History will be made Tuesday as basketball bigwigs of six Asean countries join forces in launching the first-ever professional league in the region – the Asean Basketball League (ABL) – at the Renaissance Hotel in Makati.

Tony Boy Cojuangco of ABC-5 and Dr. Mikee Romero of Harbour Centre, who both represent the country in the board, will welcome fellow owners, officials and several players in the affair that will set in motion the league’s vision – create a basketball hero in the region.

ABL and AirAsia chairman Tony Fernandes of Malaysia, media mogul Erick Thohir of Indonesia, several ranking officials from Singha Beer of Thailand, and officials from FIBA-Asia are expected to arrive Monday to grace the historic occasion.

Highlight of the event is the unveiling of the league’s logo and introduction of the participating teams. Also taking part in the tournament are Singapore and Brunei.

Tournament officially starts next month in Singapore with the Philippine team – to be called Patriots – looms as the sentimental favorite to rule the inaugural staging.

Aside from producing basketball heroes, the home-and-away tournament will also be used as a vehicle to promote ASEAN brands in the market since basketball is the world’s second most popular sport after football (soccer).

Not only it will create job for rising basketball players in the region, but the launching of the league, according to Romero and Cojuangco, is geared towards a new era in sports development and management.

“Aside from creating a venue to our ever growing basketball players, we want to reach out and unite some 600 million South East Asians for a new regional sporting experience,” said Romero.

With the rise of Middle Eastern countries as the new powers in the sport, Romero and Cojuangco said Asean countries need to consolidate their forces, and creating a professional

league is just one of the solutions to keep step with them.

“With the victory of Iran over China in the FIBA-Asia championship recently, we need this kind of tournament to further harness the talent of out Asean players,” said Romero.

Meanwhile, Bobby Barriero, managing director of ABC-5, and Erick Arejola, team manager of Harbour Centre, shrugged off the favorite tag on the Philippine team, saying the unique format of the tournament put all six teams in equal footing.

Each team, according to Arejola, will be allowed to have two foreign imports, two ASEAN players, one player with one parent from ASEAN, and seven local players.

“With this kind of concept, no one will have a clear advantage. Even us, we can’t be too sure to win the championship,” said Barreiro.

“While we have an abundance of talented players, we can’t say we can win the tournament. For sure, the tournament is going to be a wide open race,” said Arejola.

Arejola, meantime, announced that RP coach Louie Alas will hold a tryout next week to finalize their line-up.