THE MINDANAO-Visayas Basketball Association and the National Basketball Conference ended their bitter rivalry for dominance to pave the way for the creation of the Liga ng Pilipinas.
Former PBA commissioner Noli Eala is the brainchild behind the creation of the nationwide regional basketball league, which is aimed to discover new talents from the grassroots.
“The MVBA, NBC and Third Force had agreed to join forces to form a super regional league which we call Liga ng Pilipinas,” Eala told Cebu sports reporters yesterday.
MVBA founder Raul “Yayoy” Alcoseba and league chairman of the board Gov. Oscar Moreno, NBC secretary general Tito Palma and president Nathaniel “Tac” Padilla and Eala had already met twice and will finalize the agreement to launch the regional basketball tournament, patterned after the defunct Metropolitan Basketball
Association (MBA).
“The league is a community-based, community and LGU-supported amateur basketball league, just like the MBA, but not with the same budget. We keep the cost low to make the tournament viable, built from the ground not built from the stars like what MBA did,” Eala said.
There will be 16 teams participating in the league, which will have two conferences a year. Eight teams will be from the Luzon, four from the Visayas and four from Mindanao and the 16 will be divided into the North and South divisions.
The tournament will use the home-and-away format as the team vies for the division titles to determine who will play in the national championship.
“There are many teams wanting to join but we will be setting guidelines and criteria on which city to allow (to put up team). There will be merging (of existing teams) to accommodate,” Eala added.
However, the MVBA and NBC will not cease to exist. Eala said that they are allowed to put up separate pocket tournaments for the promotions and entertainment of their respective leagues. (RCM)
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