PBA in threshold of ruby era

MANILA, Philippines - It is often said that basketball is a big man’s game and Filipinos aren’t suited to play the sport on the international stage because of the ethnic size handicap. But there’s something special, even magical, about basketball that makes it close to every Filipino’s heart. Since the Americans brought the game to the country through the YMCA program during the early years of colonization at the turn of the century, Filipinos have embraced it with a passion.

The Philippines was first to play basketball in Asia and it’s no wonder Filipinos dominated the game in the formative years of the Asian Games and FIBA-Asia, previously known as the Asian Basketball Confederation. In 1954, the Philippines became the first and only Asian country to claim a medal at the FIBA World Championships, now the World Cup, in Rio de Janeiro and no Asian country has finished higher than the Philippines in the Olympics with the national team’s fifth place ending at the 1936 Berlin Games.

So when the PBA broke ground on April 9, 1975, Filipino fans welcomed Asia’s first play-for-pay league with open arms. The PBA was the setting for Filipino players to take their game to the highest level, make a living out of it and deliver entertainment to millions of followers.

Late this year, the PBA will celebrate its 40th ruby anniversary. With the league’s eighth commissioner Chito Salud at the helm, the future looks brighter than ever before. The PBA is on the verge of a breakthrough era with three new franchises in line to join this coming season and possibly, three more in the next. Never has there been such a surge of interest in the league since its inception. The emergence of social media as a powerful tool to reach out to a wider audience could be a factor in explaining the PBA’s burgeoning growth even in the vast overseas market. But without a solid product, not even the force of social media will influence the preference of a discriminating public. So that it makes real sense that with the PBA’s refinement of the game as an entertainment vehicle, the league’s audience has expanded in exponential terms with the aid of social media.

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There were nine teams when the PBA started operations in 1975. Membership dwindled to six in 1985 before it went up to eight in 1990 and nine in 1999. Since the new millennium, the league has been stable with 10 teams. And now, Ever Bilena with Blackwater Sports, Columbian Autocar Corp. with Kia Motors and N-Lex are knocking on the PBA’s doors to jump into the bandwagon. It’s not a pittance to break into the PBA ranks – a new franchise has a price tag of P100 million and the league requires a five-year bond equivalent to the same amount to guarantee a long-term partnership. Despite the high cost of joining, commercial interest is strong because the PBA stands out as a powerful advertising medium where media mileage is enormous and positive business ramifications are considerable.

Salud’s ascendancy in 2010 has unveiled a slew of innovations in the PBA, a timely milestone in the league’s history as it came at the height of trending in social media. Salud has followed in the hallowed footsteps of predecessors Leopoldo Prieto, Col. Mariano Yenko, Rey Gamboa, his father Rudy, Jun Bernardino, Noli Eala and Sonny Barrios. Taking the bull immediately by the horns or the ball by the seams, Salud bravely introduced major changes in the PBA’s tournament format. One of his first bold steps was to bring back the three-conference format after a five-year absence. The formula was bottom-line oriented and the results were welcomed by the PBA Board of Governors – the more finals games, the more tickets sold, the higher the TV ratings.

Salud took the extra step to tweak the features of every conference, setting different rules for imports in terms of height ceilings and handicapping to improve the balance of competition. His main priority was to upgrade the quality of the game. He put emphasis on the PBA D-League as a way to get prospects ready for the draft, streamlined officiating standards and stressed the value of a free-flowing game where only clean and hard contact will be called. Physicality became a trademark of the PBA and imports knew that to survive in the league, they had to be tougher than ever.

In 2012, Salud introduced the single-game playing day format of the semifinals and that, too, had an impact on ticket sales and TV ratings. Lately, the PBA worked out an arrangement with its coveror to air seven of eight games a week on a live prime-time basis over TV5, showing Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Another milestone in Salud’s administration was bringing the PBA beyond local borders, playing games overseas to reach out to thousands of Filipino overseas workers. Out-of-town games didn’t only mean provincial sorties. Still another milestone was Salud’s focus on social responsibility through several PBA Cares projects, including relief missions to disaster-stricken areas in the country. The PBA, for instance, was quick to respond in providing relief to typhoon Yolanda victims in Tacloban and Bogo. Even the All-Star Weekend format was redesigned to be a treat for fans as a way of thanks for their patronage. And the Batang PBA is a project that lays the foundation of a future market with its youth orientation.

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The impact of Salud’s innovations was evident in live gate attendance and TV ratings. Last season, the PBA enjoyed four crowds of 20,000 each. This season, in the Philippine Cup alone, there were seven crowds of 20,000 each and Game 6 of the Finals drew a TV audience share of 53.7% with 5.4 million viewers.

The PBA’s support for the national basketball team is another landmark of Salud’s term. As the SBP’s most important affiliate, the PBA went all the way in allowing Gilas to pick its players for the FIBA-Asia Championships here last year. The effort didn’t go for naught as the Philippines took second place and booked a ticket to the FIBA World Cup in Spain this year, signalling the country’s return to the global stage after 36 years. With backing from the PBA Board, Salud has adjusted its schedule the rest of this season to allow more training time for Gilas in getting ready for Spain. The PBA also gave Gilas coach Chot Reyes a free hand to assemble a pool of players from the league’s ranks.

To celebrate the coming 40th anniversary, the PBA will announce an expanded list of its greatest players. There were 25 players named to the PBA’s 25th anniversary lineup of greatest players. An additional 15 will be chosen to make up the 40th anniversary cast. The 25 players are Johnny Abarrientos, Bogs Adornado, Ato Agustin, Francis Arnaiz, Ricardo Brown, Alan Caidic, Hector Calma, Philip Cezar, Atoy Co, Jerry Codiñera, Kenneth Duremdes, Bernie Fabiosa, Ramon Fernandez, Danny Florencio, Abet Guidaben, Freddie Hubalde, Sonny Jaworski, Jojo Lastimosa, Lim Eng Beng, Samboy Lim, Ronnie Magsanoc, Vergel Meneses, Manny Paner, Alvin Patrimonio and Benjie Paras.

Of the 25, 17 have been inducted into the PBA Hall of Fame – Adornado, Arnaiz, Caidic, Calma, Cezar, Co, Fernandez, Florencio, Guidaben, Hubalde, Jaworski, Lim Eng Beng, Lim, Magsanoc, Paner, Patrimonio and Paras.  Only 10 of the 25 never won an MVP award – Arnaiz, Calma, Codiñera, Fabiosa, Florencio, Lastimosa, Lim Eng Beng, Lim, Magsanoc and Paner so that while an MVP is a shoo-in to join the roster of greatest players, a non-MVP is not automatically disqualified.

In selecting the 40 greatest players with 25 seeded legends, shoo-ins are 10 MVPs awaiting elevation. They are Arwind Santos, Mark Caguioa, Jimmy Alapag, James Yap, Jay-Jay Helterbrand, Kelly Williams, Willie Miller, Eric Menk, Asi Taulava and Danny Ildefonso – all of whom are still actively playing.  So the mystery is who the five remaining players will be to complete the cast of 40.

With the 40th anniversary coming up, the PBA can only look forward to bigger things, bigger games, bigger teams and bigger crowds.  The future is wide open for the league which has become a way of life for all Filipinos.