The PRO-AM Singapore Basketball League (PRO-AM SBL) was the preeminent men's

pro–am Pro–am (or pro/am, pro am, ProAm; a contraction of professional–amateur) refers to a sporting event where both professional career athletes and amateurs compete. It could also refer to a collaboration between professionals and amate ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

league in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

. Twelve clubs participated in the league's inaugural season in 2014, which culminated with Adroit Sports Association emerging as the first PRO-AM SBL champions on 29 June 2014 after they beat the LJE Bobcats with an 81–79 scoreline.

History

The idea of a Pro-Am basketball league was first sparked off by Zoran Vasiljev, the founder and CEO of Affinitiv Capital LLP, a

-based equity firm. The

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungar ...

n-born

an, a former cager who played college basketball in the U.S as well as professionally in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

, envisioned a local basketball league which provided opportunities for personal growth and development of youth athletes while also reinforcing positive influences, self-confidence, self-esteem and the ability to excel on and off the court. The formation of a new Pro-Am league was announced on 22 December 2013. In order to fulfill this, Sportfolio Group LLP was incorporated by Vasiljev for the purpose of managing the new league. The league tipped off officially on 12 January 2013, kick-starting a five-month competition that saw 132 games played between the 12 founding teams across multiple venues around Singapore. The inaugural season was seen by over 24,000 fans and featured 285 players from 26 countries, and was covered by most of the local media (Channel News Asia, The Straits Times, The New Paper, Today, 93.8 Live Radio and Liahne Zabao).

Teams

The Pro-Am SBL originated with 12 teams in 2013 with the initial founding teams spread across Singapore. The teams included players from all communities, including expats and import guest players. The inaugural season was a great success, and besides receiving recognition by the FIBA and the regional basketball fraternity, the league has clearly differentiated from any other recreational or minor-league basketball organization in Singapore.

References

{{Men's professional basketball leagues 2014 establishments in Singapore Basketball competitions in Singapore Basketball leagues in Asia Sports leagues established in 2014

Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

Professional sports leagues in Singapore

History

Teams

See also

References