MPBL

The Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL) is a men's professional basketball league in the Philippines.

History

Manny Pacquiao launched the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League on August 29, 2017, starting off as a semi-professional league. According to Pacquiao, the league is not intended to be a competitor to the Philippine Basketball Association, the country's top professional basketball league. The MPBL was intended to feature both a regional commercial and barangay-level league with teams on the commercial side to have a home locality in addition to a corporate sponsor.

In the first months, the league hosted teams from Luzon with future plans to expand to accommodate teams based in Visayas and Mindanao like the defunct Metropolitan Basketball Association. It is planned that an expanded MPBL will have two conferences, North and South, where the best teams from both divisions will face in the finals similar to the format of the National Basketball Association of the United States.

The league was planned to start as early as September 23, 2017 with at least six teams. A pre-season was held with the Bulacan Kuyas finishing as champions.

The inaugural cup of the MPBL, the Anta Rajah Cup commenced on January 25, 2018, and was participated in by ten teams. In the opening game at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, the Parañaque Patriots secured a 70–60 victory over the Caloocan Supremos. The first tournament ran until April 19, 2018, where the Batangas City Athletics crowned as the league's first-ever champion.

After its inaugural cup, the 2018 Anta Rajah Cup, the MPBL had expanded its roster of teams to 26. All teams are expected to play in the next cup. After the ten expansion teams were admitted into the league, it closed its doors for new applicants from Luzon. This was done to leave room for future Visayas and Mindanao teams. A meeting in Cebu was held on April 28 for potential Visayas and Mindanao teams. Davao Occidental Tigers became the first MPBL team from the Visayas-Mindanao region.

In December 2019, Chooks-to-Go of Bounty Agro Ventures became the title sponsor of the league under a five-year deal. The 2019–20 season was postponed on March 12, 2020, after the second game of the Division Finals, but resumed play for the game threes of the Division Finals on March 10, 2021, almost exactly a year after, when it announced the resumption through a bubble in Subic. With this, the 2020–21 season was also cancelled altogether due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In October 2021, Chooks-to-Go took over the operations of the league.

On November 9, 2021, it was announced that the MPBL will turn into a professional league. They have also lift the restrictions for Fil-foreign and ex-professional players. On December 9, 2021, the MPBL was granted professional status by the Games and Amusements Board.

Teams

The MPBL originated with 10 charter teams on its inaugural season. After its first successful season, it attracted a lot of teams across the Philippines to join.

2022 teams

; Notes

# The Pasig Pirates (as Pasig-Rizal Pirates), San Juan Knights and Sarangani Marlins were founded during the active years of Metropolitan Basketball Association (MBA).
# The General Santos Warriors was founded in 2005 as GenSan MP PacMan Warriors and participated in Mindanao Visayas Basketball Association (MVBA), National Basketball Conference (NBC) and Liga Pilipinas in 2008.
# The Sta. Lucia Realtors was founded in 1987 from the Philippine Basketball League (PBL)
Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) in 1993 and the Pilipinas Commercial Basketball League (PCBL) in 2015.

Former teams

All-time venues

League championships

Media coverage

Similar to the defunct Philippine Basketball League and the former Shakey's V-League prior to 2016, MPBL employs its own in-house broadcast team.

ABS-CBN Sports and ABS-CBN Regional Network Group were the inaugural official broadcasters of the league. It last aired games through A2Z; previously, it aired games of the MPBL through S+A Channel 23 and S+A HD Channel 166 with Liga providing cable television coverage on Channels 86 and 166 on SkyCable and select provincial providers. Selected national finals games aired on ABS-CBN. The broadcasting deal was announced on January 11, 2018. The games aired internationally via The Filipino Channel. Additionally, scheduled Monday games were aired on Fox Sports Asia until the 2019 championship.

The games were also available via livestreaming through the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League Facebook page, ABS-CBN Sports Website and iWant TFC.

However, their contract with the network's sports division were initially left in jeopardy due to the ABS-CBN franchise renewal controversy, which led to the sports division's dissolution on August 31. Nevertheless, with the resumption of the stalled playoffs in March 2021, ABS-CBN remained the broadcast partner of the league, through A2Z.

In December 2021, starting with the Invitationals, the league's media coverage transferred to the IBC and TAP Sports. The livestreaming of games were also carried over to the Chooks-to-Go Facebook page and on TAP Go. IBC did not extend their contract with the MPBL in 2021.

On April 25, 2022, the media coverage of the league began to exclusively air on One PH, instead of One Sports because the sports channel had no more available slots. It thus made One PH carry sports program aside from being a Tagalog news channel. Selected matches are also streamed on league's social networks, including Facebook, YouTube, and Kumu.

Rules

Game regulations

# FIBA rules

Player eligibility

Player classifications

*Local player – Born to full-blooded Filipinos.
*Filipino-foreigners – Filipinos born to at least a parent with foreign heritage regardless where they are born or raised or if they are a holder of a Philippine passport. Only those with a height of less than are eligible to play in the MPBL.
*Ex-pros – Players with prior participation in professional leagues such as the Philippine Basketball Association and the ASEAN Basketball League.
*Homegrown player – Players who are native to their team's home locality.

At least for the 2021 MPBL Invitationals, the Filipino-foreigners height limit for Filipino-foreigners would be lifted.

Team roster limits

:At least three homegrown talents per team
:Limit on Filipino-foreigner per team.
::One player per team (2018)
::Two players per team, only one can play at a time (2019–)
:Limit on ex-professional (ex-pro) players per team
::Five players per team (2018)
::Seven players per team, five can play at a time (2019–)

At least for the 2021 MPBL Invitationals, it was announce that the cap on ex-pros and requirement to field homegrowns will be scrapped.

Commissioners

See also

* Philippine Basketball Association
* NBL
* Pilipinas Super League
* Filbasket
* Pilipinas VisMin Super Cup
* Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas 3x3

References

{{Basketball in the Philippines

Basketball leagues in the Philippines
Sports leagues established in 2017
2017 establishments in the Philippines