by Dave Albarado
The PBA is on life support
We said before that the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) is dying; now we say it is on life support. It is now on critical care because, if nothing will be done in the near future—the PBA will see its demise.
We are now nearing the tail end of the PBA Philippine Cup and it is not enticing to watch the event because: there is nothing new to see; the players are virtually the same as last year; there are no spectators, given the Coronavirus disease (Covid) pandemic. But no one watched the games live prior to the pandemic anyway. The PBA is on life support because of the protectionist policies of the league that only favor the two major groups in the said league—the San Miguel group and the Manny V. Pangilinan group.
The PBA can inject new life into its existence if it starts to reinvent itself. It should wake up and realize that basketball is evolving internationally and to remain insular will be the key ingredient for disaster.
For starters, the PBA should accept talented players right out of high school or those who have already played a year or two in college. This way, there will be new talents coming into the league—every year and this brings more interest to the league.
This ploy will also help in keeping the talent stock high in case other foreign leagues such as the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), the Korean Basketball League (KBL), or the Japanese B-League will try to recruit our top players.
The PBA should take advantage of this situation by charging transfer fees. This work is by asking the foreign league to pay a certain amount before the PBA issues a release. This can be coupled with a contract buyout if the player is under a live contract. This is like the case of Kiefer Ravena.
Say, a player is still under contract with Blackwater Bossing team— the foreign team will pay a transfer fee on top of a buyout amount. The buyout amount is given as a way to buy the player out of the existing contract. This is not a new thing. This is a global practice.
Second, the PBA should do away with its Fil-Foreign limits. If a team will be filled with Fil-Foreign, then, so be it. We need to ensure that the Fil-Foreign players are eligible in the PBA. We can do this by recruiting Fil-Foreign players in a Jr. PBA league—a semi-pro league accepting Fil-Foreign players aged 15 years old and under. They will be getting an education offer plus allowances. Doing so will give us the opportunity to get more talents to play for Gilas.
We should also consider recruiting more foreign athletes who are willing to be naturalized. We will let them play for Batang Gilas before they turn 16 years old. If we do this, we will have plenty of players to choose from. In the future, they can also play as Asian imports in Japan, Korea, China or even in Australia, and, who knows, even in the NBA.