Impromptu hoops summit

Yesterday afternoon, leaders of the major basketball leagues gathered at the Kingfisher restaurant in Rockwell to figure out how they could join hands in remedying the current situation that Philippine basketball is in.

At the instance of Philippine Basketball League chairman Dioceldo Sy, top officials of the PBA, MBA and PBL, along with former ABC secretary general Moying Martelino and STAR columnist Quinito Henson put their heads together to solve the problem of the impending SEA Games and the FIBA suspension on the Philippines.

"We really want to help," Sy said. "But it seems it’s complicated to help."

The first obstacle the group tackled was the FIBA suspension which prevents the Philippines as a country from sending a team to international competition.

"Whatever happens, both sides have to make way for FIBA," said Martelino, referring to the groups of BAP presidential claimants Lito Puyat and Tiny Literal. "When that happens, FIBA will send people to investigate and determine who should lead. After that, pasensya na kung sino’ng matalo. In a basketball game, there can only be one winner."

With the apparent agreement of Puyat to step aside and let someone like PLDT boss Manny Pangilinan run the BAP, the onus is now on Literal to go along with the plan. Literal is banking on his connection with ABC president Carl Ching Men Ky to iron out the mess. However, with the deadline for the SEA Games closing in, it seems unlikely that the ABC will be able to get the reversal from FIBA.

"What if the ABC cannot pull it off, what then?" Martelino asks.

The next question is whom will the BAP send to Kuala Lumpur. Although the final deadline for changing line-ups is the team managers’ meeting two days before the Games start, the MBA, whose players were named in the roster sent through the Philippine Olympic Committee, has said that it would not deploy its players.

"We will have begun our second phase by then," declared MBA commissioner Ogie Narvasa. "And if an individual MBA team wants to represent the country in Malaysia, we will not allow it."

There is another practical reason for concern. Many commercial teams in the country, whether PBA, MBA or PBL, are supported by foreign principals. The fact that we cannot field a team in even the smallest international competition may have repercussions on how foreign companies view their support for basketball in the Philippines. It’s possible that they may divert their money elsewhere. And who could blame them?

Given the crisis that local basketball finds itself in, it is curious that we have heard nothing from the ABC. Most quarters consider it folly that there is no other back-up plan for the BAP.

"We wanted to change the system from within," PBL commissioner Chino Trinidad explains. "But our hands are tied. We’ve resigned ourselves to the fact that we will not be able to send a team to the SEA Games. And what really hurts is that all of basketball is adversely affected."

August 31 is barely three weeks away. Considering that this debacle has grown like weeds in the underbrush since late November, who would think that it would be resolved just like that? Sadly, the BAP office is running smoothly, and there can be a way to form even an amalgamation of a team. The only problem is that nobody can move because they aren’t allowed to.

Will Literal join the community and submit to a third party temporarily running the BAP’s affairs? It doesn’t look like it. But think about it, the ABC telling FIBA what to do regarding another country’s internal affairs sounds like an older brother spanking a parent for punishing a younger child.

Even if we do send a team, what will prevent other countries from protesting our belated inclusion in the SEAG? Besides, what makes us think that we can beat them with an ill-prepared team? There are indications that Malaysia and other countries did not send their actual national teams, but "B" or "C" squads to the SEABA here last February to scout us.

Let’s just look beyond Malaysia. As of now, things look hopeless.