is backed by regional tycoons like Air Asia founder Tony Fernandes of Malaysia, media mogul Erik Tohir of Indonesia, Singapore Slingers owner Bob Turner of Australia and Romero, who will finance the team together with ABC 5 CEO Antonio "Tony Boy" Cojuangco.
Fernandes will sit as chairman of the five-man board while Southeast Asian Basketball Association (SEABA) secretary-general Dato Yeoh Choo Hock will take charge of the technical aspects.
The league will also adopt a home-and-away format with games every weekend and the champion will be given a chance to compete in the Fiba-Asia Champions Cup against the finest teams in the continent. Brunei, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Philippines have already expressed willingness to join.
Tip-off will be on Oct. 1 in Singapore.
"This league will be the Southeast Asian counterpart of Euro League and the NBA," Romero yesterday said in the weekly SCOOP session at Kamayan Padre Faura. "We already won in the Southeast Asian region before during the SEA Games in Thailand and the SEABA Champions Cup in Indonesia, so I’m very optimistic that we could bring that winning attitude to the ABL."
Romero said Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas had already issued its approval and its president, Manny Pangilinan, was elated over his decision to assemble a team. Romero represents the PBL in the 17-man SBP board of directors.
ABL is a commercial league, but is sanctioned by Fiba-Asia and SEABA.
Each country will be allowed to field more than one team, and each team will be allowed to be reinforced by two non-Asian players and a foreign-bred player. Active professional players will not be allowed to join.
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