HIGH-SCORING HOOPS. The International Basketball League, a Northwest-based, independent league, now includes a team from China. The Shanxi Kylins face the Las Vegas Stars May 26 and the Portland Chinooks June 18. Both games will be played in the Portland area. (Photos courtesy of the International Basketball League)

From The Asian Reporter, V18, #19 (May 6, 2008), page 25.

By Mike Street
Special to The Asian Reporter

What keeps you from watching the Portland Trail Blazers? Is it the high price of a good ticket, the length of a game, or the fact that you can’t seem to root for guys making more in one game than you’ll make all year? Maybe what you need is a fast-paced minor-league basketball league with easily affordable tickets and local teams made up of hard-working guys with regular jobs. Fortunately for basketball fans in the Pacific Northwest, this league already exists, and it’s making bold strides to attract Asian sports fans, too.

The International Basketball League (IBL) is a Northwest-based, independent professional basketball league with a unique format that has created stability and success since its inception four years ago. The IBL’s practical league design allows its teams to operate affordably enough that 2008 will feature their first Chinese team, and a Japanese team will join in 2009, a transcontinental expansion even the NBA can’t accomplish. Portland fans can see the brand-new Chinese Shanxi Kylins when they come to town this month, and again in June, when they battle the hometown Chinooks.

Founded in 2005, the IBL changed minor-league basketball on two fronts: excitement and affordability. The many team and television timeouts in an NBA game prolong games unnecessarily and reduce the action to a series of half-court plays. The IBL, on the other hand, has no TV timeouts, grants each team only one timeout per quarter, and requires an immediate inbound play so games are played in less than two hours, with teams averaging a whopping 127 points per game.

To allow teams to remain financially viable, the IBL offers its franchises a "one flight guarantee," meaning all of a team’s away games are played within driving distance of their home arenas, or in one chunk of their schedule after a single airplane flight. The IBL’s divisions are truly geographic, keeping division rivals close together and holding team travel costs down.

This design also keeps players close to home and second jobs. IBL players make very little per game, another part of the league’s efforts at affordability, ensuring its players have a career to fall back on. It also makes the guys worth cheering for, as they’re working hard to succeed at something they love, not being overpaid to play a schoolyard game and act like schoolchildren. IBL players can be former or future NBA players, but they are more often local or minor college stars. One franchise, the USA All-Stars, fields a rotating team of aspiring IBL players showcasing their skills for other IBL teams, and every team regularly holds tryouts for new talent.

The fast, low-priced games between players who are easy to root for have been a popular and financial success, and the IBL is looking to expand to 25 teams next year, pushing hard into Asian markets. The league announced the addition of the Kylins in December 2007, one day after forming their Asian Expansion Department, representing the league’s intent to add teams from Japan, China, and the Philippines.

In spite of the name, the Shanxi Kylins play their entire first season schedule in the United States, largely as away games. Their home is located outside Springfield, Oregon at the United States Basketball Academy (USBA), but they play four of their five "home" games in neutral-site venues from Portland to Coos Bay. Their current roster contains only two U.S.-born players, with the remainder from China, giving Oregon fans a truly international roster.

Unlike the Kylins, which were part of the Chinese Basketball Association last year, the Nippon Tornadoes of Japan will be a new team, founded by Katsuya Sasaki of the Japan Basketball Academy. The team has yet to announce its head coach and will hold tryouts in the next few months, but it’s another huge leap for the IBL, as Japan represents the league’s fourth nation. Like the Kylins, the Tornadoes will be based at the USBA near Blue River, and they will play all of their games in the Northwest.

The excitement generated by the IBL should continue to grow, and hoops fans across the Pacific Northwest will welcome the opportunity to see Asian teams and Asian players competing in a truly international environment.

Basketball fans can catch the Shanxi Kylins at 5:00pm on May 26 in Portland, when they face off against the Las Vegas Stars in a neutral-site "home" game at Warner Pacific College’s C.C. Perry Gymnasium, located near S.E. 68th and Division. Tickets, bought at the door, cost $8 for adults and $4 for children and seniors.

The Kylins return June 18 at 7:15pm to play the Portland Chinooks, also at Warner Pacific, and tickets are $5 for children and seniors and $10 for adults. Check out <www.iblhoopsonline.com> for more information about the teams, their schedules, and the league’s plans for an Asian-American basketball future.