MANILA, Philippines — Arwind Santos' racist gesture toward TNT KaTropa import Terrence Jones in Game Five of the PBA Commissioner's Cup Finals put the Philippine league in a bad light.
But this isn't the first time the PBA has been marred by a racially charged issue.
Earlier this year, Santos' teammate Chris Ross was involved in a verbal altercation with Gilas Pilipinas and NLEX head coach Yeng Guiao during a game in January.
Ross had claimed Guiao uttered a racist remark at him in the heat of the moment.
While it was not established that the NLEX mentor did throw the racist remark at Ross, both parties were still penalized by the PBA.
Guiao and Ross received fines of Php 11,000 and Php 2,600, respectively.
Back in 2014, the league also dealt with racism when a staff member of PBA D-League team Cagayan Valley taunted then NLEX big man Ola Adeogun.
The man held up a banana at Adeogun while immitating the actions of an animal.
The staffer was slapped with a 10-game ban by then PBA commissioner Chito Salud and needed to personally apologize to Adeogun for the incident.
It remains unclear how the league will handle the Santos-Jones incident as of now.
Game Six of the eventful Finals series between the TNT KaTropa and the San Miguel Beermen tips off on Friday.