Pacific Ocean Basketball Association

The Pacific Ocean Basketball Association (POBA) is the professional basketball league of the Pacific Ocean. It is also the biggest sports association in all of the ocean. It functions as its own company under POBA Entertainment, LTD. The league was the primary plot point in the series Basket Sponge.  
Prior to 2020, the league followed a 16-team single elimination playoff format, except for the finals wherein a best-of-seven format is used. It followed the same format prior to 2010 but was changed for cost cutting purposes. Currently, it follows an 8-team best-of-seven, three-round, playoff format.
==History==
===Creation and Global League Expansion (1995–1998)===
Following the need for a global basketball club league, the Pacific Ocean Basketball Association was created on March 13, 1995 and was joined by nine initial teams. The inaugural season began on September 16 and followed a four-team playoff format with single-elimination quarterfinals and a best-of-seven finals series.
The first championship was won by the New Kelp Warriors.
Though being in the finals the previous year, the Toronto Thunder disbanded after the season and left for the 1996–97 season. This caused the league to expand and accept four new expansion teams to the league.
The London Lancers (now Manchester Mermen) and  (now Atlanta Hawks) were the first true rivalry in the league. They faced off in the 1998 and 1999 finals with both taking one series. This rivalry, however, was short lived. The Lancers only entered one more finals after this and the Globetrotters never entered the finals since.
===Sixteen Team Playoff era (1998–2010)===
Following further expansions in the past years, the league settled on a sixteen team playoff season. Every game before the finals was settled in a single-elimination format while the finals remained as a best-of-seven series.
During this era, the most successful franchises were the Denver Dolphins, the Chicago Giants, and the Daisy Town Dandelions (now Lasaga Launchers).
===Single Elimination era (2010–2014)===
By 2010, the league grew to a whopping 22 teams. This forced the league to enact a cost-cutting scheme by reducing the amount of games played in the offseason. This meant that the finals also followed a single-elimination game. This, in turn, created healthy parity across the league.
===Further Expansion and Bulldogs Dynasty (2014–2016)===
The league lost the Hellhill Heat and the Old Town Ringers in 2014 but in return, gained three new expansion franchises, bringing the league to a record 23 teams. In 2015, the Sting Rays left the league, opening another expansion bringing in two new teams which brought in a record number 24 teams for the 2015–16 season.
During this era of parity and abundance of teams, one team stood out from the rest. The Bikini Bottom Bulldogs proved to be the new top dog in the league, led by their head coach LeBron James.
This brought the start to a new age rivalry against the Toon Tomahawks, beating them in both the 2015 and 2016 finals.
===Hiatus and Restructuring (2016–2019)===
The amount of teams proved to be too much for the league to handle. Revenue remained stagnant for the past few seasons and it was decided to put the league on a hiatus while they looked for ways to restructure the league. The league was shut down for the next three years while they focused on contracting and focusing on a better business model.
During this restructuring period, nine teams were let go from the league and only one new team was admitted in 2017. This brought the league back to sixteen teams.
===Return, Modern era (2019-present)===
The league returned in 2019 with a 15 game elimination round, a single elimination 16-team playoff, and a best-of-seven finals series. The Bikini Bottom Bulldogs won the first modern POBA championship led by their new coach Kobe Bryant.
For the 2020–21 season, the league brought in new broadcast networks to bring the league to homes worldwide. They also plan to implement a best-of-seven series for all playoff series going forward. The league started implementing a new eight-team playoff series, making the season more competitive and reducing the number of redundant, unnecessary games. The season was known as the POBA renaissance due to all the changes going through that season, from name changes to relocations to new ownership.
== Teams ==
===Current===
POBA teams 	POBA teams 	POBA teams 	POBA teams 	POBA teams	POBA teams	POBA teams
Team 	City 	Arena 	Owner/s 	 	 	
agony. 	 	 	 	 	 	
Atlanta Hawks 	 	 	Cobain&Co. 	 	 	
