THE newspapers say many of our governors in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) are having a grand vacation of sorts in Los Angeles, California, USA.
Nothing wrong there. They have every right to do that.
But then, isn’t their American trip supposed to be anchored on the league’s Planning Session for the next PBA season?
I pray, they won’t deviate from that. They mix business with pleasure and that’s all very fine; some are with their family members, anyways.
But look, if reports are to be believed, four of the 12 PBA governors are unaccounted for in LA.
As of yesterday, not a shadow of governors Pato Gregorio of TNT KaTropa, Mamerto Mondragon of Rain or Shine and Raymond Zorilla of Phoenix Petroleum could be seen.
Incoming chairman Ramoncito Fernandez of NLEx is nowhere to be found, too.
The four are part of the seven governors whose bid to remove Chito Narvasa as PBA commissioner got deflected by governors Robert Non of San Miguel Beer, Rene Pardo of Star, Alfrancis Chua of Barangay Ginebra, Erick Arejola of GlobalPort and Bobby Rosales of Kia.
Thus, of the seven governors that were anti-Narvasa, only governors Dickie Bachmann of Alaska, Silliman Sy of Blackwater and Ryan Gregorio of Meralco have showed up in LA.
But with the presence of the three pro-MVP (Manuel V. Pangilinan) faction, plus the five pro-RSA (Ramon S. Ang) group, the league has a quorum (eight-of-12) and can, thus, transact business in its five-day Planning Session.
For example, they can proceed to ratify the December 17 opening of Season 43.
But the Narvasa case could prove divisive?
Since the lines had been clearly drawn even before they flew to LA, I guess the status quo would prevail: Narvasa—unless he resigns before or during the Planning Session—is commissioner until his term expires on December 31.
Now, another headache for the league could crop up if the five pro-Narvasa governors would prove stubborn and insist on retaining Narvasa as commissioner beyond December 31.
Should that ensue, the seven anti-Narvasa governors’ patience would be put to a severe test.
And the PBA could be thrown into a major crisis, its very existence put on the line.
That’s the last thing the league needs.
THAT’S IT San Beda College (SBC) guns for its 11th National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) crown in 13 years tomorrow against Lyceum. The Red Lions are definitely the favorites this time after beating the Pirates, 94-87, in Game One in the best-of-three Finals. Not only did San Beda show championship experience in that contest, but also unleash a player as gutsy as Rob Bolick. Bolick helped overhaul a 12-point SBC deficit to spoil Lyceum’s breakthrough Finals win since the Pirates entered the NCAA in 2011. Bolick, beaten by Lyceum’s CJ Perez for the Most Valuable Player plum, fired 9 of San Beda’s last 11 points, crippling what was left of Lyceum’s lame resistance coming home. Perez played big with 25 points as against Bolick’s 24, but CJ started a bit slow and lacked a finishing kick needed badly at crunch time.