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Chinese Basketball Alliance

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Chinese Basketball Alliance
(中華ちゅうか職業しょくぎょう籃球聯盟れんめい)
SportBasketball
Founded1994
Ceased1999
No. of teams4 (1994–1995);
6 (1996–1999)
CountryTaiwan
ContinentFIBA Asia
Most titlesHung Kuo Elephants
(3 titles)
TV partner(s)Chinese Television System,
ETTV (東森ひがしもり電でん視し)

The Chinese Basketball Alliance (Chinese: 中華ちゅうか職業しょくぎょう籃球聯盟れんめい; CBA) was a men's professional basketball league in Taiwan that existed from 1995 to 1999. Also abbreviated as "CBA", the defunct organization based in Taiwan was distinct from the Chinese Basketball Association of the People's Republic of China (PRC) [1] and was also not to be confused with the Continental Basketball Association of the United States. In this article, "CBA" refers to the first organization if not otherwise specified.

Overview of organizational history

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Founded in 1994 with four champion teams from Taiwan's amateur Division A conference (甲かぶと組ぐみ聯れん賽さい), the CBA was Taiwan's second professional sports league next to the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL), and was among the earliest professional basketball leagues in Asia.[2] Following the regnal year tradition in East Asia, the CBA officially named its first season, 1994–1995, the "CBA Inaugural Year" (職しょく籃元年ねん), the 1995-1996 season the "CBA Second Year", and so forth. Four seasons were completed before the game was suddenly halted in 1999 in the middle of an unfinished fifth due to financial difficulties.

Having had survived the 1995-1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis, the CBA was viciously affected by the repercussions of the Asian Financial Crisis two years later. Decreased attendance aside, a factor that had a direct bearing on the sudden close down of the CBA was the dispute between the organization and its television partner, the Eastern Broadcasting Co., Ltd. (東森ひがしもり電でん視し; ETTV), over the proper level of the broadcasting royalties. Shortly after the latter ceased to make royalty payments as contracted, the CBA ran out of financial means to sustain its operating budget and had to stop its operations.

Participating clubs and champions

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Since its second season, the CBA had expanded to include a total of six clubs. They were: Yulon Dinos (裕ひろし隆たかし恐龍きょうりゅう), Hung Kuo Elephants (宏ひろし國こく象ぞう), Tera/Kaohsiung Mars (泰たい瑞みず/高雄たかお戰せん神しん), LUCKIPar(幸福こうふく豹ひょう) (幸福こうふく豹ひょう) in addition to the incoming Hung Fu Rams (宏ひろし福ぶく公こう羊ひつじ) and Chung-Hsing/Dacin Tigers (中興ちゅうこう/達たち欣虎). The history of the CBA was marked by a "Hung Kuo dynasty" (宏ひろし國こく王朝おうちょう) where the Elephants won three consecutive championships. The champion team and runner-up of each year are listed below:

Year Champion Runner-up
CBA Inaugural Year (1994–1995) Yulon Dinos [3]
CBA Second Year (1995–1996) Hung Kuo Elephants Yulon Dinos
CBA Third Year (1996–1997) Hung Kuo Elephants Yulon Dinos
CBA Fourth Year (1997–1998) Hung Kuo Elephants Kaohsiung Mars
CBA Fifth Year (1998–1999, unfinished) Undecided [4]

Caught in the economic turbulence of the late 1990s, the corporate owners/sponsors of various CBA clubs decided to withdraw from professional sports. Consequently, the Hung Kuo, Mars, LUCKIPar, and Hung Fu teams came under the danger of disbandment around the same period when the CBA closed down. At the turn of the 20th century, only two out of the six clubs that had participated in the CBA, namely, Yulon and Dacin, had managed to survive with the original organizations. Whereas the Mars was allowed to kept its roster and its name under new ownership by the Broadcasting Corporation of China, most of the original Hung Kuo Elephants were able to continue playing together as the Sina Lions (新しん浪なみ獅) after their new corporate owner, Sina.com. These four clubs subsequently became founding members of the Super Basketball League (SBL) when the semi-professional league was created in 2003. Many have viewed this new league as the successor body to the CBA.

Less fortunate, the LUCKIPar and Hung Fu teams disappeared permanently.

Policy and rules on imported players

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The CBA distinguished the origin of a player as an array of height and playing chance limitations would be applied to imported players—the so-called yáng jiàng (洋よう將しょう; literally, "commanders/warriors that come through the sea") -- but not to local players (本土ほんど球だま員いん). In implementing this, however, players with "Chinese consanguinity" (華はな裔球員いん) -- however vague such definition was—could be regarded as if they were local upon consensus among all member clubs. Such exemptions had allowed a number of players from mainland China, Hong Kong, and the United States to play without height and number limitations.