Bingo Co. Crocodiles	 	Crocodile Centre	FireMatch 	 	 	
Chicago Giants 	 	 	 	 	 	
High Flying Hooplas 	Hoopla Beach 	Hoopla Arena 	CrazySponge 	 	 	
Krusty Krushers 	Bikini Bottom	Golden Arena 	TheJasbre202 	 	 	
Kuala Lumpur Dragons	 	 	CoolJhepoy2 	 	 	
Lasaga Launchers 	 	 	PrimitiveSponge129 	 	 	
Manila Eagles 	 	 	SBCA 	 	 	
Milan Lobsters 	 	 	CartoonGuy277 	 	 	
New England Seagulls	 	 	SpongeBot678 	 	 	
Ohio Captains 	 	 	GraniteToast1992 3.0	 	 	
Philadelphia Jewels 	 	 	DanzxvFan8275 	 	 	
Rock Bottom Raiders 	Rock Bottom 	Golden Arena 	Purple133 	 	 	
===Inactive===
Inactive Franchises	Inactive Franchises	Inactive Franchises	Inactive Franchises	Inactive Franchises	Inactive Franchises	Inactive Franchises
Team 	City 	Arena 	Owner/s 	 	 	
Los Angeles Poopers	 	 	IanRises 	 	 	
Manchester Mermen 	 	 	 	 	 	
Victoria Huskies 	 	 	Cobain&Co. 	 	 	
===Defunct===
:Main Article: List of Defunct POBA Teams 
==Seasons==
:Main Article: List of POBA seasons 
This section only contains content from the SBFW-run seasons (2020 onwards). For the full list, see the main article.
Season	Champion 	Series	Runner-Up 	Finals MVP	Ref
1st 	Manila Eagles 	4–2 	New England Seagulls	 	https://spongefan.fandom.com/wiki/2020-21_POBA_season/Games
2nd 	Philadelphia Jewels	4–3 	Krusty Krushers 	 	https://spongefan.fandom.com/wiki/2021_POBA_season/Games
3rd 	Atlanta Hawks 	4–3 	Philadelphia Jewels 	 	
==Champions==
:Main Article: List of POBA champions 
This section only contains content from the SBFW-run seasons (2020 onwards). For the full list, see the main article.
Teams 	Win	Loss	Total	Year(s) won	Year(s) runner-up
Atlanta Hawks 	1 	0 	1 	2021–22 	
Manila Eagles 	1 	0 	1 	2020–21 	
Philadelphia Jewels 	1 	1 	2 	2021 	2021–22
Krusty Krushers 	0 	1 	1 	 	2021
New England Seagulls	0 	1 	1 	 	2020–21
==Broadcast Rights==
Abbrv.	Network 	Run 	Area
BTV 	 	1996–2016, 2019–2020	Worldwide
LTV 	LTV SportsIncludes digital broadcast via Solstice.	2019–present 	Asia–Pacific
BP 	Box Productions Network 	2020–present 	United States
TD 	Tealevision 	2020–present 	Canada
B! 	Bingo! 	2020–present 	North America
UF 	UltraFuse 	2020–present 	North AmericaCentral Asia
CTV 	Canary TV 	2020–present 	EuropeSouth America
T-V 	Tea-V 	2020–present 	United Kingdom
BS 	Banana Sports 	2020–present 	Oceania
PS 	Pluto Sports 	2020–2021 	N/A (ATL games only)
PTV 	Purple TV 	2021–present 	N/A (RBR games only)
==Hall of Fame==
===Players===
===Coaches===
*Art Van Lier (inducted 1999)
*Desmond Mason (inducted 2000)
*Callum Cardiff (inducted 2004)
*Jerry Carsdorf (inducted 2011)
*LeBron James (inducted 2016)
*Kobe Bryant (inducted 2020)
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Sporting Events
Category:SBCA
Category:Basket Sponge
Category:Leagues
Category:Sports
Category:Sports Leagues
Category:LTV
Category:Box Productions
Category:Tealevision
Category:Bingo!
Category:UltraFuse
Category:Tea-V
Category:Banana Sports
Category:POBA
Category:Companies