MVBA, NBC & Regional Basketball
Bleacher Talk
April 1, 2007
MVBA, NBC & Regional Basketball
They’re back. They’re solid and won’t go down. Regional Basketball. Just when skeptics and critics (like yours truly) refused to believe that a national league involving different regions with a home-and-away set-up would survive, not one, but two leagues are proving that regional basketball is very much alive in the country. Within weeks of each other, the National Basketball Conference (NBC) and Mindanao Visayas Basketball Association (MVBA) kicked off its respective 2007 seasons.
While we praise both leagues for being persistent and focused on its efforts to promote regional basketball, we can’t avoid asking why they have to exist as separate leagues. I have also wanted to ask both leagues how they’re doing from the financial or business standpoint, but I don’t think I’ll ever get a clear answer on that. And since they’ve insisted to launch their respective tournaments, we can’t help but compare both leagues.
If one talks about the format of both, the MVBA and NBC are basically the same. They’re both regional leagues involving city or town-based teams facing each other in a home-and-away format very similar to the format used in the NBA and other professional leagues (football, baseball, etc.).
Players of both leagues are considered “amateurs” but actually live the life of a semi-pro or even a professional player. They are the players who aren’t good enough to make it to the PBA, but who are very competitive at the amateur level. Many of them are ex-PBA players and most (if not all) of them once played for a college varsity teams.
But I guess this is where the similarities end as I just discovered a few interesting things worth mentioning. The most glaring stat is that of the 15 teams teams/cities playing in both leagues, only two are based in Luzon. The MVBA is obviously a Vismin league with four teams in the Visayas and three in Mindanao for a total of seven teams. On the other hand the NBC has two Luzon teams and another six from Mindanao (total of eight). These numbers could still change as both leagues are known to have late entries that suddenly pop up.
Another interesting point that needs to be highlighted is that the NBC doesn’t have a Cebu-based team. The Skygo or Sir Litz ballclub of Lito Gillamac has always been identified with the NBC since the start, but I haven’t heard about the Tribu Sugbu team playing this year (at least not yet). You never know, they might just be resurrected all of a sudden in an “It’s never too late scenario.” On the other hand, three of the four Visayas teams of the MVBA are from Cebu. As expected, M. Lhuillier Kwarta Padala leads all the teams, carrying the colors of Cebu City. Cebu Landmaster is listed as tying up with Lapu-lapu, while Arthro Kontra Arthritis is also identified with Cebu. The other Visayas team is Cindy’s of Tacloban, a rookie team in the league.
And the next obvious question is, “Why no Cebu team in the NBC?” Is there something about Cebu that the NBC doesn’t want to touch, or vice versa? The common denominator of both leagues thus becomes the abundance of teams from Mindanao. And here we are claiming to be the hotbed of basketball south of Manila! And where are the teams from Bacolod and Iloilo, another pair of cities that have always wanted to prove that they were better than Cebu in basketball?
Moving over to Mindanao, Davao and Iligan are represented in both leagues. The Duterte-Davao Agilas play in the MVBA while Montaña Pawnshop-Davao is with the NBC. Iligan is listed in both leagues with the Archangels paying in the MVBA. I didn’t get a chance to get the name for Iligan’s NBC team. The other Mindanao teams are Holcym Price-MisOr of the MVBA; and Ozamis, Valencia, Pagadian and MP Pacman-Gensan of the NBC.
If there’s something that has me “worried” but also happy, it’s the fact that Mindanao has shown that it has more basketball activity than the Visayas. We grew up always boasting that Cebu was the basketball capital of the south. All young upstarts and blue ship prospects made Cebu a stopover on the way to a reaching their dreams of making it to the big leagues. It was always UV being the top collegiate team in the south and either M. Lhuillier, Mama’s Love / Casino or VFI as the Vismin’s top commercial league.
All this is now beginning to change, or may have changed already with the rise of the “other” southern teams. Negros humiliated us when they made it big in the MBA. Ozamis is now acknowledged as the best team in Mindanao and has in fact defeated M. Lhuillier in a championship series awhile back. But even if Cebu loses games to Mindanao teams, that’s perfectly fine. It shows that the Vismin basketball scene is growing in terms of potential, talent and future. With all these MVBA and NBC teams growing the sport in their respective turfs, you can expect the entire Vismin to benefit from all these.
That’s regional ball for you. The MVBA and NBC have gone their own respective ways, but I guess it was meant to be this way. The good news is that it’s a big boon for Vismin ball.
**
Time-out: Today, Palm Sunday, marks the entry of Jesus as He is hailed “Hosanna in the highest.” Isn’t it ironic that the man who was hailed as a Messiah would be crucified later (this week)? May we all prepare for the Holy Week, asking our Lord for forgiveness and cleansing. >>> My email address is bleachertalk@yahoo.com.
