THE Bay Area Dragons shrugged off shelving of the East Asia Super League tournament while in the middle of their campaign in the 2022-23 PBA Commissioner’s Cup.
The Dragons will have to wait until next year to play in the EASL after the regional league decided to postpone its home-and-away tournament due to travel complications that remained in Asia during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The EASL was supposed to start on October 12 with teams from the Japan B.League, KBL, and P.League+ pitted against PBA squads San Miguel and TNT. Now it plans a ‘Champions Week’ to be held in one country from March 1 to 5, 2023.
[READ: EASL home-and-away tournament cancelled]
Formed for the EASL, the Dragons were installed as a guest team in the PBA as part of its build-up for the regional tournament.
“Out of our control,” said Bay Area coach Brian Goorjian about the EASL postponement. “We just know we got a tournament playing the top teams. Right now, it’s how important is this (Commissioner’s Cup) for us and how much we are enjoying this competition.”
Even with the EASL now months away, Goorjian said Bay Area still looks forward to the competition next year.
“We are excited about trying to do something special in this and knowing that when it is finished, we have our second import and we play a full team and we get a chance to play the top teams not only from the Philippines but everybody else,” said Goorjian.
“That’s still there and it will just happen in the different format. But as a team, we are quite comfortable with it,” Goorjian said.
The Dragons resume their PBA campaign with a Wednesday game against Converge where they will stake their 3-0 win-loss slate.
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