Blitz Three key to exciting 4th MBA season

After a three-year roller-coaster ride, the Metropolitan Basketball Association opens its fourth season on Sunday amid new hopes of a faster but trouble-free journey as the country’s only home-and-away basketball league.

"Since this is a new season, we have adopted a new theme which is ‘New Blood. New Game.’ And to help ensure a more exciting pace, we are introducing a new rule called the Blitz Three," said MBA director for marketing and development Ramon Tuason.

Under the innovative rule, three points will be awarded to a team if it makes a basket, regardless of where the attempt is made, inside the first four seconds of its 23 seconds shotclock.

The rule will be applied after a change of ball possession – whether after a foul or any other violation, a steal or an interception, or an follow-up try. A basket from within the three-point area, however, will still count as three under the new rule.

Tuason, who graced yesterday’s PSA Sports Forum at the Holiday Inn hotel along with MBA chairman Santy Araneta and deputy commissioner Butch Antonio, is confident that the new rule would generate more excitement for the league and the fans as well.

"It will surely hasten the game because there will be a lot of running and movement on the floor. It will also encourage the players to attack the basket faster than before, knowing that even a layup could count for three points," said Antonio.

The new rule, conceived by commissioner Ogie Narvasa and technical committee head Bert Ortiz, is just the latest in the MBA, next only to the free three which gives a team, fouled in the act of shooting in the last two minutes, an option to take one three-point shot.

Tuason added that the fact that only eight teams – out of last year’s – are competing this year will lead to a better competitive balance since some of the players from the teams that folded up have been absorbed by the others.

"The teams are much stronger now because there are more stars in them. Like in the case of Rommel Adducul and Alex Compton who will be playing for the Batangas Blades after the merger with the Manila Metrostars," said Tuason.

Aside from the Blades, the seven other competing teams are Cebu, Laguna, San Juan, Davao, Socsargen, Negros and Nueva Ecija. Those who have folded up were teams from Iloilo, Pampanga, Surigao, Cagayan de Oro and Pasig.

In Sunday’s opener, two games will be played – one in San Juan featuring the Knights against the Blades and the other in Bacolod City featuring the Negros Slashers against the Cebu Gems.

The first three years of the league were marked by various controversies and internal problems brought about by the economic depression encountered by the country then. Winning the inaugural title was Pampanga, followed by Manila and San Juan last year.