The Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League is a regional men's semi-professionalbasketball league in the Philippines.
History
launched the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League on August 29, 2017. According to Pacquiao, the league is not intended to be a competitor to the Philippine Basketball Association, the country's top professional basketball league. The MPBL will feature both a regional commercial and barangay-level league with teams on the commercial side to have a home locality in addition to a corporate sponsor. In the first months, the league hosted teams from Luzon with future plans to expand to accommodate teams based in Visayas and Mindanao like the defunct Metropolitan Basketball Association. It is planned that an expanded MPBL will have two conferences, North and South, where the best teams from both divisions will face in the finals similar to the format of the National Basketball Association of the United States. The league was planned to start as early as September 23, 2017 with at least six teams. A pre-season was held with the Bulacan Kuyas finishing as champions. The inaugural cup of the MPBL, the Anta Rajah Cup commenced on January 25, 2018 and was participated in by ten teams. In the opening game at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, the Parañaque Patriots secured a 70-60 victory over the Caloocan Supremos. The first conference ran until April 19, 2018 where the Batangas City Athletics crowned as the league's first-ever champion. After the Anta Rajah Cup, the MPBL conducted staging of the second conference, which was patterned after the National Basketball Association. The tournament began on June 12, 2018, coinciding with the Philippine Independence Day celebration, with additional expansion teams including from the Visayas and Mindanao region will set to join the year-long conference divided into Northern and Southern Conferences. The two winning teams from the divisions will face off in the National Championships and the winner will bring home a 10-million pesos worth trophy and ball rings to be given for the members of the champion squad. After its inaugural cup, the 2018 Anta Rajah Cup, the MPBL had expanded its roster of teams to 26. All teams are expected to play in the next cup. After the ten expansion teams were admitted into the league, it closed its doors for new applicants from Luzon. This was done to leave room for future Visayas and Mindanao teams. A meeting in Cebu was held on April 28 for potential Visayas and Mindanao teams. Davao Occidental Tigers became the first MPBL team from the Visayas-Mindanao region. The 2019–20 season was postponed and the 2020–21 season was cancelled altogether due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Teams
The MPBL originated with 10 charter teams on its inaugural season. After its first successful season, it attracted a lot of teams across the Philippines to join. There are 23 teams from Luzon, 3 teams from Visayas and 5 teams from Mindanao. ; Notes
and ABS-CBN Regional Network Group was the former official broadcaster of the league and airs games of the MPBL through S+A Channel 23 and S+A HD Channel 166 also on Liga Channel 86 and Liga HD Channel 183. Selected national finals games will be aired through ABS-CBN. The broadcasting deal was announced on January 11, 2018. The games aired internationally via The Filipino Channel, also the games were been aired on Fox Sports Asia during Monday games until the 2018-19 championship. The games were also available via livestreaming through the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League Facebook page, ABS-CBN Sports Website and iWant. However, their contract with the network's sports division expired and leaved in jeopardy, due to the issue of legislative franchise renewal and the denial of the franchise, which leads to the sports division's dissolution following their retrenchment on August 31. As of now, the league has no tv partner to air the games.
Rules
Game regulations
FIBA Rules
Player eligibility/limits
At least three homegrown talents per team
Only one Filipino-Foreign Player per team with 6'4" height limit is allowed on every team
