Basketball: BAS hope to set up regional tournament to raise local game

SINGAPORE - The revamped National Basketball League (NBL) returns next week after a three-year absence due to the pandemic with the Basketball Association of Singapore (BAS) hopeful these initiatives will spur the game's development here.

The plans include establishing a new regional invitational tournament, comprising the top four to six teams from this year's NBL and four sides from Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.

The competition is expected to take place at the end of the year or early next year and is part of BAS' goal to eventually have a semi-professional league in Singapore.

BAS president Koh Koon Teck hopes the proposed regional event will provide more opportunities at a more competitive level.

He said: "From the national team perspective, we can have more players having more court time to select and on the high performance side, we probably stand a proper chance. We're taking it one step at a time, we're testing this model."

National cager Navin Crump, 27, was excited at the prospect of such a product. He said: "There are things to learn from seeing other countries play, whether it's elite shooting or their athleticism and it's always a draw for fans to come and see that.

"Having the best competition consolidated in one league is something that fans and players can benefit from."

Teammate Delvin Goh, 27, agreed but noted that the competitiveness of the tournament would depend on whether it clashes with other major events like the Asean Basketball League (ABL), which features professional franchises from South-east Asia, China, Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei and Macau.

The competition had been suspended since March 2020 due to Covid-19 but resumed on a smaller scale with the ABL 3x3 Cup on April 16-17 and a 5v5 friendly tournament a few days later in Bali.

Goh and Crump both played for the Slingers. The former said: "It will help the standard of basketball to be playing more, especially for those guys who don't get to play much apart from those 1½ months (in the NBL)."

The NBL, which will be a ticketed event for the first time, starts next Wednesday (Aug 24) and ends on Oct 9. The round robin games will be held at the BAS courts in Aljunied, while semi-finals and the final are at Toa Payoh Sports Hall.

Singapore last month hosted the 2022 Fiba 3x3 Asia Cup, which featured 53 teams, and another of BAS' goals is to send a 3x3 team to the 2032 Olympics. It is therefore looking at running a 3x3 tournament alongside the NBL, though a timetable for this has yet to be confirmed.

Crump said: "3x3 has been huge in Europe and Asia's catching up in that as well. It's good to see that we're putting in the infrastructure and starting with local leagues."