Winning at all costs (Part 2)

When I came out with my column Winning At All Costs, two weeks ago the news of La Salle fielding an ineligible player that was written on the other page of this paper came as a complete shock to me. I didn’t realize that my alma mater had gone that far off course.

It has been a great thing for me to see that the public, and the media in particular, has not allowed the issue to just die a natural death. And though it is quite an emotional issue for me, I feel it is my responsibility to write the entire story, as I know it.

Many years back, officials of La Salle’s athletic department came to my home to ask me to consider coaching again. I told them that my coaching days were over. I recommended to them the Pumaren brothers who I have known to have the capacity to coach and being La Sallites, why not give them a try.

They agreed and the team did very well. I was very happy about the results.

Then one day, the same people who came to my home called my attention to the practices that were being done to some of the team’s players — i.e. they were being asked to sign long-term contracts, some spanning to 10 years, in order to get playing time on the team. In fact, a number of players had already signed a petition requesting for changes to be made.

This prompted me to immediately call one of the head brothers of La Salle to verify if this practice was being done. He said that it was only "an isolated case."

Then, about a year and a half ago, in middle of 2004 UAAP Basketball season, one of the top alumni asked to see me. He told me that some of the top La Salle brothers had in their possession the SEC papers confirming the existence of a management firm with which some of the team’s players had signed these controversial contracts. Perhaps because of this, La Salle was now willing to replace their coaching staff at the end of the season with a new one for 2005. They asked if I could help them do this. I told them that I would be willing to help if changes were going to be made right away. They answered that they would do so at the end of the season. And so I told them I did not want to be a part of it because I saw the necessity of it being done immediately. And then I asked them: "And what happens if he wins?" It was left at that.

La Salle did end up winning the 2004 UAAP basketball championship and their coach’s contract was renewed for another three years.

Looking now at how this whole issue and related issues — that of the assistant manager’s incident and the ineligible player — have grown into a national concern, I ask myself these questions:

If La Salle had blown the whistle at that point in time when it was, as the La Salle brother then put it to me, "an isolated case" would the basketball management and coaching staff have been able to go this far off tangent and thus be part of creating the unhealthy atmosphere we see festering in La Salle’s basketball program today?

Or would it have been already too late?

I tend to think that if from the start, the standards of a team are set and motivated by certain attitudes such as to win at all costs, its actions that follow suit will surely manifest this. Regardless of when the whistle is blown, its true intentions and motivations will eventually surface. It will be only a question of "when?"

For my alma mater, the crisis couldn’t have come at a more painful time than this — when they are deemed to be the "winningest" team in the UAAP League for the past eight years.

I have once upon a time been a coach. I know what it feels like to go through the pressures of ensuring that I have prepared my team in the best way I can to be in a position to deliver the championship to my superiors. And it is to my superiors that I looked to for guidance and boundaries which I had to work within. I had to find a way to work inside these parameters and at the same time still do my best during the game.

I can tell you from experience that it was not an easy job. The pressures are tremendous and after every game, win or lose, the job was always on the line.

As an example: Billy Ray Bates, one of the best PBA imports to grace our country was a confessed alcoholic. I accepted this and had to find a way to work with it. I just made sure he was sober the day before the game. My superiors knew this and took full responsibility for it.

It is my opinion that the buck has to stop somewhere and it is definitely not only on the coach’s lap. As I mentioned earlier, the coach will bring out every trick in his bag to deliver. That is his job. And sometimes, because of the pressure on him, he may go further than what can be deemed right or fair.

It is the role and responsibility of his superiors to determine how far he is to be allowed to take his practices. And how far he does take it reflects what it is that actually drives and moves his superiors.

We oftentimes forget that packaged together with the glory of winning is a much higher price called responsibility. The winner’s ways and means will be looked upon and scrutinized, at times with envy but more often than not, with admiration and most definitely as a vehicle from where inspiration can be drawn. The responsibility that comes with winning goes way beyond the mere acceptance of the trophy.

With the way the events have unraveled I am almost certain that La Salle would do anything for a chance to redeem itself and start anew. Being a La Sallite myself, I certainly would want us to be given another chance.

Perhaps taking an indefinite voluntary leave of absence from the UAAP basketball league to give ample time to restructure La Salle’s basketball program would be a good place to start.

It is clear to me that the damage done by all issues combined, was not limited to the school’s athletic program and athletes alone but has also spilled over to the school as an educational institution. This is a problem that MUST be looked into.

Actions speak louder than words, but to give back the trophy without looking into the system that allowed them to win it is an empty gesture that does not serve the higher purpose.

It is my hope that La Salle and its officials, all the way to the top levels of their hierarchy, view the message that this entire situation has echoed, take the moral ground and start to make the changes needed from within.

If they decide to do so and actually "walk their talk," they may set the example and encourage all the other schools, if the need arises, to do the same.