IF you happen to see your favorite PBA team already practicing while the Commissioner’s Cup Finals is set to begin, that’s because the next conference, the Governors’ Cup, is just around the corner.
The season-ending Governors’ Cup is scheduled to open on July 10, barring any major changes. That is right after Window 3 of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2027 Asian Qualifiers where Gilas Pilipinas will play on the road against New Zealand in Auckland on July 3 and Australia on July 6 in Perth.
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But after a couple of weeks of play, the Governors’ Cup competition will stop on August 14 to give way to Gilas Pilipinas’ preparation for the 2026 Asian Games where the country is the defending champion.
The Asian Games will be held in Nagoya, Japan from September 19 to October 4, with the schedule of the basketball competitions still to be determined..
The Governors’ Cup will then resume three days after the official end of the Asiad on October 7.
Converge is a team that has already begun preparing for the upcoming conference after missing the playoffs during the Commissioner’s Cup. - Reuben Terrado
A new volleyball league prepares for launch
A NEW women's volleyball league may soon enter the Philippine sports landscape.
On Monday, promotional materials for what will be known as UNO L1GA began making the rounds on social media, with a targeted launch in July.
The announcement said the prospective league will try to bring together student athletes, veteran players and others outside the regular millieu of the sport in a competition that organizers hope will be attractive to volleyball fans.
The social media posts deliberately excluded the names of the organizers, saying they will be known at the appropriate time which will probably coincide with the announcement of the teams and players competing.
One source described UNO L1GA as a league similar to the Philippine Superliga which operated under a semi-professional structure while providing another avenue for players outside the current PVL ecosystem.
The source added that the concept is being developed with aspirations of becoming a viable alternative to the PVL, although many of the league's operational details have yet to be finalized.
No teams, player rosters, tournament format, venue arrangements or broadcast partners had been formally announced.
For now, whether it ultimately grows into a legitimate addition to the local volleyball calendar is still unclear, but its emergence has already generated discussion across the sport amid the ongoing boardroom turmoil in Philippine volleyball. - John Mark Garcia
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