Respect for the game

Two champion teams, shooting in each others baskets? A livid commissioner, calling for punishment for the offending parties? Other pro players, watching on television, phoning each other to express their disgust? Fans leaving the gym, shaking their heads in disappointment?

Is this the PBA we know?

Unfortunately, that’s what happened Wednesday in a game between newly-crowned All-Filipino Cup champion Talk ‘N Text and two-time ruler Red Bull Barako. But its weight may be more far-reaching than either team anticipated, its impact more deflating and harmful than anyone sees with naked eye or unblinking camera.

Talk about respect for the game.

Michael Jordan’s contracts with the Chicago Bulls included a "love for the game" clause, which allowed him to play the game whenever he felt like it. This also applied to his off-season activities, like commercial and movie location shoots. Thus, he was able to put on dunking displays when visiting North Carolina games, and play with friends and other NBA regulars while shooting movies. And how many times did Jordan play while ill? As an aside, when Jordan was cut from his Laney High School basketball team, he was only allowed to accompany the squad on out-of-town trips if he carried the players’ uniforms.

In his first seventeen years as head coach of UCLA, John Wooden, perhaps the most revered coach in US college basketball, literally mopped the court with his team managers before every practice. Wooden also threatened to take Bill Walton off the Bruins if he didn’t shave and cut his hair. Players just had to conduct themselves in a more professional manner around the Wizard.

John Havlicek used to carry a basketball with him whenever he went, but he never bounced it on concrete, only on hardwood. Bill Bradley, future senator, could tell the height of a basket just by shooting at it. Caloy Loyzaga, once named one of the ten greatest players in the world, could tell his exact position on the basketball court merely by looking down on the floor. Larry Bird broke his ring finger while playing baseball. He taped it to his middle finger and kept playing.

As I recall, in the early 1990’s, it seemed that Ginebra San Miguel and Great Taste Coffee were always playing the last game of the regular season, long after all standings had been decided. I always looked forward to covering those games, because these were the rare occasions when the gloves were off, and records were bound to tumble. In one of these games, Michael Hackett scored his seemingly inhuman tally of 103 points and hauled down 55 rebounds. Arnie Tuadles logged a league record in assists. On other such occasions, Allan Caidic burned his name into the scoring records with uncanny three-point accuracy.

But I’ve also seen my share of ill- behavior. I was a budding producer with Vintage Enterprises when head coach Robert Jaworski and Ginebra staged the infamous walk-out during a heated game against Shell in 1990. That established the unprecedented fine of P500,000 for such offenses. I was also at a San Juan Knights game two years ago when coach Philip Cezar caused his men to foul so much that they ran out of players. Forward Gilbert Castillo became the first player in Philippine basketball history to foul out of a pro game, be sent back in, and score. The Knights gave up 91 free throws, and the game was stretched so much by all the foul shooting that we were cut off the air.

So what has happened to the PBA?

It seems that today’s players (almost all of whom are making six-figure salaries, mind you) need additional motivation to "get up" for certain games. Many of them have been fattened up by incentives, practice allowances, gas money, and other perks. Some have become spoiled young brats who do not have the decency to respect their profession. Would you believe that, in this day and age, some PBA players

still don’t go to the gym to lift weights? Would you believe that strength and conditioning coaches have to argue with players to make them faster and stronger? What does that say about their love for their audiences, the masa who surrender their hard-earned pesos to feed the superstars’ fat salaries?

Not much, I’m afraid.

There was once a high school theatre group that fell victim to a brownout, and offered the ticketholders the option to watch the show another day. Ten people in the audience said they would not be available another time, whether there were lights or not. The show went on, with an audience smaller than the cast.

Respect for the game.

That’s why college basketball is doing so well today. Aside from the merchandising muscle of ABS-CBN, its players play their guts out, something that always connects to the heartstrings of an audience, in the venue or on television.

A basic marketing principle states that you would have to work five times as hard to win new customers than to keep old ones. That’s the monstrous task facing Commissioner Noli Eala now. There is simply no excuse for taking a shot at an opponent’s basket on purpose, more so repeating the act, regardless of the outcome of the game. That doesn’t fall under the dictionary meaning of "compete" now, does it?

Perhaps more than a drug test, some of today’s players need an attitude check. Make that a GRATITUDE check. They don’t realize how they shafted the fans who went to the gym to watch them play on Wednesday. Maybe they’ll care when nobody comes to see them anymore.

Is that the PBA we want to see?

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Catch this week’s episode of The Basketball Show, featuring sidelights of the Ateneo-La Salle game, the latest on the Fil-Am scandal, and the problems plaguing the Purefoods Hotdogs. The Basketball Show airs over IBC-13 every Saturday at 4:00 p.m.