The 2023–24 East Asia Super League was the first regular season of the

East Asia Super League The East Asia Super League (EASL) is an international basketball league featuring clubs from Japan, South Korea, Philippines, Taiwan (Chinese Taipei), Hong Kong, and Macau. From 2017 to 2019, four pre-season tournaments (the Super 8 and the ...

, 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 (appro ...

club competition involving teams from domestic leagues in

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

and

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

. The season started on 11 October 2023, and ended on 10 March 2024. Originally set to be held from 12 October 2022 to February 2023 under a in home and away format and a Final Four knockout stage, the start of the EASL regular season was postponed to October 2023. The

Chiba Jets Chiba Jets Funabashi () is a Japanese professional basketball team located in Funabashi, Chiba. The team joined the JBL Super League in 2005 and currently competes in the B.League, which they have won in 2021. Owned by Mixi, they have also won fi ...

are the inaugural EASL champions after defeating

Seoul SK Knights The Seoul SK Knights () is a professional basketball club in the Korean Basketball League. The club was originally founded by Jinro Group in 1997 as Cheongju Jinro McCass. Before the official launch of the basketball club, Jinro Group filed fo ...

in the final in the Hoops Dome in

Lapu-Lapu City Lapu-Lapu, officially the City of Lapu-Lapu (; ), is a highly urbanized city in the Central Visayas region of the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 497,604 people. It was formerly known as Opon, which was ch ...

, Philippines.

Team allocation

Four leagues are represented for the 2023–24 EASL, namely the champions and runners-up of the Japanese

B.League The B.League is a men's professional basketball league in Japan. 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 was operated by the FIBA-affi ...

, the

Korean Basketball League The Korean Basketball League () or simply 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 s ...

, the

Philippine Basketball Association The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) is a men's professional basketball league in the Philippines, composed of twelve company-branded Franchising, franchise teams. Founded in 1975, it is the first professional basketball league in Asia ...

, and the Taiwanese P. League+. Prior to the postponement of the season, each of the top two finishing teams of the 2022 PBA Philippine Cup, 2021–22 B.League season, 2021–22 Korean Basketball League, and the champions of the 2021–22 P. League+ season qualified. Initially, the Philippine allocation was unclear since the

holds multiple conferences or tournaments across a single season. Among the possibilities were drawing of lots among the top four PBA teams, forming a selection team or entering the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

. Champions

San Miguel Beermen The San Miguel Beermen are a professional basketball team in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). It is one of three PBA clubs owned by the San Miguel Corporation group of companies along with Barangay Ginebra San Miguel and Magnolia ...

and runners-up

TNT Tropang Giga The TNT Tropang 5G is a professional basketball team currently owned by Smart Communications, a subsidiary of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT), playing in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) since 1990. The fra ...

qualified for the EASL season. However, the PBA later decided that the top two finishing teams of the already finished

2023 PBA Governors' Cup The 2023 PBA Governors' Cup was the third and final conference of the 2022–23 PBA season of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). The 21st edition of the Governors' Cup started on January 22 and ended on April 21, 2023. The tournament ...

, namely

and

Barangay Ginebra San Miguel The Barangay Ginebra San Miguel is a professional basketball team in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). The most popular team in the league, it is owned by Ginebra San Miguel, Ginebra San Miguel, Inc. (formerly, La Tondeña Distiller ...

, will qualify instead. Furthermore, Barangay Ginebra withdrew for undisclosed reasons and were replaced by semifinalists

Meralco Bolts The Meralco Bolts is a professional basketball team in the Philippine Basketball Association. The team began in 2010 after the Manila Electric Company (MERALCO) acquired the PBA franchise of the Sta. Lucia Realtors. The team is one of thre ...

shortly prior to the start of the league. It was also determined that the qualified teams from Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan are based from the 2022–23 season instead of the 2021–22 season. The qualified teams remained largely the same;

Utsunomiya Brex Utsunomiya Brex is a Japanese professional basketball team based in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan. After winning the JBL 2 in 2008, the team played in the National Basketball League (Japan), National Basketball League. Previous team names include: T ...

originally qualified under the old format. The

qualified instead.

