Jun B urges players: Dish out your best

Aware that the All Filipino Cup remains the biggest draw of all three conferences in the season, the Philippine Basketball Association is doing everything to sustain its fans’ interest and further improve its market value specially during these hard, trying times.

But the league itself may not be able to improve the turnout at the gates if the current tournament could not live up to the conference’s past high-level of competition.

This prompted PBA commissioner Jun Bernardino to drop in on team practices and urge the players to dish out their best in every game, knowing that a hard-fought match-up and quality games are still the best lure to bring in the fans.

Bernardino said they have set a goal of improving the league’s average attendance of about 5,900 last year by 30 percent this year although he admitted he would need the cooperation of all sectors of the league, particularly the players, to achieve this end.

"It’s a fact that the PBA is still ‘the league’ …a good entertainment product. But we have a lot of competitions. There’s the computer, movies, the malls, etc. Eh kung lalatoy-latoy ang laro, how can we attract the crowd?" said Bernardino.

Bernardino stressed the players have responsibilities not only to their team and the team owners but to the fans as well.

"Winning isn’t all about winning. Winning is also about playing with a big heart because if you play with a big heart you win the heart of the crowd and you win the trust and confidence of your coach and the team officials," said Bernardino.

Bernardino earlier reacted to criticisms brought about by his unexpected visit to the Sta. Lucia camp a few days ago where he had a talk with the whole team, including franchise players Marlou Aquino and Dennis Espino.

Probably getting the message from the commissioner, the Realtors came alive in their game versus the Mobiline Phone Pals Wednesday, checking their skid with a 71-69 cliffhanger.

But Bernardino clarified that it just so happened that Sta. Lucia was on a slump when he paid the team a visit. He added he has had a talk with the Mobiline Phone Pals, too, and he intends to make the rounds of the other teams.