FilBasket era (2021–2022)
FilBasket was established by former UAAP player Jai Reyes and Buddy Encarnado of the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League's Pasig Sta. Lucia Realtors in 2021. [1] [2] It was founded as a means to provide a platform for basketball players whose careers were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines. This includes players of the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League which saw its 2019–20 season suspended and the succeeding 2021 season delayed due to COVID-19 measures. Hence, multiple MPBL teams joined the FilBasket tournaments as a way to continue playing competitive games, beginning a trend of MPBL teams taking part in other leagues during the off-season. [2]
First tournament and dispute
FilBasket began its first tournament, the Subic Championship, on October 28, 2021, after securing approval from the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) and the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF-EID) for a bubble tournament at the Subic Bay Gymnasium. [3] [4] The tournament, however, did get the disputed by the Games and Amusements Board (GAB) regarding its amateur status, with the GAB contending that it is a professional league, and later issuing a cease and desist order. [5] [6] Eventually, the GAB didn't go further with the legal action and FilBasket would subsequently begin the transition to professional status after sending a letter of intent to the GAB, which would be competed by February 2022. [7] [8]
2022
As FilBasket turned professional, the league began attracting the Asian basketball market with the 2022 Summer Championship, which ran from March until May 2022. The tournament featured the first international team: the Kuala Lumpur Aseel based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, being invited as a guest team. [9] The following tournament would also be its first international tournament, the 2022 International Championship held in the latter part of 2022 in Malaysia. [10] It was also the first tournament under the current format, replacing the traditional round-robin format of other Philippine basketball leagues with a group-stage format.
AsiaBasket era (since 2023)
2023
On March 3, 2023, FilBasket announced their renaming to AsiaBasket to accommodate with the expansion into the Asian basketball market. The first tournament under the AsiaBasket name was the 2023 International Championship, which also took place in Malaysia in April 2023. Although the league previously stated that the FilBasket name would be retained for local competitions in the Philippines, the AsiaBasket name was still used for the 2023 Las Piñas Championship in July 2023, which featured an all-Filipino roster of teams competing in Las Piñas. [11] The 2023 Dasmariñas Championship then took place in Dasmariñas, Cavite, Philippines in November 2023, and featured United States-based Statham Academy, marking the first time the league featured a team based outside of Asia.
2025 AsiaBasket International Invitational 