April 1, 2007
MVBA, NBC & Regional Basketball
They’re back. They’re solid and won’t go down. Regional Basketball. Just when skeptics and critics (like yours truly) refused to believe that a national league involving different regions with a home-and-away set-up would survive, not one, but two leagues are proving that regional basketball is very much alive in the country. Within weeks of each other, the National Basketball Conference (NBC) and Mindanao Visayas Basketball Association (MVBA) kicked off its respective 2007 seasons.
While we praise both leagues for being persistent and focused on its efforts to promote regional basketball, we can’t avoid asking why they have to exist as separate leagues. I have also wanted to ask both leagues how they’re doing from the financial or business standpoint, but I don’t think I’ll ever get a clear answer on that. And since they’ve insisted to launch their respective tournaments, we can’t help but compare both leagues.
If one talks about the format of both, the MVBA and NBC are basically the same. They’re both regional leagues involving city or town-based teams facing each other in a home-and-away format very similar to the format used in the NBA and other professional leagues (football, baseball, etc.).
Players of both leagues are considered “amateurs” but actually live the life of a semi-pro or even a professional player. They are the players who aren’t good enough to make it to the PBA, but who are very competitive at the amateur level. Many of them are ex-PBA players and most (if not all) of them once played for a college varsity teams.
But I guess this is where the similarities end as I just discovered a few interesting things worth mentioning. The most glaring stat is that of the 15 teams teams/cities playing in both leagues, only two are based in Luzon. The MVBA is obviously a Vismin league with four teams in the Visayas and three in Mindanao for a total of seven teams. On the other hand the NBC has two Luzon teams and another six from Mindanao (total of eight). These numbers could still change as both leagues are known to have late entries that suddenly pop up.
Another interesting point that needs to be highlighted is that the NBC doesn’t have a Cebu-based team. The Skygo or Sir Litz ballclub of Lito Gillamac has always been identified with the NBC since the start, but I haven’t heard about the Tribu Sugbu team playing this year (at least not yet). You never know, they might just be resurrected all of a sudden in an “It’s never too late scenario.” On the other hand, three of the four Visayas teams of the MVBA are from Cebu. As expected, M. Lhuillier Kwarta Padala leads all the teams, carrying the colors of Cebu City. Cebu Landmaster is listed as tying up with Lapu-lapu, while Arthro Kontra Arthritis is also identified with Cebu. The other Visayas team is Cindy’s of Tacloban, a rookie team in the league.
And the next obvious question is, “Why no Cebu team in the NBC?” Is there something about Cebu that the NBC doesn’t want to touch, or vice versa? The common denominator of both leagues thus becomes the abundance of teams from Mindanao. And here we are claiming to be the hotbed of basketball south of Manila! And where are the teams from Bacolod and Iloilo, another pair of cities that have always wanted to prove that they were better than Cebu in basketball?
Moving over to Mindanao, Davao and Iligan are represented in both leagues. The Duterte-Davao Agilas play in the MVBA while Montaña Pawnshop-Davao is with the NBC. Iligan is listed in both leagues with the Archangels paying in the MVBA. I didn’t get a chance to get the name for Iligan’s NBC team. The other Mindanao teams are Holcym Price-MisOr of the MVBA; and Ozamis, Valencia, Pagadian and MP Pacman-Gensan of the NBC.
If there’s something that has me “worried” but also happy, it’s the fact that Mindanao has shown that it has more basketball activity than the Visayas. We grew up always boasting that Cebu was the basketball capital of the south. All young upstarts and blue ship prospects made Cebu a stopover on the way to a reaching their dreams of making it to the big leagues. It was always UV being the top collegiate team in the south and either M. Lhuillier, Mama’s Love / Casino or VFI as the Vismin’s top commercial league.
All this is now beginning to change, or may have changed already with the rise of the “other” southern teams. Negros humiliated us when they made it big in the MBA. Ozamis is now acknowledged as the best team in Mindanao and has in fact defeated M. Lhuillier in a championship series awhile back. But even if Cebu loses games to Mindanao teams, that’s perfectly fine. It shows that the Vismin basketball scene is growing in terms of potential, talent and future. With all these MVBA and NBC teams growing the sport in their respective turfs, you can expect the entire Vismin to benefit from all these.
That’s regional ball for you. The MVBA and NBC have gone their own respective ways, but I guess it was meant to be this way. The good news is that it’s a big boon for Vismin ball.
**
Time-out: Today, Palm Sunday, marks the entry of Jesus as He is hailed “Hosanna in the highest.” Isn’t it ironic that the man who was hailed as a Messiah would be crucified later (this week)? May we all prepare for the Holy Week, asking our Lord for forgiveness and cleansing. >>> My email address is bleachertalk@yahoo.com.
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