Basilan Peace Riders

The Basilan Steel were founded as one of sixteen expansion teams for the MPBL's 2018–19 season, and were one of five expansion teams from the Visayas and Mindanao. The team was originally going to be called the Basilan Shooters.[1] Their application was accepted by the league in May 2018 who reasoned that they want to show the beauty of Basilan "through basketball".[2][3]

In the 2018–19 season, the team finished with a 7-18 record, giving the team the second-worst record in the South Division.

In the 2019–20 season, Basilan won 20 of the 30 games that season, awarding them with the division's third seed. After defeating Iloilo and then Bacoor City, the team reached the Division Finals against the Davao Occidental Tigers.

The series was tied 1-1 before the COVID-19 pandemic suspended the playoffs for one year. When the league resumed play with a bubble in Subic, Basilan had some of its players tested positive for COVID-19, thus ruling them outof the bubble causing Davao Occidental to advance to the National Finals. Disagreements on how the bubble was organized led to Basilan leaving the MPBL.[4]

The team returned for the 2021 Invitational, going by the Basilan Jumbo Plastic. The team was given the group's first seed as a reward for winning the Pilipinas VisMin Super Cup 1st Conference. After defeating Mindoro and Pasig, the team made it to the winner-takes-all finals against the Nueva Ecija Rice Vanguards. With 1.9 seconds remaining in overtime and the score tied at 80, Philip Manalang made the championship-winning buzzer beater to give Basilan the MPBL Invitational title.[5]

In 2021, Basilan moved to the Pilipinas VisMin Super Cup as one of its inaugural teams, going by the Basilan Peace Riders, marking the team's first professional stint.[4]

The core of Basilan would also form part of the AICC Manila team which clinched the FilBasket Subic Championship in late 2021.[6][7]

When the team joined the MPBL, it was initially known as the Basilan Shooters but the management decided to change the name of the team due to a perceived negative connotation of the name. While "shooters" may refer to the basketball player the management realized that it could also allude to gun users.[8]

The name of Basilan Steel was derived from the idea that name of the team's home province came from the Yakan word "Besih" which means steel. Basilan was known for its abundant iron ore deposits which was used for sword and other weapons by early Filipinos.[8]

The Basilan Steel's logo followed a gold and black color scheme (was later changed to red and black) and primarily consists of a Moro in traditional Yakan garments and a kalis, a indigenous sword with a wavy blade. The logo was designed by Arjay Hije under Chronos Athletics using a self-described "cultural approach" intending to challenge the negative reputation of Basilan as a war-torn area and terrorist-haven and project a positive image of the province. Black represents this negative perception while gold signifies the view of Hije of Basilan as a place where people "can live joyfully and harmoniously".[8] The logo was abandoned when the team changed their name to Basilan Peace Riders. The logo was used again for Basilan's men's volleyball team in 2021.