Upcoming season or competition: 2025 AsiaBasket College Campus Tour | |
 | |
| Sport | Basketball |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2021; 4 years ago (2021) |
| Founder | Jai Reyes |
| First season | 2021 Subic Championship |
| No. of teams | 10 |
| Country | Philippines Indonesia Malaysia Brunei Thailand United States Chinese Taipei (all-time) |
| Continent | FIBA Asia |
| Most recent champion(s) | NU Bulldogs (International 2024) |
| Most titles | seven teams (1 title each) |
| TV partner(s) | AsiaBasket (Facebook,YouTube) Solar Sports |
| Official website | asiabasket |
AsiaBasket is anAsian men'sprofessionalbasketball league founded in 2021. The league hosts tournaments mainly consisting of professional and collegiate teams based inSoutheast Asia.
Originally called the Filipino Basketball League, orFilBasket in short, it initially began as a domestic basketball tournament in thePhilippines. Its first tournament was the2021 Subic Championship held in October 2021. The league began inviting international teams in 2022, marking the start of the league's international expansion. The league was renamed as AsiaBasket beginning with the2023 International Championship.
Seven teams have won the championship once, with the most recent champions being theNU Bulldogs, who won the2024 International Championship.
FilBasket was established by formerUAAP playerJai Reyes and Buddy Encarnado of theMaharlika Pilipinas Basketball League'sPasig Sta. Lucia Realtors in 2021.[1][2] It was founded as a means to provide a platform for basketball players whose careers were disrupted by theCOVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines. This includes players of theMaharlika Pilipinas Basketball League which saw its2019–20 season suspended and the succeeding2021 season delayed due to COVID-19 measures. Hence, multiple MPBL teams joined the FilBasket tournaments as a way to continue playing competitive games, beginning a trend of MPBL teams taking part in other leagues during the off-season.[2]
FilBasket began its first tournament, theSubic Championship, on October 28, 2021, after securing approval from theSubic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) and theInter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) for abubble tournament at the Subic Bay Gymnasium.[3][4] The tournament, however, did get thedisputed by theGames and Amusements Board (GAB) regarding its amateur status, with the GAB contending that it is a professional league, and later issuing acease and desist order.[5][6] Eventually, the GAB didn't go further with the legal action and FilBasket would subsequently begin the transition to professional status after sending a letter of intent to the GAB, which would be competed by February 2022.[7][8]
As FilBasket turned professional, the league began attracting the Asian basketball market with the2022 Summer Championship, which ran from March until May 2022. The tournament featured the first international team: the Kuala Lumpur Aseel based inKuala Lumpur,Malaysia, being invited as a guest team.[9] The following tournament would also be its first international tournament, the2022 International Championship held in the latter part of 2022 in Malaysia.[10] It was also the first tournament under the current format, replacing the traditional round-robin format of other Philippine basketball leagues with a group-stage format.
On March 3, 2023, FilBasket announced their renaming to AsiaBasket to accommodate with the expansion into the Asian basketball market. The first tournament under theAsiaBasket name was the2023 International Championship, which also took place inMalaysia in April 2023. Although the league previously stated that theFilBasket name would be retained for local competitions in the Philippines, theAsiaBasket name was still used for the2023 Las Piñas Championship in July 2023, which featured an all-Filipino roster of teams competing inLas Piñas.[11] The2023 Dasmariñas Championship then took place inDasmariñas,Cavite, Philippines in November 2023, and featuredUnited States–based Statham Academy led by Filipino-American Taylor Statham, marking the first time the league featured a team based outside of Asia.
AsiaBasket then intended to host its first tournament inVisayas with the 2024 Cebu Championship.[12] It was initially announced to start in April at theHoops Dome inLapu-Lapu City, Cebu before moving to the Toledo City Sports Center inToledo, Cebu, and subsequently postponing it to May. The tournament would eventually not push through and would later be replaced by the2024 International Championship, which will take place atEnderun Colleges inTaguig beginning July 9, 2024.
