Bernardino: We'll come out stronger

Far from breaking apart or disintegrating, the Philippine Basketball Association expects to come out stronger from its most recent crisis, one which had held up the All-Filipino Cup and nearly threw the pro league in disarray.

"It was something I wish had never happened, but it did," PBA Commissioner Jun Bernardino said.

"Lessons were learned. We're moving forward. We'll draw strength from these lessons," he added.

A day after Tanduay Rhum agreed to return to the playing court and resume its semifinal series with Purefoods, thereby ending a messy affair that had dragged the PBA to the courts for the first time in its 25-year existence, Bernardino was a picture of calm and optimism as he took stock of what had just happened.

He looked tired, maybe, but satisfied that everybody had done their part to make sure the games are back again after an unwelcome interruption.

As an offshoot of the imbroglio, though, the league will take a closer look at its constitution and by-laws, with amendments likely to be made in the future so any issue will be "exhaustedly resolved" within the PBA family, Bernardino told the PSA Sports Forum at the Holiday Inn yesterday.

Throughout the ordeal, the board of governors stood by the Commissioner, whose ruling reversing the outcome of two games where Tanduay's Sonny Alvarado played in, was finally accepted on Monday by the Rhum Masters' management, if grudgingly.

"Their (Tanduay) recognition, late in the day, that the ruling should prevail shows us that the spirit of sportsmanship worked," said Bernardino during the weekly forum sponsored by Red Bull, Agfa Color and McDonald's.