Eala earlier planned to make the announcement before Christmas.
The four candidates for the post are Red Bull’s Yeng Guiao, Coca-Cola’s Chot Reyes, Talk ‘N’ Text’s Joel Banal and Alaska’s Tim Cone.
Apparently, the selection has proved to be tougher than expected.
Last Friday, Eala received the reports of the panel of interrogators formed two weeks ago to evaluate the candidates’ answers to a questionnaire prepared by the Commissioner.
The panel attended a series of interviews conducted by Eala to grill the candidates. It was made up of former national coach Norman Black and this writer and the PBA management committee composed of technical manager Perry Martinez, media affairs manager Willie Marcial, operations manager Rickie Santos and marketing manager Jude Turcuato.
Eala clarified the panel was constituted as a working advisory group, not as a selection committee.
"To start the ball rolling, I thought it was productive to convene a panel that could suggest different points of view," explained Eala. "The panel sat in during the first round of interviews and also asked questions. Then I asked each panelist to submit a report on his evaluation. In making my own recommendation to the Board of Governors, I will mention salient points raised by the panel."
Eala said the panel’s work is done and now, he will move to the next step.
"I hope to sit down with former Commissioners Rudy Salud and Jun Bernardino and learn from their experience," continued Eala. "I’d like to find out how the national coach was chosen during their administrations."
The other day, Eala phoned former national coach Robert Jaworski to seek his advice, too.
"Senator Jaworski was in the US when I phoned long distance," related Eala. "He’s more than willing to help and told me to e-mail him whatever questions I had and he’ll answer them. He spoke to me about the values of utang na loob, loyalty and commitment. From his experience in 1990 when he coached the Philippines to the silver medal in the Beijing Asian Games, Senator Jaworski told me one of the challenges of a national coach is managing the personalities of the stars in the team."
Eala said after he digests the inputs from Jaworski, Salud and Bernardino, he will likely invite each candidate to a private one-on-one session to validate and revalidate his assessment. Then, he will request for a special Board of Governors meeting to submit his recommendation for approval.
"It doesn’t look like I’ll be able to finish the next round of consultations and submit my recommendation to the Board before Christmas," he said. "But I hope to be able to complete the process by the end of the year."
Eala admitted the decision is difficult because the four candidates are equally qualified.
"I’m at the stage where I want to find out how each candidate deals with the media because this will mean a four-year relationship, if the players in the national team will give their best for him and how flexible he is in adjusting to possible changes in the program such as a shift in the competition schedule," said Eala.
"The three things I’m zeroing in are his coaching system or philosophy, his vision or perspective for the short, medium and long-term and his character as a person and leader."
Eala described the candidates’ written answers to the questionnaire as "excellent." He said there’s no doubt the candidates will commit themselves to the job for flag and country.
The PBA’s mandate from the Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP) is to form the national team that will play in the FIBA (International Basketball Association)-Asia men’s championships, the Jones Cup and the FIBA-Asia Champions Cup.
Next year’s FIBA-Asia men’s championships in Doha will determine the regional qualifiers for the 2006 World Championships in Saitama, Japan. The 2007 FIBA-Asia men’s championships will be the qualifying tournament for the Beijing Olympics the year after.
The Philippines has not played in the World Championships since 1978 and in the Olympics since 1972. The PBA has not sent a team to the FIBA-Asia men’s championships since 1973.
The PBA and BAP signed a memorandum of agreement two weeks ago to "join ranks in order to enhance, support and strengthen the formation and training of the national team with the end in view of regaining for the Philippines its lofty position in basketball in the Asian continent."