Sitting down to write while on vacation in Hawaii is extremely difficult. I have no idea how Chad Ford does it! I have let a lot of important things go uncovered over the past week or so, so I will try to catch you up country by country in the next few posts. I would do them all right now, but I need to get a little sleep before I watch the U-19 games!

Philippines

There is a lot of news coming out of the Filipino basketball world. First, Smart Gilas, the Filipino National Team, was able to secure a gold medal in the Southeast Asia Basketball Association (SEABA) Championships held in Jakarta, Indonesia. Despite battling numerous injuries and being without a few of their PBA stars, Smart Gilas was able to win every game handily. Once again, the Philippines proved their regional dominance.

The PBA has seen a lot of action as well. In a really cool move, the PBA is on the road this week playing in the United Arab Emirates. Home to between 300,000 and 500,000 Filipinos, the games should be packed. I have witnessed firsthand in Taiwan the passion that Filipino spectators bring to the stadium when a Filipino team comes to play. The teams should feel right at home in a loud and wild arena. The first-place Texters will look to maintain their perfect record and B-Meg today and Ginebra tomorrow.

B-Meg made the biggest personnel move of the week by sending Stefhon Hannah home and bringing in well-traveled pro Darnell Hinson. Hinson has been playing internationally for the past 7 years with stops in Latin America, Europe, and Australia. While I am honestly not familiar with Hinson, anyone who can average over 20 ppg in the Australian NBL is a pretty good ball player. Hopefully he will gel with the B-Meg squad and show a more consistent shot (shoot over 35%) than Hannah did. This move will be interesting as there are only four more games in this conference before the playoffs. Is that enough time for an import to come in and make a difference?

Indonesia

It has been a busy time for basketball in Indonesia as well. In the biggest news the Indonesian National Team was able to qualify for the FIBA Asia Basketball Championship in China in September by finishing 2nd in the SEABA tournament. The Indonesian squad were trounced twice by the Filipinos, but were able to defeat both Malaysia and Singapore to secure their place.

The NBL also hosted a visiting contingent of “NBA Legends” consisting of Cedric Ceballos, Cliff Robinson, Dale Ellis, Voshon Leonard, and others. While the list of players seems hardly “legendary” to me, the two games against the NBL Select Team brought out big crowds and increased exposure to the game and league. On the 22nd the NBL also hosted a launch party for the 2011-2012 season. At the party it was announced that games would be played in even more locations around the archipelago. With no announcement regarding import players, it looks like it will still be a purely domestic league next year.

Congratulations to Satria Muda Britama! With their 67-50 over the CLS Knights SMB grabbed the inaugural NBL Championship. It is interesting to think back to October when the team started the year out 0-2 and people were asking if they had stretched themselves too thin playing in two leagues. What a difference five months can make! No one player stood out in the victory, instead seven players ended up putting points on the board. Amin Prihatono led the way with 16 points while Sitepu and Sondakh also reached double figures with 13 and 12 respectively. Continuing the trend of great attendance we have seen all year, 5500 fans packed the DBL Arena in Surabaya creating an atmosphere Perbasi Chairman Anggito Abinmanyu described as "incredible." Mainbasket blogger Rosyidan also reported that the TV viewer numbers were high as well.

In the night's earlier game PJE came away with a come-from-behind victory over Dell ASPAC 62-61. While probably not the result PJE was hoping for a week ago, they should still be proud of beating an extremely competitive ASPAC squad. In the end the top four teams played in the semi-finals, a result the league must be happy about.

Overall, from a fan's point of view, the NBL's first season was a resounding success. From what I could see from my vantage point a few thousand miles away, the fan and business support of the league was phenomenal. While I have been critical of the rotating venue setup in other leagues, it seems to have worked well for the NBL. I hope in the future they can find a way to spread out the paly a little more than they did this season, and maybe now that they have seen the successful attendance numbers they will do that.

I am excited to watch and listen to see how the league will grow and develop in the off-season.

We are now one week away from the start of the inaugural NBL Championship Series. The Series will feature a single elimination format over the course of the week. All the games will be held at the DBL Arena in Surabaya. The tournament will follow the typical 1-8, 2-7, 3-6, 4-5 matchups. Angsapura and Citra Satria will be the only teams left out of the action.

By far the most compelling game of the first round will be the 4-5 match-up between CLS and Garuda. The teams had opposite fortunes this season as CLS started off hot with a 9-2 record after Series II but finished 19-8 overall. While Garuda finished the season with a record of 17-10 they came out victorious over CLS in their last two meetings. The 3-6 match-up of Dell ASPAC and Stadium Jakarta could also prove interesting as Stadium has showed an ability to beat the top teams at times this season. It will all depend on whether or not Stadium can rise to a new level of consistency and intensity for the playoffs.

We can be confident that the tournament will have a great atmosphere as Surabaya fans have been known to fill up the gym. Now if I can only find a way to watch it online . . .

Series IV of the NBL season wrapped up yesterday in Denpasar, Bali. The series started out with a last minute change of venue due to an unsafe playing surface at the original site, but in the end the games went off without a hitch. There were plenty of close games and lots of action, but in the end the overall standings changed very little. Pelita Jaya sits on top of the leader board, followed by Satria Muda, ASPAC, and CLS. Despite beating both ASPAC and CLS, Garuda stills finds themselves in fifth place, unable to break into the top tier of teams.

