To begin I must throw out the disclaimer that I am fan of the ASEAN Basketball League. I am a fan for two main reasons. First, I love basketball. I love basketball so much I will sit in a gym for hours to watch 3rd Graders play the game. I love basketball. Second, growing up in Indonesia I always thought basketball should have a bigger place in the sporting culture of the country, and the region. People all over Southeast Asia seemed to love basketball, but outside of the Philippines and to a lesser extent Indonesia no one seemed to be playing the game competitively. The ABL filled this void.

But being a fan means I really care about the league and want to see it do well. Sometimes those of us who are the biggest fans end up being the ones who are most critical. I am going to be balanced though. Mimicking the style of the weekly Yahoo wrap-up of NFL action, here is my list of “5 Things I Love and 5 Things I Loathe” about the ABL 2010-2011 season.

1)      I loathe . . . the small crowds in some of the arenas. How in the world is an arena in a city the size of Bangkok so empty? There must be 3,000-4,000 basketball fans out there willing to come to a game!

2)     I love . . . that there has been no talk about players not getting paid this season. The Thailand Cobras issues last year were unfortunate and luckily there seems to be no repeat this season.

3)      I loathe . . . the lack of expansion. While expanding too quickly would be worse, I was looking forward to a few more teams, including a squad in Vietnam this season. Maybe next year?

4)      I love . . . how much clearer the league standings are this years. Thank you ABL for no longer giving a team a point for each loss. While making the league look more equal is a nice intention, rewarding teams for failure was just silly.

5)      I loathe . . . the timing of the season. Competing against the PBA Philippine Cup and the NBL in Indonesia means you are fighting for fans in your two largest markets! Plus, the Filipino player quality in the ABL is less and some of Satria Muda’s best players are kept out of the ABL. Is it any wonder Satria Muda is in last place this year? Faisal Julius Achmad and Rony Gunawan could have really helped the team.

6)      I love . . . how there has been less player movement this year. For the most part the rosters have been static meaning I actually know the players this year. It seemed like a game of musical chairs at times last year.

7)      I loathe . . . that at times it seems like I am watching another Filipino league. Are 3 ASEAN imports per team necessary?

8)     I love . . . the partnership with FIBA TV. Last year I was only able to watch one game from Taiwan. I have already watched six games this year. Thanks for letting those fans outside of the region feel connected!

9)      I loathe . . . that I still do not understand the grand vision of the league. Are these All-Star teams or club teams? Repositioning the dates of the league may help clear this up, but for now I feel like we are in a limbo state between those two areas.

10)  I love . . . the fact that it is Year 2 of the league and it looks like Year 3 is a lock for next year. New basketball leagues pop up and fold all over the world, but it looks like the ABL is on the right track for long term success.

In the end love wins out. I know for a fact that 14 year old me would have loved the ABL, and in the end I think that says more about the league than anything else.

Living up to the nickname “Jet” cannot be easy, but Jet Chang is making a strong go of it early in the 2010-11 season. In his third season now at Brigham Young University – Hawaii, Chang is once again stepping in to a leadership role. The reason for following Chang is simple: he is one of the keys to Taiwan’s future basketball success. In the 2009 Asian Championships Chang was one of the top scorers on the NT, averaging close to 12 ppg. This past summer, while inconsistent at times, he showed more flashes of his raw scoring ability in the Stankovic Cup in Lebanon. His exciting style of play almost certainly guarantees his popularity in Taiwan for years to come. Taiwan certainly could have used his scoring ability in Guangzhou.

BYU-H played two exhibition games before the season began. The first game was against the BYU-Provo team, who are currently ranked #23 in the country. Chang played relatively well, ending the game with 13 points and 1 rebound, assist, and steal a piece. For those who are interested the link is available online on BYUTV’s website. He followed this performance with another strong outing, logging 13 points and 5 assists against a university team from Taiyun, China.

Now that we are four games in to the regular season I feel evaluating Chang’s performance so far is appropriate. He currently leads the team in scoring, averaging a shade under 15 ppg. This is despite playing somewhat more limited minutes than last year. The team is 3-1, suffering its only setback to a strong Cal State – Dominguez Hills team.

One of the best things about following BYU-H basketball is that the games are regularly streamed over the net. Once I have information on where and when to the games I will post it online.

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Over the past week there have been a handful of great Japanese basketball-related articles in both the local Japanese and international press. Ironically, none of the articles have to do with the Japanese National Team's  strong showing at the Asian Games. A four point loss in the semi-finals to Korea is a result that may seem frustrating now, but in the long run  I believe the Japanese will be fine with.

