The EASL Champions Week was a pre-season tournament of the

East Asia Super League The East Asia Super League (EASL) is an international basketball league featuring clubs from Japan, South Korea, Philippines, Taiwan (Chinese Taipei), Hong Kong, and Macau. From 2017 to 2019, four pre-season tournaments (the Super 8 and the ...

, an international

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

club competition involving teams from domestic leagues in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

and

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

, as well as a franchise team representing

Greater China In ethnogeography, "Greater China" is a loosely-defined term that refers to the region sharing cultural and economic ties with the Chinese people, often used by international enterprises or organisations in unofficial usage. The notion contains ...

. The Champions Week was held from 1 to 5 March 2023. The Champions Week was conceptualized after the regular season was postponed. The regular season was originally scheduled to be held from 12 October 2022 to February 2023, under a home and away format and a Final Four knockout stage. The winners received USD 250,000, while the runners-up and third-place teams received USD 100,000 and USD 50,000, respectively.

Team allocation

The eight teams which qualified for the then-2022–23 EASL season qualified for the Champions Week. Four leagues are represented for the 2023 EASL. The champions and runners-up of the Japan

B.League The B.League is a men's professional basketball league in Japan. The league is operated by the Japan Professional Basketball League and was formed as a result of a merger between the National Basketball League that was operated by the FIBA-affi ...

and the

Korean Basketball League The Korean Basketball League () or simply KBL is a professional men's basketball league in South Korea which was established in 1997. The league consists of ten teams and each team plays a total of 54 games (27 home and 27 away) in the regular s ...

as well as the champions of Taiwan's P. League+

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

based Bay Area Chun Yu Phoenixes, a franchise team not part of any domestic league also participated. The league considers the P. League+ champions and the Phoenixes as representatives of "

". For the Philippines, the top two finishing teams of the 2022 PBA Philippine Cup qualified.

Qualified teams

Imports

Each team can select two foreigners into active roster in each game, plus an Asian heritage import or naturalized player.

Venues

Games were held in Japan, on the home venues of the two qualified Japanese teams –

Utsunomiya Brex Utsunomiya Brex is a Japanese professional basketball team based in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. After winning the JBL 2 in 2008, the team played in the National Basketball League (Japan), National Basketball League. Previous team names include: T ...

and the

Ryukyu Golden Kings The are a Japanese professional basketball team based in Okinawa (city), Okinawa, Okinawa Prefecture. They compete in the B.League, the top-tier professional basketball league of Japan. The Golden Kings have won the Japanese national title f ...

. There were ten games in total. Utsunomiya hosted six of the eight group stage games, while Ryukyu hosted the remaining two games, as well as the third place game and final.

Draw

The official draw for the 2022–23 EASL season was held on 28 June 2022 at the

Shangri-La at the Fort, Manila Shangri-La at The Fort, also known as Shangri-La The Fort, Manila, is a mixed-use complex located in Bonifacio Global City, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig. The development contains a five-star luxury hotel, event venues, retail and the luxury residenti ...

Taguig Taguig (), officially the City of Taguig (), is the List of cities in the Philippines, fifth-most populous city in the Philippines situated on the eastern shores of Metro Manila, the national capital region. It is a center for culture, finance ...

. For the Champions Week the groupings were retained. The teams were drawn in two groups. A

coin flipping Coin flipping, coin tossing, or heads or tails is using the thumb to make a coin go up while spinning in the air and checking which side is showing when it is down onto a surface, in order to randomly choose between two alternatives. It is a for ...

mechanic was used; each champion in each domestic league was to choose a coin side. The winner of the coin flip was placed on Group A while the other placed in Group B. The identity of the Philippine representatives were yet to be determined at the time of the draw. Another draw was held to determine the schedule of the games.

Group stage

On 10 January 2023, EASL released the full schedule for the tournament. Each team in each of the two groups would face only two of three of the other teams in their group unlike in a traditional round robin format.

Group A

Group B

Final round

Third place game

Final

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:EASL Champions Week 2022–23 in Asian basketball leagues March 2023 sports events in Japan

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

Basketball competitions in Japan