A question of authority / 200 and counting

The board of the Basketball Association of the Philippines met yesterday, ostensibly to figure out what to do about a scenario that increasingly finds them, the governing body of basketball, left out of the picture.

After Philippine Olympic Committee president Peping Cojuangco effectively dropped the hammer on them and led a move to change the formula for the coming SEABA and SEA Games, the reins were handed over to PBA national team head coach Chot Reyes to come up with a formula for ensuring an outstanding perfoormance in both meets. Reyes, ever the diplomat, came up with a list of amateur (and ergo, PBL) standouts, whom he says will be practicing with the dislodged RP Cebuana Lhuillier players, who, ironically, have been training under his system.

"I already told the board to expect that their players would be asked to join the national pool," says PBL commissioner Chino Trinidad. "Besides, most of our teams practice in the afternoon, so it’s okay. And we’re used to them getting our players at the last minute. It’s also an honor for the boys to be asked to play for the country."

However, there is a kink in the proceedings. The RP Cebuana Lhuillier team has continued practicing at its facility in Las Piñas and in Rizal Memorial, despite the supposed united effort to train at the Moro Lorenzo Sports Center on the Ateneo de Manila campus starting tomorrow. The main bone of contention is what authority the POC has to step into the affairs of a national sports association. Some BAP insiders believe that the POC has no right to run an NSA’s program. One BAP official told this writer that the SEABA is "a FIBA-Asia event, and has nothing to do with the Olympics."

Ironically, that is the main paradox of sports. All roads eventually lead to the Olympics, and, in fact, it is the global governing bodies of each sport who run their own competitions in the Games themselves. On the other hand, the SEABA tournament would also open the door to Olympic participation, if all goes well. But the question remains: when does the POC have the right to step in, and how far? The common argument "national interest" needs a finer definition in this case.

Once again, in the name of expediency, media entities are jumping on the claims that the RP Cebuana Lhuillier team lost to a ragtag team in a lowly tournament. However, how many of those writing were actually there? First of all, as The Star has reported, the nationals lost their top two players to the PBA a few weeks before that NBC tournament, then lost their starting point guard to injury, as the other was on his honeymoon. Then, they still blew away the competition in the elimination round. In the finals, they were literally roughed up by a team of unemployed pros who didn’t mind sending our boys sprawling to the floor or reeling in pain. Do you honestly think that actors - whose first priority is to protect their enviable good looks - would play in that kind of a game? Please.

Nevertheless, even with that misconception dispelled, what cannot be disputed is the need for a unified program to guarantee continuity in the sport, and a continuous upgrade of the skills present. We have already been suspended from international competition once for having two BAPs. Are we going to risk that again, with so much more at stake now?

The BAP was poised to issue a press statement, but held off at the last minute. Perhaps they are studying how to handle the POC’s taking control of the situation. At the end of the day, we will all look fighting siblings, each running to a different parent, because we want to be the ones sitting in the front seat of the family car. This writer certainly hopes that a diplomatic solution comes fast, and that all parties will allow those assigned — finally — to do their job.

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Episode 200. Today is a significant day for The Basketball Show, which started airing in May of 2001. 200 is a milestone that is not easy to reach, and that very few television programs today have managed to approach unscathed. To give you a comparison, the extremely popular "CSI" recently celebrated its fourth season with its 100th episode, since American programs only run half the year.

In four years, The Basketball Show — which has spent the last year on ABC 5 — has featured all the passion and outrageousness of the country’s favorite sport. We have had disc jockeys, actors, differently-abled, bankers, firemen, priests, students, midgets, monkeys, dolphins and even elephants playing the sport. And the program has also uplifted the common man who struggles to make a living, without being in the limelight as a player or coach, as well.

The program has also allowed those of us involved to meet some of the greatest players in the game here and abroad. We’ve been to the United States a handful of times, and witnessed the first NBA games in China. Our audience has seen the world’s best high school and NBA players, and our list of NBA stars featured includes Tracy McGrady, Yao Ming, Chris Webber, Mike Bibby, Peja Stojakovic, Clyde Drexler, Jerry Stackhouse, Detlef Schrempf, Penny Hardaway, Eric Snow, Jay Williams and others.

We’ve also broadcast the other side of the nation’s greatest players, as they’ve struggled with injury, unemployment, personal problems, deportation and other problems we thought were confirmed to ordinary people. In fact, the only local pro who has not been on the program is a Fil-Am who resented a report that his papers were not on the up-and-up.

This was all made possible with the unity (there’s that word again) of purpose that has brought the basketball fraternity in one program, something that had never been done before. Many thanks to the PBA, PBL, UAAP, NCAA and all the other leagues who have proven that yes, we can all be on the same team.