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

based Chun Yu Bay Area Dragons, a franchise team, were also expected participate. However, the EASL announced the Dragons' disbandment on 1 September 2023 reportedly due to financial reasons. They were later replaced by the 2022–23 P. League+ runners-up

New Taipei Kings New Taipei Kings ( zh, 新北國王) are a Taiwanese professional basketball team based in New Taipei City. They have competed in the Taiwan Professional Basketball League (TPBL) and play their home games at the Xinzhuang Gymnasium and University ...

. The league considers the P. League+ teams as the representatives of the "

Greater China In ethnogeography, "Greater China" is a loosely-defined term that refers to the region sharing cultural and economic ties with the Chinese people, often used by international enterprises or organisations in unofficial usage. The notion contains ...

". Each team may have 12-men roster with two foreign players and an additional Asian player.

Qualified teams

Preparation

Original draw and format

The initial 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, also known as Shangri-La The Fort, Manila, is a mixed-use complex located in Bonifacio Global City, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig. The development contains a five-star luxury hotel, event venues, retail and the luxury residenti ...

Taguig Taguig (), officially the City of Taguig (), is the List of cities in the Philippines, fifth-most populous city in the Philippines situated on the eastern shores of Metro Manila, the national capital region. It is a center for culture, finance ...

. The teams initially were drawn in two groups. A

coin flipping Coin flipping, coin tossing, or heads or tails is using the thumb to make a coin go up while spinning in the air and checking which side is showing when it is down onto a surface, in order to randomly choose between two alternatives. It is a for ...

mechanic were used; each champion in each domestic league were made to choose a coin side. The winner of the coin flip were placed on Group A while the other placed in Group B. Each club was to play all the other clubs twice in home and away matches starting from 12 October 2022 to February 2023, with two EASL Group Stage games taking place every Wednesday night. The final four were to be play in a venue in

Metro Manila Metropolitan Manila ( ), commonly shortened to Metro Manila and formally the National Capital Region (NCR; ), is the capital region and largest List of metropolitan areas in the Philippines, metropolitan area of the Philippines. Located ...

in the Philippines in March 2023.

Postponement and resumption

A few weeks before the supposed opening day, the league announced the cancellation of the home and away season, instead pushing through with a " Champions Week" that was initially announced to be held in Manila in early 2023. The COVID-19 pandemic was blamed for the cancellation. Japan was later named the host country for this event. The original groups for the postponed season were also the groupings for the Champions Week. A new draw was held for the EASL season on 21 June 2023.

Champions Week

In December, EASL announced that the Champions Week will be hosted by the qualifying Japanese teams, with the Utsunomiya Brex hosting the first six games, while the Ryukyu Golden Kings hosting the last six games at the

Okinawa Arena The Okinawa Arena, also provisionally known as the Okinawa City Multi-Purpose Arena or Okinawa Suntory Arena, is an indoor arena in Okinawa (city), Okinawa, Japan. It was opened in 2021 and is one of the venues of the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cu ...

. The Champions Week would be tagged as a "special tournament" which would proceed the start of the inaugural season proper.

Group stage

Group A

Group B

Final round

The final round was held at the Hoops Dome in

, Philippines.

Semifinals

:''Note: All times are

Philippine Standard Time Philippine Standard Time (PST or PhST; ), also known as Philippine Time (PHT), is the official name for the time zone used in the Philippines. The country only uses a single time zone, at an UTC offset, offset of UTC+08:00, but has used dayligh ...

(

UTC+8 UTC+08:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +08:00. It is the most populous time zone in the world, as well as a possible candidate for ASEAN Common Time, mainly due to China's large population, with an estimated population ...

Third place game

Final

Notes

References

External links

Official website
{{East Asia Super League 2023–24 in Asian basketball leagues East Asia Super League seasons