The Taoyuan Pauian Archiland (), also translated as Taoyuan Pure-Youth Construction, is a semi-professional

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 ...

team formerly in the

Super Basketball League The Super Basketball League (超級籃球聯賽), often abbreviated as the SBL, is a semi-professional men's basketball list of basketball leagues, league in Taiwan. Current clubs Currently, there are four teams competing in the SBL. They are ...

(SBL) of

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 ...

History

The franchise derives its history from the celebrated Hung Kuo Elephants (宏國象) as they created the only dynasty of the defunct Chinese Basketball Alliance in Taiwan (CBA-Taiwan) between 1996 and 1998. Under the previous ownership by

Sina.com Sina Corporation (, "new wave") is a Chinese technology company. Sina operates four major business lines: Sina Weibo, Sina Mobile, Sina Online, and Sinanet. Sina has over 100 million registered users worldwide. Sina was recognized by '' South ...

and corporate sponsorship by

BenQ BenQ Corporation (; ) is a Taiwanese multinational company that sells and markets technology products, consumer electronics, computing and communications devices under the "BenQ" brand name, which stands for the company slogan ''Bringing Enj ...

, the team had also competed in the

Chinese Basketball Association The Chinese Basketball Association (), often abbreviated as the CBA, is the first-tier professional men's basketball league in China. The league is commonly known by fans as the CBA, and this acronym is even used in Chinese on a regular basis ...

of the People's Republic of China (CBA-PRC) in the 2001–2002 and 2002–2003 seasons as the Sina Lions (新浪獅) or BenQ-Sina Lions (明基新浪獅) before becoming a founding member of the SBL in 2003. During the CBA-Taiwan period, the Elephants were the unmatched three-time champions and the most favored squad holding a considerably larger share of young fans attending the game compared with the other clubs in the league. Nonetheless, they did not have a chance to defend their third championship because the league was discontinued midway through the 1998–1999 season due to financial problems. In the aftermath of the league's sudden close down, the club had hit its own financial drought until it was rescued by

from the brink of disbandment around 2000. As the Sina Lions, they moved to join the other professional league abbreviated as "CBA" in

mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...

. Having played from a homecourt in

Suzhou Suzhou (; ; Suzhounese: ''sou¹ tseu¹'' , Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Soochow, is a major city in southern Jiangsu province, East China. Suzhou is the largest city in Jiangsu, and a major economic center and focal point of trade ...

Jiangsu Province Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its ca ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, the Lions made the quarter-finals in their first year with the CBA-PRC but finished 13th out of 14 teams in the league with a disappointing 7–19 record in the ensuing season and dropped out from the top-tier Division A league (甲级A组联赛). The club then withdrew from mainland China and moved back to Taiwan to join the newly founded SBL there. In the SBL's inaugural 2003–2004 season, the Lions had a second-place finish and was the runner up in the championship series against the Yulon Dinos, their long-time rival in Taiwan. Following the retirement – forced or voluntary – of a number of aged starters, the younger Lions ended up with an embarrassing 3–27 record in the 2004–2005 season. Between 2005 and 2007, the team was turned over between various corporate owners/sponsors including YMY Telephone Marketing (幼敏電銷), Azio TV (東風衛視), and Pauian Archiland (璞園建築), the current owner of the team. With the improvement of the young players on the team, Pauian has been able to register increasing wins and made its first postseason appearance since the Lions period in 2008. On July 11, 2022, the team has announced that they will rent their spot in SBL to Changhua County Basketball Team for the next two seasons.

Notable players

Head coaches

Season-by-season record

Honours

ABA Club Championship The ABA Club Championship was an Asian basketball tournament for professional clubs, organised by the Asian Basketball Association (ABA) under Dr. Carl Men Ky Ching. The ABA is not to be confused with FIBA Asia which Dr. Ching had also once presi ...

* Champions (1): 2011 * Runners-up (1): 2012

References

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Sina Scoreboard
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SINA Lions join the CBA
*

Taipei Times The ''Taipei Times'' is the only printed daily English-language newspaper in Taiwan, and the third established there. Online competitors include the state-owned ''Focus Taiwan'' and ''Taiwan News''; ''The China Post'' was formerly a competit ...