Tuesday, December 23, 2008 Less than great, but hopeful year for hoops
CEBU’S commercial basketball circuit this year is less than glorious as it was when the formerly competing leagues, the Mindanao Visayas Basketball Association and the National Basketball Conference, joined forces.
The merger talk resulted to the creation of the Liga Pilipinas, the newest community-based national basketball tournament,
But as the Liga Pilipinas brought back the interest of the Cebuanos to root for the local team, it also left many local basketball players jobless.
Before the merger, Cebu had four basketball teams, the M. Lhuillier Kwarta Padala Jewelers, the Cebu Landmasters, the MLSDF squad, and Arthro Kontra Arthritis teams.
Renamed
With the Liga Pilipinas on, Cebu was left with just one team, the M. Lhuillier squad, which was renamed to Cebu Niños to fit the requirement of the new community-based national tournament.
Besides, Cebu got to host at least three week-long tournaments each year plus constant hosting of the MVBA regular games.
However, in 2008, Cebu hosted only one week-long tournament last January—the MVBA Sinulog Cup where two PBL teams, a team from the Millenium Basketball League (MVL) in Manila along with two local squad and a team from Mindanao vying for the top prize.
Following that, the Cebu Niños gave satisfaction to the action hungry basketball fans with a series of exhibition matches against PBA teams.
Glories
The Niños first brought the Talk ‘N Text Tropang Texters to Cebu last Feb. 22, then PBA’s most popular team, the Barangay Ginebra Kings, last March 3, then Red Bull Barakos last September.
To top it all, the Cebu Niños, owned by Michel Lhuillier and coached by Raul “Yayoy” Alcoseba, won the Liga Pilipinas First Conference title plus the four tournament titles.
Although Liga Pilipinas had slowly brought back the noise in regional basketball circuit, Cebu basketball players struggled to find their places in local commercial tournaments.
But the promise of Liga Pilipinas had brought hope to the horde of Cebuano basketball fans of better and more exciting games ahead in 2009. (RCM)
