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Myron Medcalf
Jay Li has two targets for the brand new Asian College Basketball League, a first-of-its-kind faculty basketball group that may launch this summer time on the world’s largest continent.
Li, the CEO of the AUBL, hopes to convey collectively the highest schools throughout Japan, China and Korea and past — and he goals so as to add one other layer of growth that might produce the NBA’s subsequent Asian celebrity.
“One factor folks did not learn about earlier than is, hey, there are lots of good schools in Asia which can be world-leading establishments, very well-known colleges, however additionally they have fascinating basketball packages and there may be already an present following,” Li informed ESPN. “And the AUBL is actually simply bringing that to a different degree.
“And we aren’t simply an Asian basketball league. We could possibly be the centerpiece of youth expertise growth for your entire world in terms of creating Asia’s subsequent Yao Ming, Asia’s subsequent Jeremy Lin.”
The league has the backing of a number of traders, together with Joe Tsai, the proprietor of the Brooklyn Nets and the New York Liberty. The AUBL will play its first video games in August, Li informed ESPN this week after asserting it had raised the preliminary funding to maneuver ahead with the league.
In August, the league will host a match with a gaggle stage and knockout spherical for 12 elite Asian faculty basketball packages — together with the College of Hong Kong and Peking College (China) — that may culminate with a closing 4 and a champion. In 2026, the AUBL will play a full schedule, which can embody street and residential video games.
Li stated faculty basketball can develop quickly in Asia, the place there are greater than 1 billion basketball followers. However he stated he has additionally fielded calls from Australia and different locations across the globe that need their colleges to take part.
“In Europe, the pipeline of younger expertise may be very sturdy, however the industrial worth of basketball is lagging behind there, proper?” Li informed ESPN. “That is why the NBA, they’re making an attempt to begin a brand new league there, however in Asia, really, the basketball expertise is — with out the event [system] — now rising actually quick. We wish to see extra [talent] coming from Asia.”
China and a number of European nations boast their very own skilled growth pipelines that differ from the panorama in the USA, the place faculty basketball has historically been the path to the NBA for prime prospects.
However the final decade has modified the recognition of the American collegiate scene for elite worldwide expertise.
Former Nebraska star Keisei Tominaga, who performed on Japan’s Olympic workforce, signed a contract with the Indiana Pacers in 2024 after main the Cornhuskers to the NCAA match that 12 months.
“As a former student-athlete, I respect the worth of school sports activities for each individuals and their communities,” Tsai stated in a press release by means of the league. “In Asian society, top-tier universities are among the many most acknowledged manufacturers, and so they simply translate into sports activities by means of the spirit of competitors between colleges. That is why I consider within the AUBL’s imaginative and prescient. Asia’s rising basketball market, rising expertise, and rising institutional assist create the best situations for a profitable collegiate league.”
Whereas Yao and Lin had been family names who helped develop the sport of basketball in Asia, few Asian gamers have ever competed within the NBA. Cui Yongxi, a two-way participant for the Nets, grew to become simply the seventh Chinese language-born participant within the NBA when he entered a sport in October.
However Li stated the AUBL will improve these numbers as a result of it would centralize the faculty basketball panorama in Asia and make the method for scouting NBA expertise extra environment friendly.
“It is good for the event of the expertise,” Li stated. “So what I see with the AUBL is sooner or later, I feel that is the platform the place the NBA scouts won’t wish to miss out on our video games as a result of the following technology of NBA stars will likely be coming and taking part in at this platform as a result of we’re principally a champion of the most effective Asian schools. The very best faculty college students from Asia will play on this league. And I feel a few of them will make it to the NBA.”