What are they thinking?

The BAP does not need the PBA.

Hogwash.

It still blows my mind to consider how crassly the Basketball Association of the Philippines has treated the Philippine Basketball Association this past week. After twelve years of leaning on the PBA, desperately needing the big brother to do their job for them, now Graham Lim and company smugly strut like a promiscuous tart on the arm of an unsuspecting beau. That in itself is a disservice to Cebuana Lhuillier, which is bankrolling the formation of the next Philippine basketball team.

But then again, the BAP has a history of being snobbish even when it has done nothing to be proud of. In the last decade, how many national teams have won any championship beyond the SEA Games level? How many club teams have been informed that they needed BAP approval to compete internationally, even if they were representing their company and not the Philippines? In the year-long struggle between Tiny Literal and Lito Puyat for the BAP presidency, why did it have to take the ABC’s banishment of the Philippines for them to wake up and settle matters? And when Literal finally assumed office, who in his group even bothered to thank those who helped him throughout the entire political mess, underdog that he was?

"It is unfortunate that our support of the men’s national basketball team program has been put into question," began the statement of Cebuana Lhuillier’s Jean Henri Lhuillier. "We are saddened that our efforts to help are now being put into a bad light. We were hoping that our support to the national team’s program would pave the way for a stronger private sector involvement in the development of local sports; for more sponsors to follow suit in helping develop sports in the country.

"While we may have been at the forefront, we have repeatedly relayed our willingness to work with the PBA, the other basketball leagues and stakeholders of the sport."

Cebuana Lhuillier is run by well-bred, intelligent, decent lovers of basketball. Unfortunately, they are now allied with a group of sports officials who have not produced any tangible results in the national interest. It has never been the PBA’s job to form the national team, yet the league embraced the challenge gladly, doing itself more harm than good. And have they even gotten thanks from the BAP? No. Instead, they are bluntly, rudely told — in the media, no less — that they were no longer needed.

Lhuillier also decried all the political innuendo hurled at them for the "Try-outs ng Bayan" which they started two weeks ago in Cagayan de Oro. Any sponsor would now think twice about being involved with an organization like the BAP that seems to create enemies where there once were friends. The Lhuilliers might realize that, if the BAP does not shape up — or at least practice its manners — then they will be in a bad marriage that may end up hurting their brothers in the basketball community.

There was really no need for a public attempt to embarrass the PBA. Any gentleman would not have gone to such great lengths to proclaim independence. Where is all this false pride coming from? What happenswhen the agreement with the Lhuilliers runs out? Where will the BAP run to next? Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

Cebuana Lhuillier should put its foot down and tell the BAP that they are in no position to hurt anybody who may be a great ally in the development of the sport, such as the PBA is. That is not only foolhardy, but the height of stupidity. Don’t burn your bridges in a small world.

The men running the BAP should be smarter than that. Or at least more polite.

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Catch primers on the PBA teams on The Basketball Show on IBC-13 at 4 p.m.