PBA game storyehad psorts

MANILA, Philippines — Will Pinoy fans see an In-Season Tournament in the PBA similar to the one introduced by the NBA recently?

Commissioner Willie Marcial said Asia’s first play-for-play league is open to the idea of the PBA’s own version of the “NBA Cup” competition.

“Tinitignan natin ‘yung ginawa ng NBA,” Marcial said on the possibility of following the lead of the foremost hoops league.

He stressed there’s a lot of factors to consider if the PBA were to squeeze in an In-Season meet in its calendar.

“Titignan natin kung may oras tayo at kung magagawa natin nang maganda,” he said.

The NBA Cup was a tournament within the regular season where the 30 teams were divided into six groups and played a single-round robin, leading to the quarterfinals, semis and a one-game final. The records in the In-Season tournament will count in the regular season standings.

As champions of the inaugural NBA Cup, each Lakers player won $500,000.

Marcial also mentioned the pro league’s commitment to Gilas Pilipinas’ upcoming campaigns, which would make it even harder to make room for a Cup slate at least in the ongoing Season 48.

“May mga qualifying for (FIBA) World Cup. Hindi pa natin alam ilang PBA players ang gagamitin. Tignan natin,” he said.

Veteran Gabe Norwood recently suggested a local version of the NBA’s In-Season Tournament, which was held Nov. 3 to Dec. 9 and won by the Lakers.

“I came up with the idea of possibly having the All-Filipino Conference be the In-Season Tournament. So you basically have conferences - the Governors’, the Commissioner’s - but every Wednesday is All-Filipino tournament day,” Norwood said in a recent episode of the Let It Fly podcast on YouTube.

“All the teams play. You put the SMC group in one group, MVP in a group, you got your independent (teams), you scatter however you want. The top teams out of each group come out, the second place in each group has to play in a round robin, however, you want to play it.

“It comes down to scheduling, but just maximizing playing days, also giving imports time to rest. One day out of the week, it’s All-Filipino day,” he added.