Beer or Gin?

I have to make a confession. Even if I’m a sportswriter, a basketball fan and an organizer of   basketball tournaments, I haven’t been following the biggest basketball show of the country as much as I’ve had in the past. Yes, I still do watch games of the PBA on TV, but it doesn’t come with the same excitement and fun as before. I was a Crispa fan when I was a kid when one couldn’t even watch games live on TV. I also followed the Toyota Tamaraws even if they were the rivals of the Redmanizers. When the PBA played games at the Cebu Coliseum, the basketball fan in us always made us want to tag along with my father who always booked tickets in advance. Fast forward to today, I’m fine if I miss a PBA game on TV. I have to admit that I no longer root for any particular PBA team and just go with the flow in monitoring the latest developments from the league, some of which haven’t been too impressive or to some, getting to be unusual.

The ongoing PBA Finals is one of those strange things. San Miguel is up against Barangay Ginebra in a best-of-seven championship series between two teams which are owned by the same mother company. In fact, three of the four teams in the semifinals all came from the same “family.” Star was the other San Miguel-owned squad with Talk N Text being the odd one out in the semifinals. And before I forget, Talk N Text also has sister teams in NLEX and Meralco, all belonging to the MVP family. The other PBA teams that are stand alone teams include Alaska, Rain or Shine, GlobalPort, Mahindra, Phoenix and Blackwater. While the PBA doesn’t see anything wrong with having sister teams, one can’t help but also ask if it’s a healthy situation. The biggest problem here is that doubts will always arise when sister teams make it to the playoffs. The barber shop talk is that the mother company now has the choice which team it wants to “win.” The loose talk goes on, “Which team needs more mileage? Which team needs a championship to boost its brand, its sales and over-all brand image?” Consequently, the talks lead to a not-so-pretty talk about games or the league itself being controlled by these mother teams. While I don’t think this is being done by San Miguel and the MVP group, the talk simply refuses to go away, especially when San Miguel wins Game 1 by 27 points, 109-82. “Benta, luto. Giilad lang ta” are the common comments. For the “sosyal” fans, they say a new “Master Chef” TV show has been launched in the PBA Finals. All this kind of talk will get even worse if the series goes all the way to a Game Seven. But this is going to be so hard to prove. Do teams actually give games away? Do they tank in favor of a sister team? Does the mother company give team directions to allow Nico Rosberg to win a race instead of Lewis Hamilton? Does a team manager give directions for a Lance Armstrong or Alberto Contador to win a cycling race?

For now, we’ll have to settle with what we have before us. The fact is that the PBA is the biggest basketball show in the country and it has been this way for as long as we can remember. When teams compete, they go at it and always want to beat the other side, whether or not it’s a sister team on the other side. I just can’t imagine team owners actually telling their coaches and players to “lose” a game. I’d like to take this mindset when watching San Miguel Beer play Barangay Ginebra in the finals. Out of respect for their fans, both teams must play like there’s no tomorrow and as if they hated each other’s guts. No mercy should be the battlecry. I remember when Ateneo schools would play each other in the Jesuit Athletic Meet for Jesuit-run schools. Teams play for pride and for their local school and go all out to win it all. The Cebu and Davao teams always want to outshine the Manila teams, especially if the games are held at home. In those JAM tournaments of the past, fights would break out in games between regional rivals Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan and Ateneo de Zamboanga, but it’s been relatively peaceful of late. The never-say-die attitude of Ginebra must make them bleed for points and find ways to stop June Mar Fajardo. They should play their hearts out as a way to send-off veterans like Jayjay Helterbrand and Mark Caguioa who are in the sunset of their respective careers. Japeth Aguilar shouldn’t be willing to settle for second-billing to Fajardo. He has to step up for the injured Greg Slaughter.

Am I asking for a lot? Or will talk of a conspiracy collusion of the sister teams arise anew? Interesting indeed. Master chef? One thing is for certain. The San Miguel family will win the championship.