Super Basketball League

Super Basketball League (SBL)

Current season, competition or edition: 2015–16 SBL season
Sport	Basketball
Founded	2003
No. of teams	Men: 7 Women: 4
Country	Republic of China
Continent	FIBA Asia (Asia)
Most recent champion(s)	M: Taiwan Beer (4th title) W: Cathay Life (21st title)
Most titles	M: Yulon Luxgen Dinos Pauian Archiland Taiwan Beer (4 titles each) W: Cathay Life (21 titles)
Level on pyramid	1
Official website	SBL (Chinese)

The Super Basketball League (simplified Chinese: 超级篮球联赛; traditional Chinese: 超級籃球聯賽; pinyin: Chāojí lánqiú liánsài), often abbreviated to the SBL, is the top-tier men's semi-professional basketball league in Taiwan. It was founded in 2003 and considered by many as the successor organization to the short-lived Chinese Basketball Alliance (simplified Chinese: 中华职业篮球联盟; traditional Chinese: 中華職業籃球聯盟; pinyin: Zhōnghuá zhíyè lánqiú liánméng; CBA), a men's professional basketball league that existed from 1994 to 1999 in Taiwan.

Current clubs

Currently there are seven teams competing in the SBL. They are as follows:

• Bank of Taiwan (臺灣銀行)
• Dacin Tigers (達欣工程)
• Fubon Braves (富邦勇士)
• Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor (金門酒廠)
• Pauian Archiland (璞園建築)
• Taiwan Beer (台灣啤酒)
• Yulon Luxgen Dinos (裕隆納智捷)

Champions

Champions and other postseason finishes are listed below:

Year	Winner	Runner-up	Third	Fourth
2003-2004	Yulon Dinos	Sina Lions [1]
2004-2005	Yulon Dinos	Dacin Tigers
2005-2006	Yulon Dinos	Taiwan Beer	Dacin Tigers	Bank of Taiwan
2006-2007	Taiwan Beer	Dacin Tigers	Videoland Hunters [2]	Yulon Dinos
2007-2008	Taiwan Beer	Yulon Dinos	dMedia Genies [3]	Pauian
2008-2009	Dacin Tigers	Taiwan Beer
2009-2010	Yulon Luxgen Dinos	Dacin Tigers
2010-2011	Taiwan Beer	Dacin Tigers
2011–2012	Pauian	Dacin Tigers
2012–2013	Pauian	Dacin Tigers
2013–2014	Pauian	Taiwan Mobile Clouded Leopards
2014–2015	Pauian	Taiwan Beer
2015–2016	Taiwan Beer	Pauian

League MVP

The winner of the Super Basketball League Most Valuable Player (MVP) award is chosen by reporters. The recipients of the award are listed below:

Season	Regular Season MVP	Championship Series MVP
2003-2004	Tien Lei (田壘) Dacin Tigers	Chen Hsin-An (陳信安) Yulon Dinos
2004-2005	Tien Lei Dacin Tigers	Tseng Wen-Ting (曾文鼎) Yulon Dinos
2005-2006	Tien Lei Dacin Tigers	Tseng Wen-Ting Yulon Dinos
2006-2007	Lin Chih-Chieh (林志傑) Taiwan Beer	Lin Chih-Chieh Taiwan Beer
2007-2008	Chen Hsin-An (陳信安) Yulon Dinos	Lin Chih-Chieh Taiwan Beer
2008-2009	Chang Chih-Feng (張智峰) Dacin Tigers	Chang Chih-Feng Dacin Tigers
2009-2010	Tseng Wen-Ting Yulon Dinos	Chen Chih-Chung (陳志忠) Yulon Dinos
2010-2011	Rashad Jennings Pure-Youth	Yang Jing-Min (楊敬敏) Taiwan Beer
2011-2012	Quincy Davis Pauian	Chen Shih-chieh (陳世杰) Pauian
2012-2013	Tsai Wen-Cheng (蔡文誠) Pauian	Tsai Wen-Cheng (蔡文誠) Pauian
2013-2014	Liu Cheng (劉錚) Taiwan Beer	Tsai Wen-Cheng (蔡文誠) Pauian
2014-2015	Chen Shun-Hsiang (陳順詳) Bank of Taiwan	Garret Siler Pauian
2015-2016	Chou Yi-Hsiang (周儀翔) Dacin Tigers	Patrick O'Bryant Taiwan Beer

Notable players

Guards

• Chang Chih-Feng (張智峰): 6'0", one-time champion, one-time regular season and finals MVP, two-time All-SBL Team, one-time Defensive Player of the Year, two-time steal champion
• Chen Chih-Chung (陳志忠): 6'0", four-time champion, one-time finals MVP, three-time All-SBL Team, one-time Defensive Player of the Year, one-time assist champion, one-time Sixth Man of the Year
• Lee Hsueh-Lin (李學林): 5'9", four-time champion, one-time All-SBL Team

Forwards

• Chen Hsin-An (陳信安): 6'5", two-time champion, one-time regular season MVP, one-time finals MVP, one-time All-SBL Team, one-time scoring champion
• Lin Chih-Chieh (林志傑): 6'3", two-time champion, two-time finals MVP, one-time regular season MVP, three-time All-SBL Team, two-time scoring champion
• Jonathan Sanders (桑德斯): 6'7", three-time All-SBL Team, three-time rebound champion, two-time assist champion, one-time Fighter of the Year (年度最佳鬥士) ^[4]
• Tien Lei (田壘): 6'8", one-time champion, three-time regular season MVP, three-time All-SBL Team, three-time rebound champion, two-time scoring champion, one-time steal champion
• Noel Felix
• Marcus Fizer
• Taylor King, Former McDonald's All-American and Duke basketball player

Centres

• Tseng Wen-Ting (曾文鼎): 6'9", four-time champion, two-time finals MVP, one-time regular season MVP, four-time All-SBL Team and Defensive Player of the Year, six-time block champion
• Wu Tai-Hao (吳岱豪): 6'8", one-time champion, one-time All-SBL Team, one-time block champion
• Patrick O'Bryant
• Solomon Alabi
• Garret Siler
• Earl Barron

Women's Super Basketball League

There is also a Women's Super Basketball League (WSBL) in Taiwan, which comprises the following four teams:

• Cathay Life (國泰人壽)
• Chunghwa Telecom (中華電信)
• Taiwan Power (台灣電力)
• Tai Yuan Textile (台元紡織)

See also

• A-League (second tier)
• Chinese Basketball Alliance (CBA)
• Sports in Taiwan

References

1. Sina Lions are the precursor organization to Pure-Youth.
2. Videoland Hunters are the precursor organization to Taiwan Mobile Clouded Leopards.
3. dMedia Genies are the precursor organization to Kinmen Kaoliang Liquor.
4. The SBL Fighter of the Year award is distinct from the MVP award and is not created regularly. It is a rough equivalence to a sportsmanship award and would be given to the player who has won the most Fighter of the Week awards throughout a season when a yearly award is officially created. This has only happened in the 2003-2004 and the 2009-2010 seasons where veteran point guard Chou Chun-San (周俊三) and import forward Jonathan Sanders won the respective awards. The league has never explained the rationale behind its decision to create the Fighter of the Year award in certain seasons but not the others.

External links

• Yulon Dino Official Site
• SBL official site
• Taiwan Beer official site
• Taiwan Mobile Clouded Leopard official site
• YMY official site
• Taiwan Hoops
• Asia Basket
• High flying hoop dreams: A brief history of the development of basketball in Taiwan (in English)