It seems that the Tokyo Apache ownership have done a great job letting the world know that they are serious about making basketball a legitimate sport in Japan. The fact that the Wall Street Journal is publishing an article, and a follow-up blog post, about the bj-league is on one hand shocking, and on the other really exciting. My favorite quote from the whole article is the league commissioner commenting on the Apache ownership’s approach. "We have tried to explain to the new Apache owners that basketball is still minor here compared to the NBA, but they are determined to challenge things . . . We welcome that spirit." Essentially, “we think they are crazy but it is their money.” The Tokyo Apache have put together a strong team and are doing exactly what they need to do to make themselves relevant in a city that has more than enough entertainment options already.

While the WSJ articles were interesting, the more important articles from this past week were in the Daily Yomiuri, a newspaper that rarely discusses either JBL or bj-league happenings. This two part special report (Part I and Part II) focuses on the overall state of the game in Japan, and also looks at the inevitable merger of the two leagues. Instead of rehashing everything out here I will just say everyone should read these articles. The idea I do want to talk about is the comparison between the JBL and bj-league situation and the historic merger of the NBA and ABA. There are certainly similarities, but the differences between these two situations are significant.

The similarity in the situation is the fact that in both instances there is a clash of cultures, a young upstart challenging the entrenched traditional league. The leagues fight over the best young talent coming out of the university leagues, and fight to retain players in their respective league. This is actually a recent development, as it was only a few months ago that the first Japanese National Team player, Takumi Ishizaki, jumped from the JBL to the bj-league, previously it was only role players making the move. While player movement and leveraging offers from both leagues was one of the hallmarks of the ABA era, it seems to have only just begun in Japan. A main reason for this is that the JBL teams for the most part have greater resources than the bj-league, and the salary cap in the JBL is friendlier towards paying Japanese players.

The biggest difference that I see though in the current state of Japanese basketball and the NBA/ABA conflict of the 1970s is the fact that the bj-league is still in a state of growth. The key force behind the NBA and ABA merger was the ABA was on the verge of folding. At its height the league had eleven teams, but in the final season only seven teams finished the full schedule. At this point the bj-league is looking to expand from sixteen to twenty teams next season, and has not seen any contraction yet. While the popularity of the teams is not consistent, and attendance can be a problem, it has not stopped the league from gaining new footholds across Japan.

To me the ball is in the JBL’s court at this time. While they have the superior local talent, their marketing and culture are outdated. The fact that games are sporadically broadcast within Japan only further emphasizes this point. As long as the companies that own the JBL franchises are happy to use their teams as advertising pieces and not viable businesses on their own basketball will remain an afterthought in Japan. The leagues need to take a look at the history and current set up of the J. League to see how a league can grow from obscurity to popularity in a short time. 

The Tokyo Apache played two games this past weekend against the Akita Northern Happinets (my vote for best team name in the league). Tyler continued his strong play in both contests, going for 18 and 6 in 24 minutes of play on Saturday night and 11 and 3 in 12 minutes on Sunday. He continues to score at an impressive rate, and his high FG % shows he is taking quality shots.

The area that still concerns me is his fouls. He is currently averaging 8 fouls per 40 minutes, or 9.6 fouls per 48 minutes. This is astronomical! To put it into context, if he was in the NBA this year he would be #2 in the league in this statistical category. I want to know where he is picking up all of these fouls. Alas, the bj-league is near impossible to find anywhere on the internet to watch.

Next up is Niigata on Dec. 11 & 12. These should be an interesting match-up for Tyler as Niigata's front line includes solid players and good size in Julius Ashby, Zachary Andrews, and Issa Konare.

We are 6 games in to Tyler’s second year of professional basketball. While I think everyone agrees that last year’s experience in Israel was a disaster, the jury is still out on how this year will turn out for Tyler. As I discussed in an earlier post, I see reason for optimism and because of that I will start off talking about the good developments of the first three weekends of action. Unfortunately my observations have been limited to game reports and box scores as I can not find a place to watch bj-league games this season yet.

The Good

Week 3 – He exploded in the two games against the Saitama Broncos this past weekend including a 27/11 output in the second match. Probably of greater note was the fact he was able to stay on the court for 26 minutes. It is reported that five of his field goals were dunks. At least we know he is playing aggressively.

The Bad (there is a little more of this than the ‘good’)

Foul Trouble – In five of the six games he has committed four fouls. Like all young players, the key to his development is experience/playing time. By getting in to foul trouble he is limiting his own ability to develop, let alone give NBA scouts time to analyze his game.

Free Throws – Only Shaq can get away with shooting 11/23 on free throws. How fundamentally sound is a player who shoots below 50% on free throws?

Turnovers - On the same line as free throws, one has to question the fundamentals of a player who is averaging 2.9 turnovers per game while on playing an average of 16 minutes per game. Is lack of high quality game experience the issue, or is he lacking court vision and game understanding?

