The Metropolitan Basketball Association (MBA), also shortened as Metroball, was a professional basketball league in the Philippines that ran from 1998 until 2002. The league used a home-and-away system, in which teams represent companies, the MBA teams represented a particular city, province or island in the country.

History

The MBA played its first game on March 7, 1998 at the Don Narciso Ramos Sports Complex in Lingayen, Pangasinan. The MBA was widely viewed as broadcast giant ABS-CBN's attempt to undermine the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) after failing to snatch its broadcast rights in 1998, even as far as raid the PBA for talent in order to compete. Metroball allowed foreigners to play for their teams, not requiring Philippine passports of them, nor requiring those foreigners to have Filipino blood. All the league required was that these players be born in the Philippines. As a direct result of this practice, the MBA and its foreign-born players began attracting attention away from the PBA, forcing the PBA to escalate their own players' salaries and practically rendering the PBA draft useless through a "direct hiring" process. This allowed PBA teams like Talk 'N Text and Tanduay to negotiate directly with MBA players or MBA prospects (like Asi Taulava and Sonny Alvarado) for their services. The league then folded on July 26, 2002, due to the high expenses in funding a regional basketball league, with ABS-CBN also withdrawing the funding for the league. Several players went to the semi-professional Philippine Basketball League en route to the PBA.

Format

The MBA had a format similar to that of North America's National Basketball Association (NBA). The teams were divided into two conferences: the Northern Conference composed of Luzon-based teams, and the Southern Conference composed of Visayas- and Mindanao-based teams. The season concluded with the MBA National Finals, where the champions of both conferences face off to determine the season champions. After the league adapted a semi-commercial format, in which teams are sponsored by companies, several methods were used to in determining the champion. In their final season, they have adapted a three-conference format, similar with the PBA.

Teams

Northern Conference

Southern Conference

Coaches

Venues

Rules

The MBA had a set of its unique rules compared to the PBA:

MBA Most Valuable Players

MBA Champions

Teams in bold won the MBA National Championship.

Commissioners

Rivalries

Trivia

MBA on ABS-CBN

The MBA on ABS-CBN was a branding for presentation of the Metropolitan Basketball Association games by the ABS-CBN Sports. The MBA on ABS-CBN premiered on March 7, 1998, when the league inaugurated its first season, and ended on December 19, 2001. After that, the NBN officially take over the coverage in 2002.

Commentators

Play-by-play

Color

Courtside reporters