Not too late

Someone said the other day that one of four wildcard tickets to the 24-nation World Basketball Championships in Saitama, Japan, next year has been offered to Puerto Rico.

There are no clear criteria in determining which countries will be allocated wildcards. FIBA (Federation Internationale de Basketball) reserves the absolute right to choose the lucky recipients without having to explain itself to anybody.

For sure, FIBA will invite only countries that care for basketball, that love it with a passion and that can contribute to the marketability of the World Championships.

The wildcard countries are those that fail to qualify for Saitama from their zonal eliminations.

Puerto Rico finished seventh of 10 entries in the recent FIBA Americas Championships in the Dominican Republic and missed the qualifying cut for Saitama. Advancing to the World Championships from the Americas were Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, USA and Panama.

Puerto Rico, however, played without Detroit Pistons guard Carlos Arroyo, Milwaukee Bucks center Daniel Santiago and former Utah Jazz center Jose (Piculin) Ortiz. Among those in the Puerto Rican lineup were 7-3 Peter Ramos of the Washington Wizards, deadshot Larry Ayuso of the University of Southern California, Rick Apodaca of Hofstra University and Bobby Joe Hatton of Marist (the school that produced Rik Smits).

At the 2002 World Championships, Puerto Rico finished seventh of 16 with a lineup that listed Arroyo, Santiago, Ortiz, Ayuso, Apodaca and Hatton.

The Philippines is a logical candidate for a wildcard berth because of several reasons–first, its national team is competitive, that is if its core is composed of the players who recently saw action at the Global Hoops Summit in Las Vegas, the Jones Cup in Taipei and the Sultan’s Cup in Brunei; second, it has a TV market for the World Championships; and third, it will be a box office draw because of the thousands of Filipinos living and working in Japan.

The preliminaries of the World Championships will be played in Sapporo, Sendai, Hamamatsu and Hiroshima. The final round will be staged at the Saitama Super Arena. The tournament begins Aug. 19 and ends Sept. 3. The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) will not be in season during the World Championships, assuring the pros’ availability to play for the national team.

But before the Philippines can even be considered for a wildcard, its suspension must be lifted by FIBA.

From FIBA secretary-general Patrick Baumann’s recent letter to the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC), it is obvious the governing body will not step in to resolve the quarrel between the Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP) and the Philippine Basketball Federation (PBF). The quarrel is the reason why FIBA suspended the Philippines from participating in any of its sanctioned competitions like the Southeast Asian Games and the FIBA Asia Championships.

Baumann can’t be blamed for taking the hands-off position. The problem is undeniably internal to the Philippines and FIBA will continue to recognize the BAP as its country affiliate because given the volatile political climate in the Philippines, the prudent thing to do is to maintain the status quo.

In other words, the suspension will be lifted only if and when the leaders of the BAP and the PBF get together and resolve their differences. That means one of them has to back down and give in to the other.

Under the circumstances, the BAP is holding the aces in this poker game because it enjoys FIBA recognition. Only if the BAP gives up its FIBA recognition can the PBF ever hope to gain it despite the fact that the BAP was expelled by the POC General Assembly as the country’s National Sports Association (NSA) for basketball. Since the PBF is now recognized by the POC as the new NSA for basketball, it will be difficult to expect it to give in, too.

That’s why there’s a stalemate.

PBA commissioner Noli Eala said both the BAP and the PBF must sacrifice for the national interest if the FIBA suspension is to be lifted. If neither the BAP nor the PBF backs down, the PBA will disband the national team and the Philippines will be the biggest victim in this tragedy.

Eala pointed out that since FIBA won’t recognize the PBF with the BAP still around, the permanent solution to the problem must go through the BAP. So as not to repeat the mistakes of the past, he suggested to revamp the BAP, removing hand-picked regional directors and other "undesirables" and electing a duly-constituted Board with the country’s major stakeholders represented. What he meant was infusing the PBF into the BAP–which isn’t a bad idea at all.

As a gesture of unity, Joey Lina could remain BAP president and PBF president Moying Martelino could become the BAP secretary-general. That combination would definitely be acceptable to the majority of basketball’s stakeholders in the country.

As for the POC, it will just have to reaccredit the BAP as the NSA for basketball.

How to get things done?

Someone who is respected by the officials of the POC, the BAP and the PBF should summon the opposing parties to a closed-door meeting. That someone must be a man of outstanding stature and of tremendous influence. He must be a staunch supporter of sports. And when he speaks, everyone listens.

The officials should be closeted in the room with that special someone with nobody to leave until the problem is resolved, the leadership issue is settled and everyone promises to abide by what is agreed on. The room must be locked with the key thrown away, to be retrieved only when the parties all shake hands and finally come to terms on a permanent solution.

The question is who is that special someone?

Time is running out on the Philippines. FIBA will announce the four wildcard countries at its Central Board meeting in November. That means the process of identifying the wildcard countries has already begun.