Competition – Tyler’s explosion against Saitama came against the weakest frontline he has faced so far. Not coincidentally, Saitama signed a center the day after his big game. We will not know if this is an aberration or a sign of true development until he can repeat the performance a few more times.

Overall, I still think the four other imports on the Apache and coach Bob Hill are going to make this a good environment for Tyler. Is it as good a place to develop as a DI school? We have to wait and see.

Thanks to Chris Wang at Taiwan Hoops for a quick and comprehensive update on the Taiwan Beer situation. I agree, the logistics of this move alone would be daunting, as anyone who has traveled between China and Taiwan knows.

One option that no one in Taiwan has talked about is connecting down with the ASEAN League in the future. While I understand Taiwan is not technically part of Southeast Asia, the move would expand the potential market for Taiwanese players and allow for Taiwan to strut its stuff on an international stage. Just a thought . . .

It seems that the only thing keeping these two basketball loving nations apart is politics. While that is one huge "thing" between these two countries, it seems that things are starting to heat up in this area.

First, Taiwan Hoops reported that Tseng Wen-Ting has been offered a chance to play for the Shanghai Sharks of the CBA this next season. I watched as many of Tseng's games as I could last year, as in my opinion, he is the most dynamic player in the SBL at this time. It would be a huge blow to the SBL to lose Tseng, last year's MVP and owner of multiple championships. But for Tseng the move would make all the sense in the world both from a financial standpoint and a basketball standpoint. At 26 years old it is time for him to step onto a bigger stage.

Second, is perhaps the bigger news with reports that Taiwan Beer are applying to join the CBA and subsequent reports shooting down the rumor. While there has been no update (in English at least) over the weekend on this, I think it is highly unlikely that this rumor came out of nowhere. Hopefully we can get some further clarific

This is a great blog post describing the path a few players have taken from the CBA to the NBA. The question of whether or not this is a viable path or not is one that I think needs to start to be discussed. One high profile player is currently using an Asian league to prepare himself for the NBA . . . smart or not?

Jeremy Tyler played his first regular season games as a member of the bj-league’s Tokyo Apache this past weekend (analysis of his play will come in a later post). Tyler’s decision to go to Japan has been panned by many after his well-publicized failures in Israel last year. The attacks on his decision have mostly been because he has decided to play in the relatively unknown bj-league in Japan. Frankly, while I am not a fan of Tyler’s decision to leave high school early (for social/emotional reasons more than anything) I think the bj-league may be the exact kind of league where a young player can gain valuable experience and improve their game. Because I am lazy I will bullet point my argument below.

• The competition. Calling the league a “Mickey Mouse” league as some observers have in the past is not accurate. While the level of ability of the Japanese players in the league is somewhat questionable, the league set up allows for three imports on the court at one time. The quality of imports in the bj-league is second in Asia to only the CBA. I did some quick research on where the foreign players in the league played their college ball and overwhelmingly the answer is D1 programs. Of the 77 of the 88 foreign players in the league listed on www.asia-basket.com, or 88%, played their collegiate ball at a D1 school (about a dozen of these players also have NBA or NBDL experience). You have to figure then that of the ten players on the court at any one time six of them are D1 level ball players. Add in a few quality Japanese players and the league looks a lot better than the image sportswriters depicted a few months back. 
• Practice. Every day in practice Tyler goes up against three experienced big men. His teammates Robert Swift, Kendall Dartez, and Michael Chappell are all quality basketball players. Robert Swift of course is the most famous after playing a few years in the NBA. He was slowed by multiple knee injuries, but looks to be making his way back into shape. Kendall Dartez played at University of Louisville and has had two separate stints in the D-League. Mike Chappell was a well-known college player who split his career between Duke and Michigan State, and has played professionally in Australia, Europe, and Japan since 2001. Not only will Tyler be able to work out against these guys every day, he can also learn from their experience.
• The Coach. There was a great article in Sports Illustrated last month that discussed why Bob Hill will be so good for Tyler’s development. Anything is going to be better than the situation in Israel last year where it sounds like he received very little instruction.
• The Culture. This is the most intangible of the arguments, but one that I feel cannot be overlooked. For a young man who has just spent the past year and a half having his life and decisions analyzed and debated, slipping away to a place where basketball is not the most popular sport could provide the mental break Tyler needs. Perhaps without a camera in his face, and overzealous fans he can spend some time actually learning how to play the game.

I understand that this is an optimistic argument, but I think we need to remember we are talking about a 19 year old KID who is learning how to be an adult, along with learning how to play a game he seems to have been built to play. I will be providing updates and analysis every two or three weeks on Tyler’s progression throughout the season.