Initially, each team was allowed to register 3 non-Chinese foreign players and put up to 2 of them onto the court. No height limitations were in place in the first three seasons. Beginning from the CBA Fourth Year, however, non-Chinese imports were divided into the "bigger" and the "smaller" categories by height. Foreign players who were 201 cm (6'7") or taller were regarded as "big", and only one such player would be allowed to play on the court for a team. In the meantime, no more foreign players 208 cm (6'10") or taller could be signed—although in previous seasons several seven-footers had made their appearances in the game. This was a response to some watchers' complaint that the league was dominated by foreign players, especially by those oversized imports from inside the paint. In the 1990s, native Taiwanese players who were two metres or taller were rare, and, as reflected in the statistics, local players had rarely turned out to be a leading rebounder or shot-blocker on a CBA team.

Most Valuable Players and other notable figures

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Year Regular Season MVP Championship Series MVP
CBA Inaugural Year (1994–1995) Tung-fang Chieh-Teh (東方とうほう介かい德とく) (Yulon)
CBA Second Year (1995–1996) Cheng Chih-lung (鄭てい志こころざし龍りゅう) (Hung Kuo)
CBA Third Year (1996–1997) Todd Rowe (泰たい勒) (Mars)
CBA Fourth Year (1997–1998) Chou Chun-San (周しゅう俊三しゅんぞう) (Hung Kuo) [5] Cheng Chih-lung (鄭てい志こころざし龍りゅう) (Hung Kuo)

Coaches

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Local forwards

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Local centres

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Local guards

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  • Chou Chun-San (周しゅう俊三しゅんぞう): Born in Taiwan; 5'9", then point guard (PG) and captain for Hung Kuo, three-time assist champion of the CBA; primary PG for Chinese Taipei men's national basketball team in the 1990s, two-time assist champion of the PRC-based professional league, currently executive coach for Taiwan Beer of the SBL
  • Cheng Chih-lung (鄭てい志こころざし龍りゅう): Born in Taiwan; 6'3", then shooting guard for Hung Kuo, regular season and finals MVP of the CBA; primary scorer as small forward for Chinese Taipei men's national basketball team between 1989 and 1999, former FIBA Asian All-Star, former member of the Legislative Yuan of the Republic of China, currently head coach for Taiwan Mobile Clouded Leopards of the SBL
  • Li Yun-Kuang (李り雲くも光こう): Born in Taiwan; 5'8", then point guard for Yulon, three-time steal champion of the CBA; member of Chinese Taipei men's national basketball team from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, former head coach for the Chinese Taipei men's team and Yulon
  • Luo Hsing-Liang (羅ら興きょう樑): Born in Taiwan; 6'0", then shooting guard for Hung Kuo and Dacin; member of Chinese Taipei men's national basketball team in the 1990s, former FIBA Asian All-Star, former three-point field goal champion (most made) of the PRC-based professional league, currently player in the SBL
  • Yen Hsing-su (顏かお行書ぎょうしょ): Born in Taiwan; 6'0", then point guard for the Mars, one-time assist champion; member of Chinese Taipei men's national basketball team between the mid-1990s and the early 2000s (decade), currently player in the PRC-based professional league and the SBL
  • Zhang Xuelei (simplified Chinese: 张学雷かみなり; traditional Chinese: 張ちょう學まなぶ雷かみなり): Born in Liaoning Province, PRC; 6'8", then shooting guard for LUCKIPar; former member of China men's national basketball team, currently head coach of Yulon

Imports

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See also

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Notes and references

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  1. ^ Subsequent to its Taiwanese counterpart, the PRC-based league inaugurated in the 1995-1996 season with 12 élite clubs chosen from the Class A conference (甲きのえ级联赛) in mainland China.
  2. ^ Founded in 1975, the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) has had the longest history among Asia's professional basketball leagues. It was to be followed by the CBA, the PRC-based Chinese Basketball Association, and the Korean Basketball League (KBL), which came into existence in the mid-1990s.
  3. ^ Modeled on the CPBL, the CBA adopted a half-season system in its inaugural year where the first and the second half-season champions would compete in a postseason series to decide the general championship. Since Yulon finished with most wins in both half-seasons, granting both half-season titles to the same team, no playoffs were needed to decide the championship. Hung Kuo, nonetheless, finished both half-seasons only one game behind Yulon and was able to defeat the champion team in an unofficial exhibition series following the conclusion of the season.
    In light of the accession of a fifth and a sixth team to the league, the half-season system was soon replaced by an NBA-style playoffs system where the number one seed -- ranked by regular season wins -- would meet the number four seed, while number two confronts number three, in a best-of-five series preceding a best-of-seven championship series between the first-round winners.
  4. ^ The Mars led the league in wins at the time of close down.
  5. ^ Although Chou garnered the most Media votes among all candidates, an official MVP award was never conferred to him because the league's procedures required an MVP to be selected with 50% or more of total votes cast -- a threshold he did not pass.
  6. ^ Profile on Podium-Sport.com Archived 2010-09-07 at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ Names of imported players allowed to play as locals under the CBA's unique "Chinese consanguinity" clause are italicized in this list.
  8. ^ Full list of draftees in the 1987 NBA Draft on Basketball Reference.com
  9. ^ Rocords on the UM athletics website Archived 2011-08-13 at the Wayback Machine
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