PBA puts in P40-M for Asiad

The Philippine Basketball Association, notwithstanding the planned Senate inquiry on the inclusion of foreign-bred talents in the Philippine team, earmarked nearly P40 million for the country’s determined bid to win the coveted gold medal in the coming Asian Games in Busan, Korea.

The PBA board of governors, headed by chairman Butch Alejo of Purefoods, approved this whopping budget for the training and actual campaign of the Nationals in the Busan Asiad this September in a meeting last week at the Edsa Shangrila Plaza. Commissioner Jun Bernardino and his staff made the budget proposal.

The amount represents an increase of about 30 percent more than the budget allocated by the board to the Philippine Centennial Team in 1998, and this easily underscores the league’s determination, if not commitment, to help the country regain its once lofty status as the basketball king in the region.

The PBA spent no less than P16 million out of its P27 million budget in 1998 with the Centennial Teamers responding with a bronze-medal performance in Bangkok. Nearly P10 million of the amount represented fixed expenses with the rest coming in the form of bonuses or incentives to the players.

This time, the PBA board approved a P17-million fixed budget plus a P19-million bonus extravaganza. The Philippine training pool, however, is losing some chunks in the total bonus package with its struggling stint in the ongoing Samsung PBA Governors Cup.

Each player gets an incentive of no less than P600,000 if the RP team wins the gold in Busan.

The fixed budget for the training almost doubled this year with the program of coach Jong Uichico – adopted from original coach Ron Jacobs’ – starting in earnest last December and involving more players in the pool.

It will be remembered that Centennial team coach Tim Cone conducted daily practice only starting after the second conference. And he culled his team from a pool of only 18 players.

Uichico and his pool – originally composed of 30 players – have been working out daily at the Moro Lorenzo Sports Center inside Ateneo since January. The tryouts started in December.

As the pool pitched camp at the Moro Lorenzo Sports Center, the PBA already spent P.5 million for setting up two pairs of extra baskets inside the venue.

The league has also spent a big sum sending people to scout rival teams in their own backyards. Allan Caidic led the scouting mission in Japan weeks ago. Eric Altamirano and Binky Favis are currently doing the same job in Korea.

Uichico spared the PBA more expenses as he didn’t include international trips in his program. However, the team may go out of the country after all with Uichico now considering an invitation to play in a brief tourney in Italy in June, featuring national teams of the Philippines, Italy, Latvia and Slovenia. Basketball Association of the Philippines secretary-general Graham Lim is still asking Uichico whether he can accommodate the Jones Cup in July.

The PBA generated income to allocate for the Asiad campaign through the sponsorship of Selecta (P15 million) and Hapee (P8.5 million) of the two RP candidates teams in the Governors Cup.