New-look PBA in the works

The Philippine Basketball Association yesterday made a bold move to re-launch the league in its 30th season next year, adopting a two-conference format and, more importantly, heeding the call to make the nation competitive again on international fronts with a shift in its calendar of events.

The league’s board of governors unanimously approved the PBA shift to a two-conference format starting October and ending in June the following year. The first tournament is the traditional All-Filipino and the second the import-laced tourney.

With the revised calendar, the league will have an extended break from July to September, opening the door for the PBA’s possible participation in other international competitions outside the Asian Games.

As the 2004-05 season starts in October, the PBA will hold a transition conference from February to June.

"Our biggest consideration is the need for players to heal injuries and focus on other interest during the long break. We took note of the coaches’ concern on player injuries. While nothing is concrete yet, our second consideration is opening the doors for our possible participation in the ABC," said board chairman Jun Cabalan.

"We acknowledge the ABC will give us the ticket to participate in the World Basketball Championship and the Olympics. And I must stress this is the input presented by the commissioner," Cabalan added.

"I’m gratified that the board approved some of my proposals. We’re now looking to re-launch a more vibrant PBA. These changes are geared towards upgrading and uplifting the services of the league and the quality of our games," said commissioner Noli Eala.

After exhaustive deliberation, the board decided to first shift to a two-conference format before moving to a major nine-month old conference tourney as earlier suggested by the commissioner.

"While the board acknowledged the need for changes, they opted to do it gradually and slowly to provide the fans the best entertainment and, at the same time, give the PBA the flexibility to adopt a comprehensive program for the development of basketball in the country," said Eala.

In the same meeting, the board decided to take a strong position as it stressed a serious breach of contract by the NBN-IBC consortium in their broadcast deal in the aftermath of the IBC pullout of its television coverage.

Cabalan said they will remind NBN and IBC of their Memorandum of Agreement and advise the consortium of a P3-million penalty the league will impose for every play date the simulcast coverage would miss.

"I hope they realized this is a serious breach of contract. Any breach of contract is damaging to PBA and it must be addressed," said Cabalan, who added the consortium now owes the league P6 million in penalty with IBC not airing the PBA games last Wednesday and Sunday.

Meanwhile, Ginebra San Miguel tries to come to the aid of beleaguered sister team Purefoods as the Gin Kings take on the Alaska Aces in the closing match of the elimination round of the Samsung PBA Reinforced Conference today. The Hotdogs’ hopes of forcing a playoff with the Aces for the last quarterfinal berth in Group A now hinge on a Ginebra victory over Alaska in their 7:30 p.m. tiff at the Astrodome. In the 5 p.m. curtain-raiser, Red Bull Barako clashes with Talk n Text . The Ginebra-Purefoods PBA King of the Court one-on-one tournament also hits crucial stage with Tony dela Cruz and Kerby Raymundo clashing for the right to play Asi Taulava in the final in the 6-foot-4 and above category. Leo Avenido seeks to avoid outright elimination in the below 6-4 group as he squares off with Joey Mente in another important duel.