(SabaSports) The Philippine Professional Basketball League (PBA) will introduce a “four-point line” rule next season, according to a release from the Philippine Basketball Association. The line will be set 27 feet away from the basket, and players will earn four points for a field goal from outside the line. This will be the first official implementation of the four-point rule during a professional basketball season and is expected to be introduced in the PBA’s first Governors’ Cup competition. Previously, the four-point line had only been tried briefly in star games.
At the rules conference in the Philippines, the numerous benefits of introducing the quarter line were discussed. In addition to making the game more interesting, the rule change will encourage teams to play less zone defense, leading to more man-to-man play.
In addition, the PBA plans to switch to allowing two foreign players on the court in the second cup, which means that the Philippine basketball team can hope to achieve better results in the East Asian Super League (EASL) with more skilled foreign players.