The following teams will compete in the2024 AsiaBasket International Championship.
| Name | Locality / College | Country | First tournament |
|---|---|---|---|
| DKI Jakarta Indonesia | Jakarta |  Indonesia | International 2024 |
| Adamson Soaring Falcons | Adamson University |  Philippines | International 2024 |
| Benilde Blazers | De La Salle–College of Saint Benilde | International 2023 | |
| FEU Tamaraws | Far Eastern University | Las Piñas 2023 | |
| Mapúa Cardinals | Mapúa University | International 2024 | |
| NU Bulldogs | National University | International 2024 | |
| Phenom Blue Fire | — | International 2024 | |
| San Beda Red Lions | San Beda University | International 2023 | |
| National Formosa University | National Formosa University |  Chinese Taipei | International 2024 |
| Lakas California | California |  United States | International 2024 |
The following teams competed in previous tournaments since the2022 FilBasket International Championship, the first to include international teams as regular competitors.
The following teams competed in the league's two domestic tournaments, the2021 FilBasket Subic Championship and the2022 FilBasket Summer Championship. As of International 2024, no domestic teams competed in future tournaments.
| Name | Locality | First tournament | Last tournament |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7A Primus | — | Subic 2021 | |
| AFP-FSD Makati Cavaliers / FSD Makati ARMY | Makati | Subic 2021 | Summer 2022 |
| All-Star Bacolod Ballers | Bacolod | Summer 2022 | |
| AICC Manila | Manila | Subic 2021 | |
| AMA Online Education Titans | Quezon City | Summer 2022 | |
| Burlington EOG Sports / Muntinlupa Angelis Resort – EOG Sports | Manila | Subic 2021 | Summer 2022 |
| Muntinlupa | |||
| Danao City MJAS Zenith / Medical Depot | Danao,Cebu | Subic 2021 | Summer 2022 |
| Davao Occidental Tigers | Davao Occidental | Subic 2021 | |
| Immaculada Concepcion College Blue Hawks | Caloocan | Summer 2022 | |
| Muntinlupa Defenders | Muntinlupa | Subic 2021 | |
| Nueva Ecija Bespren | Nueva Ecija | Subic 2021 | |
| Nueva Ecija Capitals | Nueva Ecija | Summer 2022 | |
| Pasig Sta. Lucia Realtors | Pasig | Subic 2021 | Summer 2022 |
| San Juan Knights | San Juan | Subic 2021 | Summer 2022 |
| Batangas City Athletics / Tanduay Rum Masters | Batangas City | Subic 2021 | Summer 2022 |
| Zamboanga Family's Brand Sardines | Zamboanga City | Summer 2022 | |
Numbers in parentheses indicate the number of times that team has appeared in each tournament's championship game, as well as each respective teams' record in those games.
| Tournament | Country | City | Winning team | Score | Losing team | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subic 2021 | Philippines | Subic, Zambales | AICC Manila (1, 1–0) | 2–1 (series) | San Juan Knights (1, 0–1) | |
| Summer 2022 | San Jose del Monte, Bulacan Muntinlupa Quezon City | Nueva Ecija Capitals (1, 1–0) | 2–1 (series) | San Juan Knights (2, 0–2) | ||
| International 2022 |  Malaysia | Kuala Lumpur | Harimau Malaysia (1, 1–0) | 87–68 | Kuala Lumpur Aseel (1, 0–1) | |
| International 2023 | Kuala Lumpur Aseel (2, 1–1) | 83–72 | San Beda Red Lions (1, 0–1) | |||
| Las Piñas 2023 | Philippines | Las Piñas | Ateneo Blue Eagles (1, 1–0) | 60–57 | Benilde Blazers (1, 0–1) | |
| Dasmariñas 2023 | Dasmariñas, Cavite | Benilde Blazers (2, 1–1) | 105–86 | Statham Academy (1, 0–1) | ||
| Tournament cancelled | ||||||
| International 2024 | Taguig | NU Bulldogs (1, 1–0) | 73–64 | Adamson Soaring Falcons (1, 0–1) | ||
