TAIWAN
Introduction
Historically baseball has been the most popular sport on this island of 23 million, over the past 10-20 years basketball has continued to grow in popularity as baseball has lost many fans. Basketball's start in Taiwan actually came with the Kuomintang's arrival on the island in 1949. Along with the thousands of people and truckloads of precious artifacts they brought their love of basketball. Sixty years later basketball is king in Taiwan, with a fan base that extends across all age levels.
The Taiwanese National Team is one of the better teams in the Asia region. While they sit considerably behind China, they compete with South Korea, Japan,and the Philippines for second best. The team finished 5th in the 2009 Asian Games, an improvement over a 6th place finish in 2007.
One of the major events each year on the Taiwanese basketball calendar is the William Jones Cup. This invitational tournament was initially established to keep Taiwan involved in international basketball after they withdrew from FIBA in protest to the Chinese. They of course are now back in FIBA, as of 1981, but the tournament remains a showcase for various Asian national teams, and some squads from the US and Australia. It is a unique event that allows the Taiwanese A and B squads to play international level games every summer.
Historically baseball has been the most popular sport on this island of 23 million, over the past 10-20 years basketball has continued to grow in popularity as baseball has lost many fans. Basketball's start in Taiwan actually came with the Kuomintang's arrival on the island in 1949. Along with the thousands of people and truckloads of precious artifacts they brought their love of basketball. Sixty years later basketball is king in Taiwan, with a fan base that extends across all age levels.
The Taiwanese National Team is one of the better teams in the Asia region. While they sit considerably behind China, they compete with South Korea, Japan,and the Philippines for second best. The team finished 5th in the 2009 Asian Games, an improvement over a 6th place finish in 2007.
One of the major events each year on the Taiwanese basketball calendar is the William Jones Cup. This invitational tournament was initially established to keep Taiwan involved in international basketball after they withdrew from FIBA in protest to the Chinese. They of course are now back in FIBA, as of 1981, but the tournament remains a showcase for various Asian national teams, and some squads from the US and Australia. It is a unique event that allows the Taiwanese A and B squads to play international level games every summer.
Leagues
Basketball in Taiwan is organized across all levels: high school, university, and professional. Both the high school and university competitions are organized at both a regional and national level, an easier feat considering the whole island is not that much larger than Massachusetts. What is impressive is the coverage that both of these levels of basketball receive. During December-February it is not uncommon to have basketball on all three major sports channels, with each channel covering a different level. Winning the national championship at either the high school or university level brings significant attention and media coverage.
Taiwan's professional league is the Super Basketball League. The league was established in 2003 in order to replace the Chinese Basketball Alliance which existed in the 1990s. The SBL consists of seven teams, each sponsored by a different company. The league plays a 30-game schedule each team meeting five times. The regular season is followed by a two-round playoff. Each team is allowed to field one foreign import player. There is a 200 cm height restriction, and most teams choose to sign players as close to that limit as possible.
The other professional basketball option available to Taiwanese players are the Chinese leagues. As China considers Taiwan to be a "rogue province" Taiwanese players are considered to be Chinese Nationals, thus do not count against CBA and NBL team's import player quota. Currently three Taiwanese players play in China, with rumors that many more are looking to make the move over, lured by the higher salaries. As recently as October 2010 there was talk of the Taiwan Beer franchise moving to the CBA. Player and team movement to the mainland will continue to be a point of concern and source of rumors for the years to come.
Sources
Asia-basket Taiwan - For the most part this page's info is updated by the same person who writes Taiwan Hoops. The articles are exactly the same.
Taiwan Hoops - Chris Wang does a good job staying on top of the basketball scene in Taiwan. This site focuses mostly on the SBL and the National Team, but also does a nice job discussing high school and university hoops.
SBL Official Website - In Chinese, but the website has some nice highlight videos and streams of the games. Worth a few minutes of playing around with if you are interested in seeing some game action.
