SBP, PBA to sign MOA

SBP president Al Panlilio said yesterday a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) binding the NSA for basketball and the PBA to a program that defines their working relationship in line with the formation of the new Gilas national team is expected to be signed before the pro league’s draft on Oct. 30.

“It will be a binding document,” said Panlilio. “The MOA will clearly spell out what is required of every player in the Gilas pool. There will be a separate draft for the 12 rookies in the Gilas pool and since no FIBA tournament is scheduled during the coming PBA first conference, we expect any Gilas player who is drafted to play in the Philippine Cup. The MOA is critical. It will confirm the partnership of the SBP and PBA in working together for Gilas and also guide the players in the pool in terms of arrangements.”

Panlilio said the understanding between the SBP and PBA is that every pro team will lend at least one player to the Gilas pool. “We’re looking at a pool of 24 made up of the 12 Gilas players and 12 players from each PBA team,” he said. “But the pool could be bigger. We thought of 24 because that’s the maximum FIBA requires in the initial submission of prospective players in a national team before it’s cut to 12. We’ll be flexible about this. If a PBA team offers more than one player to the pool, that’s its choice. Nobody can stop any team from offering more than one player. Of course, a PBA team will assess how offering more than one player can affect its competitiveness in a conference because other teams may offer only one. It’s a balancing act.”

But it will not be a hard-and-fast rule that for a player to be enlisted by Gilas, he has to pass through the PBA draft. “There could be players recruited by Gilas not available for the PBA draft like Fil-German Christian Standhardinger who has expressed willingness to join the national team,” said Panlilio. “But as far as the initial pool of 12, they will be available for the coming draft. One of the 12, Almond Vosotros, was drafted last year but he’s now a free agent. Everyone in the pool has agreed to be drafted because we believe that PBA training is important in getting the Gilas players ready for FIBA competition.”

Two players not in the SBP 12-man pool are Kiefer Ravena and Bobby Ray Parks. “There are legal impediments that prevent Kiefer from applying for the PBA draft,” said Panlilio. “The SBP has received a letter from the NBA D-League team Texas Legends affirming that Kiefer may not be drafted by any team while he’s under contract until July next year as he’s being trained to play for the next NBA summer league. But the Legends will allow Kiefer to play for Gilas if he’s called up. So it’s up to (Gilas head coach) Chot (Reyes) to decide whether or not to enlist Kiefer over the next year. As for Ray-Ray, we haven’t heard from him since he left for the US. He hasn’t been in contact with (Gilas team manager) Butch (Antonio) so we have no idea what he’s planning.”

Asked about the compensation of Gilas players coming from the PBA, Panlilio said the MOA will explain it clearly. “Once a PBA player is called to join Gilas, his salary will be picked up by Gilas,” he said. “What has to be ironed out is if he will be entitled to bonuses of the PBA team while playing with Gilas. That’s an issue to be threshed out with the mother PBA team.”

Panlilio said the SBP decided to reinstate Reyes as Gilas coach during a meeting at the PLDT office last Monday night. “Talk was brewing after the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament,” he said. “We wanted to revive the ‘puso’ of Gilas. So we asked Chot to come back with Tab (Baldwin) as consultant. Ricky (Vargas) called up Tab that night to inform him of the change. The next day, Chot met with the Gilas players to advise them of the coming PBA draft.”

The high-level SBP meeting involved SBP chairman emeritus Manny V. Pangilinan, Panlilio, Vargas, SBP executive director Sonny Barrios, SBP legal counsel Aga Francisco, Antonio, TNT PBA governor Patrick Gregorio, incoming PBA vice chairman Ramoncito Fernandez and Reyes.

Panlilio said the SBP will soon initiate the process of recruiting two prospective naturalized players. “We’re not sure about (Andray) Blatche’s availability for the future so we’re moving ahead to look for two candidates,” he said. “This will be a process since naturalization will require approval by the House of Representatives and the Senate. It’s something we’ll need to do in anticipation of the coming FIBA tournaments.”