THE territory's team in the new Asian Basketball Association will be called the Hongkong Dragons.
Team owners conducted a poll through the Chinese press and ''Dragons'' was the people's choice, ahead of''Typhoons'', ''88s'', ''Dollars'' and ''Lions''.
The team's crest is a dragon's head against a basketball.
No sooner were they christened than the Dragons were breathing fire in the shape of a challenge to all-comers to take them on in warm-up matches. In particular, the gauntlet has been thrown down to the as-yet unnamed Hongkong franchise of the rival regional league, the similarly named Asian Professional Basketball Association.
Both the ABA, in which the Dragons compete, and the APBA plan to run home-and-away league schedules between teams from Hongkong, China, the Philippines, Taiwan and South Korea. The sixth team in the ABA will come from Singapore while the APBA's should be a Japanese franchise.
The Dragons have signed former NBA All-star Ralph Sampson for when play starts in July in their six-team professional league.
