The new basketball season is upon us and following last Sunday’s Super Cup finals for both men and women, the season kicks off this weekend with the Malta Basketball Association (MBA) Shield.

This season will see the Shield take on a new experimental format where a team must score 75 points first to win the game. Speaking to the Times of Malta, MBA president Paul Sultana said it would be a trial run to create new ways of playing the game.

“Because we have four competitions, and not many teams, one would appreciate more ways to make the game more interesting, appealing, and competitive. In this way, one would need to play harder and think a bit more outside the box,” Sultana said.

This new format, formally referred to as the Elam Ending, was first used in the US in 2017 but its greatest proof of success was when the NBA’s All-Star Game adopted the format in 2020, albeit only in the fourth quarter of the showcase fixture involving NBA players chosen by the general public through voting across the league.

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