PBA professional team San Miguel Beermen and a reinforced PBA-D League frontrunner Cebuana Lhuillier, has officially been invited by the American Basketball Association (ABA Global) to play in the ABA league next year thru an acquisition of 2 California based teams. The filipinos will play side-by-side former NBA players in 2 seperate conferences which will be shown in over 30 countries including the United States and the Philippines.

The teams will play in the main ABA conference which runs every year from November to March and the ABA World Basketball Cup, which runs from April to May in Las Vegas, USA. The teams will join current global teams from China, Canada, Africa, Mexico and Japan, who are already playing in the ABA. Besides playing in the 2 conferences, the Philippine teams will gain access to the training academy of ABA Global, which specializes in point guards and big men together with having priority access for imports for its league in the Philippines thru the ABA player exchange program. It has been a dream of filipinos to play officially in US pro basketball.

The American Basketball Association (ABA) was the premier league in the 1970’s till it was acquired by the National Basketball Association (NBA) in 1976. Its top 4 teams in the San Antonio Spurs, New York Knicks, Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State Warriors was absorbed by the NBA including star players such as Julius Erving, George Gervin, David Thompson and Moses Malone.

In the year 2000, the ABA was acquired back by one of its original founders and re-started the league with 9 teams.Today former NBA players and free-agents play for ABA teams. The Los Angeles team alone, boasts 5 NBA players. The ABA has bounced back with over 30 teams across the United States and is on an upgrading and expansion plan which will see the entry of foreign teams in US professional sports thru the Singapore based Monozca Foundation and the Monaco-based Spirit Fund, which acquired a majority block of ABA Global. It is now chaired by the filipino-born sports philanthropist Paul Monozca. The Philippines has already sent the Smart-Gilas National team in the ABA California games in 2010 and sent star guard Kevin Alas of Letran to train under ABA trainer Mike Penberthy last year. Website : www.abagloballeague.com