THE East Asia Super League before, now it’s the Basketball Champions League Asia for Meralco.
The PBA announced on Monday that the Bolts will represent the league in the June 9-15 tournament for being the reigning Philippine Cup champion.
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The Bolts also did the same during Season 2 of the EASL’s Home and Away tournament.
But for the Bolts to compete in what was formerly known as the FIBA Asia Champions League, the PBA will have to make the supreme sacrifice of revising the Philippine Cup schedule to give way to Meralco’s campaign.
Commissioner Willie Marcial said the new schedule is going to be announced within the week.
“Kailangan namin i-adjust yung Philippine Cup schedule para dito,” he added.
The All-Filipino Cup eliminations will end on June 15.
Ironically, Meralco originally has a game scheduled on that same date against Barangay Ginebra at the Ynares Center in Antipolo in a doubleheader that features NLEX facing Converge in the curtain raiser.
A meeting among all PBA team managers was held on Monday to inform them about the impending changes in the league schedule.
“So ia-adjust namin yung Philippine Cup schedule para dito,” said Marcial. “Kaya nagpapa-salamat ang PBA at ang PBA Board sa Meralco na magre-represent sa atin.”
“Nag-meeting na si Deputy Commissioner Eric Castro with the team managers na ia-adjust nga natin yung schedule dahil nga sa Basketball Champions League. Sumang-ayon naman lahat sila,” said the commissioner.
“Kaya nagpapasalamat kami sa Meralco dahil sila nga ang kakatawan sa PBA, at nagpapasalamat kami sa mga teams na naintindihan naman nila yung sitwasyon.”
First played back in 1981, the tournament wasn’t played during a cancelled during a three-year stretch due to the pandemic and returned only last year under a new name and setup.
The PBA however, didn’t participate during its relaunching for 2024 as the league had a hectic schedule the year before owing to its co-hosting of the FIBA World Cup.
In its entire history, the Philippines won the championship four times in 1984 (Northern Consolidated), 1988 (Swift-PABL), 1995 (Andok’s) and 1996 (Hapee Toothpaste).
Ironically, Meralco was also the last Philippine team to carry flag and country in the tournament back in 2018 where it lost to the SK Knights in the battle for the bronze.
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