Shenzhen and Hong Kong to get all-pro side
NICK Lee Kwok-fui, former chairman of the Hong Kong Basketball Association, will be the owner of the Hong Kong Phoenix team, a new all-pro side comprising mostly mainland players.
Lee, who stepped down as HKBA chairman three years ago, plans to field the team in two proposed leagues, both breaking new ground in the region.
One is the Australia-based Asian Basketball League (ABL) - including teams from Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia.
The other is a planned professional league in China - the first of its kind.
Li Tak-nang, general manager of the PR firm representing Lee's basketball interests, says this will be the first openly professional league in communist China.
''The present national championship in China is amateur,'' says Li.
''Mr Lee has put forward proposals to set up a pro-league in the People's Republic with teams including foreign players.
''He wants to have a team which will compete in both the Chinese professional league and in the ABL because it would not be cost-effective to run the team in only one competition.'' Lee, who is in Europe on a business trip, has opted not to recruit Hong Kong players for two reasons: firstly, he fears his own relations with the HKBA have deteriorated so much that it would be difficult for local players to join his team; secondly, mainland players are generally regarded as being better at the game.
Although the team has not yet been officially named, Phoenix is the most likely choice. They will probably be based in Shenzhen, but play their ABL home games in the territory, says Li.
With the Chinese league still in the negotiation stage, it is not clear when that season will run, but ABL organisers are tentatively naming November 1994 as their start date.
The six ABL team owners are expected to formally announce the league's launch at a meeting in Singapore in two months time.
That meeting will address matters such as rosters, budgets, sponsors, league format and stadiums.
The other five ABL teams are the Perth Wildcats from Australia's highly regarded National Basketball League (NBL) and Cairns who play in the Queensland State League, plus sides from Auckland, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
The Wildcats, who recently lost 2-1 to the Melbourne Tigers in the NBL's championship series, will field a development team in the ABL.
''At the moment those are the six teams I am confident of starting with,'' said Alan Marshall, a partner in the consortium backing the ABL.
''But there is still time to work on potential owners in Bangkok, Seoul, Taipei and Jakarta. I've recently been to China for talks with their national association and have had positive indications that they could enter a team,'' added Marshall who is a director of Basketball Australia and former owner of the Wildcats.
In recent years two other similarly-named would-be leagues in the region - the ABA (Asian Basketball Association) and the APBA (Asian Professional Basketball Association) - have spluttered and stalled in their bids to launch, but both still have long-term plans.
Now it seems Marshall, the ABL's driving force, has stolen a march on the other two leagues.
