Hawkins not unreasonable

Former Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) executive director Sonny Barrios phoned yesterday to share his views on Bong Hawkins’ contract dispute with FedEx.

Barrios said he felt an obligation to come out in public because it was during his watch as PBA officer-in-charge last year when the impasse struck a sour note on the relations between Hawkins and FedEx.

Hawkins, 35, signed a four-year uniform players contract (UPC) to play for Tanduay starting 2001. He also signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that outlined a slew of perks and incentives to sweeten the deal.

The MOA, which contained an exit clause after two years or starting 2003, was submitted to the PBA for approval. Then-PBA Commissioner Jun Bernardino rejected the MOA because it went against salary cap rules. The MOA was returned to Tanduay for repair work but was never revised, to the PBA’s knowledge. In effect, the MOA was unenforceable because it was "defective" and "flawed," according to the PBA.

When FedEx bought Tanduay’s franchise, it assumed all obligations, including Hawkins’ contract.

Last year, Barrios said FedEx team manager and Air21 president Lito Alvarez tried to negotiate a payout of Hawkins’ contract. He offered a P2.1 Million settlement to release FedEx from the obligation of paying the last three years of the Tanduay contract, amounting to P13.8 Million. Hawkins bargained for P4.5 Million. Barrios said Alvarez wouldn’t budge. As it turned out, FedEx wound up paying Hawkins what was stipulated in his UPC for the year 2002–a total of P4.2 Million.

Barrios said under the circumstances, he advised Alvarez to keep Hawkins in FedEx’ active roster so at least, the player could be used for practice or for promotional purposes or actual games. Alvarez, however, decided to drop Hawkins, making him an unrestricted free agent. The problem was although Hawkins was no longer in FedEx’ lineup, he remained in the payroll under the conditions of his UPC. FedEx would only be relieved of paying Hawkins if another team signs him up.

This year, Alvarez tried to exercise FedEx’ rights to rescind Hawkins’ contract by applying the exit clause in his MOA with Tanduay. But PBA Commissioner Noli Eala ruled that since the MOA is not enforceable, FedEx must live by the conditions in Hawkins’ UPC. The PBA Board of Governors turned in a majority vote to support Eala’s position.

In the wake of Eala’s ruling, Alvarez offered Hawkins a P2.7 Million payout, later raised to P3 Million net. Hawkins is due P9.6 Million in the last two years of his contract but sent word he would accept 70 percent of the amount. He subsequently reduced his price to P5 Million.

"The FedEx offer was relayed to Hawkins shortly before last Tuesday’s Board meeting," said Barrios. "If only FedEx had agreed to pay P4.5 Million last year, it wouldn’t have come to this. Hawkins is not unreasonable. There’s a P2 Million difference in what he’s asking for and what FedEx is offering. I’m willing to help in the negotiations to put this to an end. Nobody benefits from prolonging this problem."

Alvarez said FedEx acted in good faith in abiding by the MOA conditions which he pointed out, were upheld in Hawkins’ first year at Tanduay. He stressed FedEx will never go to court against the PBA despite the ruling. If at all, FedEx will sue Tanduay to be relieved of the burden of paying the last two years of Hawkins’ contract. It’s in Hawkins’ interest to compromise because a court case will mean a long delay before he is able to receive any more money from FedEx or Tanduay.

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Reflecting on the recent Talk ‘N’ Text-Red Bull farce, former Asian Basketball Confederation (ABC) secretary-general Moying Martelino recalled that in 1993, Chinese-Taipei and North Korea played to lose in an elimination round game in Jakarta.

The reward for a win was advancing to play powerhouse China in the same quarterfinals bracket so it made no sense for the Taiwanese and North Koreans to go for a victory, said Martelino.

After two warnings from referees to play to win, Martelino stepped in and stopped the farce with about nine minutes left in the first half and Chinese-Taipei on top, 11-7.

"It was ridiculous," recounted Martelino. "They were throwing the ball away deliberately, fouling without purpose. Obviously, neither team wanted to win. I called it off on my authority as ABC secretary-general and ruled a default with no point awarded to either team in the standings. We later fined each team $5,000 and decided any team playing to lose in the future would be relegated to last place, in effect, eliminating it from contention."

Martelino stressed the integrity of the game must always be upheld. "No team can ever make a mockery of the rules," he said. "In the PBA’s case, the game was finished. In the ABC’s case, it wasn’t."

The other difference in both cases was in the ABC both teams were out to lose. In the PBA, Talk ‘N’ Text’s ultimate goal was to win by eight points–it shot at Red Bull’s basket for a chance to make the spread in a possible overtime.

Still, both games left a black imprint in the history of basketball.

Eala said teams should always play within the rules, not play with the rules.

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Talk ‘N’ Text assistant coaches Ariel Vanguardia and Virgil Villavicencio are both La Salle products working for an Atenean boss, Manuel Pangilinan.

In 1991-93, Vanguardia played on La Salle’s farm team with the likes of Matt Makalintal and Noynoy Falcasantos. He never made it to the Archers regular roster despite toiling for two years in the second squad under Antonio Mendoza and Jun Tiongco. La Salle’s varsity coach then was Gabby Velasco whose assistant was–believe it or not–Villavicencio.

The youngest of nine children, Vanguardia earned a business management degree at La Salle in 1994, worked two years as a salesman for Wyeth and operated a family printing press before breaking into basketball as varsity coach Bong Go’s assistant at St. Benilde in 1997. The next year, St. Benilde sent Vanguardia to the US to attend coaching clinics for 1 1/2 months at Indiana under Bobby Knight, Duke under Mike Krzyzewski and Stanford under Mike Montgomery. He was recruited by Louie Alas as an assistant coach for the Manila team in the defunct Metropolitan Basketball Association in 1999.

When Alas joined Mobiline, now Talk ‘N’ Text, in 2000, Vanguardia coached the Metrostars to a 3-1 record as interim head coach then left to join the Phone Pals. Coincidentally, Vanguardia also posted a 3-1 record for the Phone Pals in the PBA Invitational Championships.