PBA approves Air21 sale to NLEX

The PBA on Thursday approved the sale of the Air21 Express franchise to Metro Pacific Investments Inc., the company in charge of the NLEX Road Warriors, bringing the number of MVP group teams to three, Commissioner Chito Salud confirmed.

Salud added that the sale was unanimously approved by the Board of Governors.

Today the PBA's Board of Govs. appoved unanimously the assignment transfer and sale of the rights of an (cont) http://t.co/1D677RdIlK

— pbaconnect (@pbaconnect) June 26, 2014

Air21, this 2013-14 season, went as far as the semifinals of the 2014 Commissioner’s Cup.

NLEX originally applied to be an expansion franchise, but the league disallowed them, along with the two other clubs, Blackwater Sports and Kia Kamao, from making direct hires from the D-League. Forced to settle for players from an expansion draft and one of the last three picks in the first round of the 2014 PBA Draft, the Road Warriors, winners of six of the seven PBA-DL conferences, opted instead to take over an existing team.

The deal reunited Asi Taulava with the MVP group. The 6’9” center began his career with the Talk ’N Text Tropang Texters, before spending some time with the Meralco Bolts. - AMD, GMA News