Notes on walking out

“In all your endeavors, both present and future, remember to have the courage of your convictions.” - Haywood Sullivan, baseball manager

By now, we all know the outcome of the playoff series between the Talk ‘N Text Phone Pals and Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings. A lot of furor, much news – and some mud-slinging was stirred up by the Phone Pals walking out of Game 4 Friday. As of this writing, the deciding game has yet to be played, much as the Game 4 walkout took place after this writer’s piece on Talk ‘N Text head coach Chot Reyes had been submitted.

There have been many significant boycotts throughout the history of sport, with Ginebra itself having its own trailblazing history of objecting to what they feel is bad officiating. Some protests are for issues outside the sporting arena (as most are): Olympic boycotts, and so on. Let’s look at the impact of this particular kind of protestation.

A walkout stops the game. The walkout, especially one so early in the game, stopped the flow of action in a more-or-less smooth conference. Many times, for change to occur, someone has to do something to literally change the course of events. Talk ‘N Text believed that they could not be a party to the proceedings, and thus chose this form of action to express it. Everyone involved who expected the natural outcome of a PBA playoff game was surprised, and the result of the game was determined by forfeiture, a most uncommon occurrence.

A walkout upsets the fans. As mentioned, many people like what they have just the way it is. In this case, however, fans were treated to an abrupt cessation of what many consider a regular treat: an exciting PBA game. For those trying to jumpstart their weekend with a heavy dose of basketball action, it was a disappointment. As in any form of entertainment, spectators are often there to forget their problems, not to be affected by a whole new set of them. Fans paid good money to watch a basketball game, regardless of the internal conflict within the organizing group, in this case, the PBA. Some fans don’t really care that much who wins, as long as the game is thrilling. It would be highly unlikely for a fan to be told that something is wrong, and have the game disrupted, and be okay with it.

Unfortunately, in basketball, teams do not have understudies as actors in plays do.

A walkout costs the game. The time limit in such a scenario is very short, and it is often a function of scheduling. Millions of fans are waiting in front of their TV sets, many with remote controls in their hands ready to zap away at a moment’s boredom.

The carrying network has a contract with advertisers to air their commercials within a set time period, and has succeeding programming (and spillover audiences) which is affected whether the games are longer or shorter. In this case, the few minutes allocated to settling the issue were insufficient. Whether or not Talk ‘N Text and Ginebra were to resume their battle became a moot point. Talk ‘N Text knew that the sacrifice of one game was a distinct possibility. With a brief grace period, it became a quick reality.

A walkout calls attention. Talk ‘N Text had a grievance, and chose to call attention primarily to PBA management in this manner. Other teams in similar situations might have just put the game under protest after the fact, or delayed the game to make their point. Last Friday, the walkout gripped the sports headlines, and revived age-old questions about biased officiating and the implied conspiracy that accompanies it. Of course, the league would defend its decisions and protect its credibility. And Ginebra would rebut the charges, because it implied they were either simply the beneficiary, or were in on it. In other words, the reactions were the way they were meant to be. There was no other way anyone was going to react.

A walkout makes a point. Talk ‘N Text’s walkout made it loud and clear that they were unhappy with the officiating, even though they were leading the series. I have seen coaches go flaming mad at bad calls, even when their teams were comfortably ahead. Officiating is always going to be a bone of contention for many sports, until the time the factor of human error can be minimized, which may be never.

Even statistics are subject to interpretation, and besides, it only takes one bad call to decide a game. I remember the PBA once replayed a Purefoods-Shell game because of a referee’s error (and also because it was the last game Joe Cantada covered). But in that case, it was a regular season game. In almost all cases, when a tournament is nearing the end, officials are loathe to replay or do-over games. The NBA has replayed the last few minutes of games that were marred by technical errors. In this case, though, the majority of the game had yet to be played.

A walkout causes change. Talk ‘N Text considered Game 4 to be the turning point of the series. They could have ended the series by eliminating Ginebra, or Ginerba could have tied and gained momentum, and get their crowd going again. Since the time of Bobby Jaworski, Ginebra has been the underdog, which, ironically, is what causes the suspicion that they are somehow favored. It became a habit to root for them. Ratings are high whenever they play, and there is always more pressure to win when you coach or play for the Gin Kings. They have the closest thing to a home court in the PBA.

In the NBA, referees are known to call slightly in favor of the home team, and efforts have been made to prove this statistically. Is there such a case here? As I said, statistics can be interpreted in more than one way. What Talk ‘N Text was hoping for was that the trend that they saw besetting them change.

Remember the Munich Olympics, when the US won the gold medal game in basketball and the end was adjusted more than once so the USSR instead would get the gold? To this day, none of the members of that team claimed their silver medals, which are sitting in the International Olympic Committee vault.

Is it right or wrong to walk out of a game? It depends which side you are on. In the 2007 Southeast Asian Games in Thailand, the Philippines lost 14 out of 15 gold medal matches in boxing and taekwondo, in what was obvious cheating. Some of our athletes were already considering just not showing up, since they knew they would be cheated, anyway. Our lone gold medal winner, boxer Annie Albania, saw what was happening, and decided to fight on, knocking out her opponent and making it impossible to cheat her. Unfortunately, you can’t knock out your opponent (or the referee) in a basketball game.

Considering that there were other forms of redress, was Talk ‘N Text right to walk out? From their point of view, they were justified, and were willing to lose at least one deciding game to make their point.