By JONAS TERRADO, With a report from Tito Talao
The start of a PBA season usually has an air of optimism and excitement, with many eager to see how the best of the best, how neophytes fair in the new chapter of their basketball careers and which teams will likely contend in the season’s first and most prestigious tournament, the Philippine Cup.
But there will likely be a different tone today when the league kicks off its 43rd season at the Smart Araneta Coliseum following a tumultuous offseason that put the country’s premier sports association on the brink of complete division over a decision to green light a perceived one-sided trade.
Questions still linger whether or not the PBA Board of Governors has already resolved the burning issue of Chito Narvasa’s tenure as commissioner, as the league refrained from addressing the impasse that turned the board from a group asked to agree as one into a divided bloc engaged in a turf war.
“May right venue naman and time yan na sasabihin namin,” said PBA Communications and External Affairs head Willie Marcial before the Q&A portion of the presscon began at Okada Manila in Parañaque City.
The team governors did try to display a show of unity in the gathering, sharing a roundtable as they discussed what to expect in the coming season. The effects of their bitter contention over Narvasa’s tenure remain palpable, though, even to a smaller degree.
As they took the spotlight during the half-hour session, Narvasa was in another roundtable located at the far of the function room, a far cry from past events where he usually took centerstage.
He made himself the ire of seven teams in late-October by allowing Kia to send its right to pick first in the PBA Rookie Draft to San Miguel for Ronald Tubid, Jay-R Reyes and Rashawn McCarthy, players who spent most of the past season on the bench, with an additional future draft choice to sweeten the deal.
Interestingly, the governors themselves unanimously expressed their support to whatever decision Narvasa would arrive at on the eve of his announcement that the trade was a go. But even this was swept under the avalanche of protest that followed.
The Beermen, already blessed with a talented core of players that includes four-time MVP June Mar Fajardo, became a more superior squad by using the pick to grab Christian Standhardinger, the Fil-German who had captured the imagination of basketball followers following his performance with Gilas Pilipinas in two international tournaments.
It triggered the three teams owned by Manny V. Pangilinan – TNT KaTropa, Meralco and NLEX – along with Alaska, Rain or Shine, Blackwater and Phoenix, in voting for the non-renewal of Narvasa’s contract and appointing Deputy Commissioner for Operations Rickie Santos as Officer-in-Charge.
The voting apparently was done without the presence of five ballclubs made up of the SMC Group – San Miguel, Barangay Ginebra and Magnolia – and its allies GlobalPort and Kia, calling the move “whimsical.”
The warring parties eventually agreed on a truce and a gag order, stating their desire to resolve their divisions behind the scenes. A planning session in Los Angeles with the hope of having the issues fixed never materialized, though backchannel discussions and secret meetings ensued in the weeks and months that followed.
Wednesday’s press conference would have been the perfect avenue for the board to deliver the good news. However, those who had hoped to hear one were left hanging.
Narvasa is expected to remain commissioner by the time the centers of San Miguel and Phoenix had completed the ceremonial toss this evening. Santos, the majority group’s appointed OIC, is dealing with an illness while the board remains mum if they had already found a win-win solution.
“Any internal problem or whatever that we have, we will deal with it internally, within ourselves, within the 12 of us,” said GlobalPort owner Mikee Romero, who had been asked to stay on as chairman before he formally turns the post over to NLEX governor Ramoncito Fernandez.
Added Fernandez: “What the board promises you is we will have a more exciting year and we’ll continue to delight the millions of fans of the PBA.”
And if the board makes good on the promise to make the new season an exciting one, the question is whether it would happen under Narvasa’s watch. Or whoever’s.