PBA returns to old format

03 September 2010

By Nelson Beltran (The Philippine Star)

MANILA, Philippines - Newly appointed PBA commissioner Chito Salud expects quality games throughout the coming season as non-bearing matches are likely to be eliminated on the league’s return to the old three-conference format.

“The stats show the gates suffer in a long elimination round. In a long elims, there are non-bearing games that are not attractive to the fans. We’ll try to remove that,” Salud told The STAR.

The PBA addressed that concern in mounting the league calendar for the 2010-11 season, which fires off next month.

The league reverts to its tried and tested three-conference format featuring one all-Filipino tourney and two import-reinforced conferences.

The 36th PBA season starts with a shortened Philippine Cup where the 10 teams play only 14 games each in the eliminations, then the top eight advance to the playoffs.

The elims will be inter-intra where the 10 teams are divided into two groups. Group-mates meet each other once and play the teams in the other group twice.

The bottom two after the preliminary round are automatically out, leaving eight teams to battle it out in the playoffs.

The top two carry a twice-to-beat advantage over the No. 7 and No. 8 teams in the quarterfinals. The other pairings – No. 3 versus No. 6 and No. 4 versus No. 5 – figure in a best-of-three series. The semis and the finals will be best-of-seven showdowns.



The two import-laden tourneys carry different formats.

Meanwhile, San Miguel Beer and B-MEG Derby Ace finally completed a trade transaction yesterday that sent Jonas Villanueva to the Llamados in exchange for Paul Artadi.

The sister ball clubs struck the deal with Air21 serving as conduit. The Express acquired Derby Ace’s 2014 first round pick in exchange for their 2013 second round pick.

At the same time, Air21 and Ginebra formalized their own deal that brought Billy Mamaril back to the Kings in exchange for a future pick.

In the second conference, the 10 teams figure in a single round robin affair in the elims with only six teams advancing to the playoffs.

The top two gain automatic semifinals entry with the next four settling for spots in two best-of-five quarterfinals matchups.

The third conference will have a different post-elims play format. After the one round robin elims, six teams advance to the next phase where they play another round, carrying over their elims win-loss records. A team which wins four of five games in the second round (regardless of their overall record) gets automatic playoff crack at a finals berth.

The first reinforced tourney will feature imports with the same height limitation. The other import-laden conference will adopt a height limitation handicapping system based on the performances of the teams in the first two conferences.

“I foresee a slam-bang affair from the elims to the finals with these formats,” said Salud.

“We’ll really try to meet the expectation of our fans in terms of quality of the games. In terms of maximizing the potential of the players, we’ll allow them to play their game,” said Salud.

The Final Score: The pulsating and puzzling PBA draft

30 August 2010

The rookie draft is supposed to answer questions, not create more of it when the day’s done. We ask about prospects weeks before draft and expect resolutions by the time the twenty-first over-all pick slips into a PBA team jacket. The 2010 PBA Draft, however, played out like an episode of Lost. We set out looking for answers, only to plunge into some bizarre parallel universe built by the Dharma Initiative.

By making Nonoy Baclao the first over-all pick, Air 21 raised eyebrows the way Venus Raj did when she blurted out “Major Major". They did what? She said what? And inquiring minds started to purr like engines. Rabeh Al-Hussaini’s perplexed brain was roaring like a Shelby Mustang. We were 99% sure Al-Hussaini, the most dominant big man in the draft, would go number one. Air 21, however, is never afraid to turn that one percent into one big move.

Baclao was stunned but thankful. Al-Hussaini was stunned but baffled. If this is a television series, we’re only in episode one. Yet Air 21 already hurled its best curveball during the first at-bat of a 9-inning game.

Now what?

If there’s anything the 2009 Japeth Aguilar saga taught us, it’s that we wait. Figuring out Aguilar’s next move before, during and after last year’s PBA Draft was like predicting the final verdict of a pendulum. What we find out today may not matter much tomorrow. Besides, it’ll be more fun to watch events unfold in a September more topsy-turvy than Ronald Tubid on ten cups of coffee.

Wanting to know if Baclao and Al-Hussaini will start the season in Air 21 uniforms isn’t so much a product of naughty thinking as it is a result of a franchise’s reputation. Air 21 isn’t averse to wheeling and dealing. They’re not afraid to surprise. Call them business-savvy. Or call them bold. While others look down on Air 21’s penchant for sending away prized recruits (remember Japeth, Jay-Wash and Mac-Mac?), there are those who see merit in Air 21’s PBA business model.

The goal of every team is to win. The concept of winning, however, is relative. When PBA teams enter into agreement, as most business deals go, trust that it’s always a win-win proposition. It may look lopsided on the surface. But teams have wants. Teams have needs. Some teams want to win regardless of monetary demands. Some teams need to compete without breaking one piggy bank too many. Some teams want to do good business and the PBA is a business. And some teams just need to financially survive.

Air 21 may or may not have started a chain reaction which will send any or all of their high-profile picks somewhere else. Fans are just as intrigued with the chances of John Wilson and Jimbo Aquino with Ginebra. Teams will manage their picks based on priorities. Hence, Sunday’s proceedings only mark the beginning of busy times ahead.

And now all we can do is wonder. All we can do is wait. -- GMANews.TV