Pelita Jaya is the clear team to beat now. While Satria Muda has been strong ever since Series I, with PJE coming out victorious in the head-to-head matchup they are the clear cut #1. With the fantastic duo of Kelly Purwanto and Ary Chandra leading the way, and the strong supporting cast, PJE are one of the few teams in the league that can beat you with more than one guy.

Series V will decide the final season standings. The action begins on February 5th in Jakarta.

Series III is over and in the books. At the half-way point to the season we have a clear picture of which teams are competitive and which teams will be looking to "develop future talent" for the rest of the season. Series IV begins January 10th in Bali, so here is what you need to know before then:

1) Satria Muda and Pelita Jaya are the clear cut favorites from here on out. While ASPAC and CLS have played well this season, they are definitely a step below. The inside-outside duo of Gunawan and Achmad lead the way for SM, but there are multiple other players who can step up and take charge, including the league's third leading scorer and 3-point ace Amin Prihantono. Pelita Jaya has an equally potent scoring duo in Ary Chandra and Dimas Aryo Dewanto. While much of PJ's offense comes from a perimeter attack and fast pace, they also have the players inside to control the paint. The other 8 teams in the league are going to have a hard time finding a way to handle either of these teams.

2) Garuda Flexi Bandung is much better than their record indicates. After some tough losses early, Garuda continues to beat the teams they are supposed to beat and play the top teams close. In Solo, Garuda had a big win against CLS and the following night lost a heart breaker to ASPAC. With strong play in Bali and Jakarta Garuda could potentially sneak up on CLS or ASPAC in the standings.

3) Every team will taste victory. In a battle of the bottom feeders, Angsapura defeated Citra Satria. While the result was meaningless for the overall standings, it is nice that there every team has at least one notch in the win column. As a New Jersey Nets fan I know what it feels like to watch your team lose night after night . . . not fun at all.
 
4) The big man is back! Who knew Indonesia had a legitimate center in their league? After sitting out the past year with a knee injury, Max Yanto suited up for Muba Hangtuah for the first time this year. At 216 cm Yanto is a fan favorite. Hopefully he can get back into shape and play some more minutes in the upcoming series.

Check back after the new year for a preview of Series IV.

Two articles were published yesterday on the NBL website that discuss the impending election for the Head of the Indonesian Basketball Association during the organization’s annual meetings on December 13th and 14th. It is no surprise that Azrul Ananda, the CEO of the DBL and NBL is the forerunner to take this post. It is reported that he has the support of many of the regional basketball associations already. The Head of the West Kalimantan Basketball Association is quoted as saying, “Ananda is totally committed to the advancement of basketball in his home country.

Three main reasons were given in the articles for why Ananda would be the right choice. First, Ananda has never held political office and does not have any party affiliation. In a country like Indonesia, where party politics often trumps all else, Ananda’s neutrality could protect the basketball association from being used a political piece. Second, Ananda has shown his ability to lead in both the DBL and NBL. The DBL is by far the most successful basketball organization in the history of Indonesia, and the first two months of the NBL have been successful as well. Lastly, Ananda has orchestrated the visits of numerous people associated with the NBA, both helping to develop Indonesian players and strengthen connections to the greater basketball world. In the past, Indonesia’s basketball scene has only sporadically been on the world’s radar.

Ananda is not without competition for the post. His most formidable opponent is Anggito Abimanyu, a man with an impressive resume in his own right. He currently serves as the Acting Head of the Agency for Fiscal Analysis of the Ministry of Finance, while also working as a lecturer in economics at Gajah Mada University. He also sits on the board of PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk., and used to hold a similar role at both Bank Lippo and Bank International Indonesia. According to the Republika newspaper Abimanyu says he has always had a love for the game of basketball, and is looking to create a more seamless integration of the various levels and constituents in the Indonesian basketball community.

Essentially both men are qualified for this position and look to have good ideas about how to progress the game further in Indonesia. The vote will seemingly come down to the same struggles Indonesia faces in so many areas: business vs. political and new guard vs. old guard.

Either way, this person will join Erick Thohir as the main force behind the development of Indonesia’s basketball in the near future. Hopefully they make the right, whoever that is.

As you may have noticed in the few "Country Overviews" that are actually posted (I swear the rest are in the works) www.asia-basket.com is one of the only consistent places for English language reporting on the game in Asia. While I am trying to provide a different set of information and opinion on this site, I thought that I could also help out a site I always mine information from. So in the future I will be the person updating Indonesia's page on the site. First update is located here.

The things I write for asia-basket.com will largely be informative articles. Opinion and in-depth articles about Indonesia will still be on this site.

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The bj-league is underway again. The first weekend’s games saw some familiar faces in action. Kenny Satterfield and Jackie Manuel are probably the two most recognizable names as they both played big time college ball and had a taste of the NBA. Two time MVP Lynn Washington (Indiana University) and last-year’s MVP Wendell White (UNLV) also took the court for the first time this year.

I found this article on the opening of Indonesia’s NBL to be really interesting. I can see the struggle that the league has trying to define itself as a viable league with one team that continues to dominate. But I do not think that the answer is removing some of the best players from the NBL competition because they are concurrently competing in the ASEAN Basketball League. It is counterproductive to the growth and development of the NBL as you are removing the most internationally visible players from the domestic competition. Can you imagine if European teams were not allowed to field same players in the domestic leagues as they do in the Euroleague? Time to get creative and think of a better solution NBL!