Barrios leaves pro league in good health

MANILA, Philippines - The eminent Renauld “Sonny” Barrios, after overseeing the affairs of the Philippine Basketball Association for three years as its commissioner, is stepping down at the end of the month to be succeeded by lawyer Chito Salud.

Barrios, 62, is retiring as the take-charge guy who steered the country’s premier cage league to an impressive season, balanced competition and economic gains amid wide-spread recession.

The amiable cage leader has served the PBA for a total of 21 years – as commissioner from 2007-2010 and in different capacities in the first 18 years.

“I’m with the PBA for 18 years plus three. And I’m only thankful to the PBA board for their trust and confidence in allowing me to help the league,” Barrios told The STAR.

“Of course, with the help of the board, we’ve achieved so many things. And I’m proud we’re able to maintain the independence of the Commissioner’s Office most specially in running the games which is most vital and necessary,” Barrios added.

Barrios could well be remembered as the league’s “favorite pinch-hitter,” having been appointed to lead the league no less than three times.

He served as acting commissioner when then commissioner Jun Bernardino fell ill in 2001. Six years later, Barrios returned from retirement following Noli Eala’s exit. He became a full-pledged commissioner when no one between Chito Salud and Lambert Ramos earned the needed number from the board to get the position.

And Barrios proved to be a consummate leader.

He’s put in place programs that could well help the new leadership which formally takes over as the board holds its planning session in Hong Kong on Sept. 1-3.

Under his watch, improvement of the PBA game-wise and business-wise was apparent.

Barrios mentioned the just concluded season as a good example.

“I just reported to the PBA board that we overshot both our top line (net earning) and bottom line (gross earning) targets. In officiating, of course there’s always the area for improvement, we’ve decreased the number of errors from about 20 a game to around eight and seven,” said Barrios.

“In the last playoffs, it was heartwarming that no one pointed to officiating as the cause or source of a loss. They all said the better team won. It’s a good indication that they have accepted the improvement in officiating,” Barrios added.

On competitive balance, Barrios pointed to six different champions emerging in his six conferences as commissioner.

And in all these conferences, the league achieved a passing grade on gate sales and earnings, meriting personnel of the Commissioner’s Office performance bonus.

“I’m six-at-six at bat,” said Barrios in jest.

For the league, Barrios and the board, in 2008, were able to get a contract from new covering partner Solar Sports that’s more than double of the amount involved in the league’s previous pact with ABC-5.

At the end of the contract next year, the PBA would have earned close to half a billion from Solar Sports.