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THE
Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) is devising a
plan to keep the best talent in the league and at the
same time fulfill its duty to the country.
PBA
commissioner Sonny Barrios said players who will be
selected for the national team for the 2009
International Basketball Federation (Fiba) Asia
qualifier in China won’t be pulled out in their
respective mother clubs.
The move
will assure the league that its superstars will remain
its top attraction next season to avoid the same mistake
the PBA encountered in its previous national team
engagements.
“They
[players] won’t be pulled out in the sense that they
will still play with their respective mother teams while
the tournament is ongoing,” Barrios told the
BusinessMirror Wednesday.
“Anyway,
magiging team naman sila sa July pa
next year at siguro once a week lang sila
magpa-practice as a team, depende sa plano
ng national team coach,” he added.
In the
past, the league allowed players to leave their
respective mother teams to concentrate on the national
squad.
The
practice was done during the time of Tim Cone in the
1998 Asian Games, Jong Uichico in the 2002 Asian Games
and Chot Reyes, when the PBA-backed nationals tried to
qualify for the Beijing Olympic Games in the 2007 Fiba
Asia qualifier in Tokushima, Japan.
The move
yielded negative results as the league suffered a
dramatic decline in gate attendance and television
ratings.
The
league is again committing itself to international
tournaments, hoping to qualify a squad for the World
Championship in Turkey in 2010, and Barrios said they
will make sure that they won’t encounter the same fate
again.
“We’re
learning from past experiences. It’s important for the
PBA to have these players dahil kailangang
protektahan din natin ang ating liga. But this does
not mean that we’re turning our backs sa ating
commitment sa national team,” he said.
Barrios
will meet former league board chairman Ricky Vargas
today at the Edsa Shangri-La Plaza Hotel to discuss
fundings for the national team.
The
Basketball Association of the Philippines-Samahang
Basketbol ng Pilipinas (BAP-SBP) was tasked to look for
sponsors of the national squad and Barrios will give the
first crack to PLDT, where Vargas is a top official.
“Mr.
Vargas knows the mindset of the PBA board [since] he was
a former chairman and, at the same time, alam din
niya ang mindset ng SBP dahil very
active din siya doon,” said Barrios.
“We’ll
have a brainstorming on how to tackle the funding issue
and hopefully, there will be a meeting of minds,” he
added.
Besides
Barrios, current board chairman Tony Chua and vice
chairman Joaqui Trillo will also attend the meeting. |
