The 2023 EASL Champions Week was the
pre-season
In an organized sports league, a typical season is the portion of one year in which regulated games of the sport are in session: for example, in Major League Baseball the season lasts approximately from the last week of March to the last week of Se ...
tournament of the
2023 East Asia Super League, an international
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
club competition involving teams from domestic leagues in
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
,
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
,
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
and
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
, as well as a franchise team representing
Greater China. The Champions Week is being held from 1 to 5 March 2023.
The Champions Week was conceptualized after the regular season was postponed. The regular season was originally scheduled to be held from 12 October 2022 to February 2023, under a home and away format and a Final Four knockout stage.
The winners received USD 250,000, while the runners-up and third-place teams received USD 100,000 and USD 50,000, respectively.
Team allocation
The eight teams which qualified for the then-2022–23 EASL season qualified for the Champions Week.
Four leagues are represented for the 2023 EASL. The champions and runners-up of the Japan
B.League
The B.League is a professional men's basketball league that began in Japan in September 2016. The league is operated by the Japan Professional Basketball League and was formed as a result of a merger between the National Basketball League that w ...
and the
Korean Basketball League
The Korean Basketball League (KBL; ) is a professional men's basketball league in South Korea which was established in 1997. The league consists of ten teams and each team plays a total of 54 games (27 home and 27 away) in the regular season.
H ...
as well as the champions of Taiwan's
P. League+ Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
based
Bay Area Chun Yu Phoenixes, a franchise team not part of any domestic league also participated. The league considers the
P. League+ champions and the Phoenixes as representatives of "
Greater China".
For the Philippines, the top two finishing teams of the
2022 PBA Philippine Cup
The 2022 PBA Philippine Cup, also known as the 2022 Honda PBA Philippine Cup for sponsorship reasons, was the first conference of the 2022–23 PBA season of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). The 44th PBA Philippine Cup started on Jun ...
qualified.
Qualified teams
Imports
Each team can register two foreign players, plus an Asian heritage or naturalized player as imports.
Venues
Games were held in Japan, on the home venues of the two qualified Japanese teams –
Utsunomiya Brex
Utsunomiya Brex is a Japanese professional basketball team based in Tochigi Prefecture
is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Tochigi Prefecture has a population of 1,943,886 (1 June 2019) a ...
and the
Ryukyu Golden Kings
is a Japanese professional basketball team based in Okinawa City, Okinawa. They compete in the B.League, the top-tier professional basketball league of Japan.
Honours Domestic
*bj league champions: 4
**2009, 2012, 2014, 2016
*Conference cham ...
. There were ten games in total. Utsunomiya hosted six of the eight group stage games, while Ryukyu hosted the remaining two games, as well as the third place game and final.
Draw
The official draw for the 2022–23 EASL season was held on 28 June 2022 at the
Shangri-La at the Fort, Manila
Shangri-La at the Fort is a five-star luxury hotel and mixed-used building in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig, Metro Manila, Philippines. It opened on March 1, 2016, and is one of the three hotels managed by Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts located ...
in
Taguig
Taguig (), officially the City of Taguig ( fil, Lungsod ng Taguig), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in Metro Manila, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 886,722 people. Located in the northwestern shores of ...
. For the Champions Week the groupings were retained.
[
The teams were drawn in two groups. A coin flipping mechanic was used; each champion in each domestic league was to choose a coin side. The winner of the coin flip was placed on Group A while the other placed in Group B.][
]
Group stage
On 10 January 2023, EASL released the full schedule for the tournament. Each team in each of the two groups would face only two of three of the other teams in their group unlike in a traditional round robin format.
Group A
Group B
Final round
Third place game
Final
Final standing
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:EASL Champions Week
2022–23 in Asian basketball leagues
March 2023 sports events in Japan