PBA wary of cagers’ unauthorized stints

The Philippine Basketball Association will soon come up with a clear-cut policy regarding PBA ballclubs lending some of its players to the national team competing in various international competitions.

Commissioner Noli Eala made this announcement after FedEx players Omanzie Rodriguez and Mark Pingris were included in the Taipei-bound RP Jones Cup team without the knowledge of the PBA.

The RP team leaves for Taipei today for the Jones Cup tournament which starts tomorrow and ends Aug. 1. There’s no more stopping the two FedEx players from joining the trip.

"Just to make a clarification, FedEx never asked permission for the Jones Cup. The stints there of Omanzie Rodriguez and Mark Pingris are unauthorized so we will probably take action on this," said Eala.

The matter will be taken up when the PBA board meets on Monday. But there are no sanctions being considered against FedEx which has asked for leniency.

Eala said that while the PBA should not be totally blind to the needs of the national team, everything has to be within a program that is more or less comprehensive.

This would prevent situations where the national team can just choose and ask for players from generous PBA teams anytime they want.

"That’s not good because the PBA also has to protect some of its commercial interests as well as the players and so we need some point of order on this," said Eala, who is studying a proposal which he will present in the next board meeting.

Five other FedEx players are out of the country, carrying the colors of RP Lifan-FedEx in the ongoing 13th Super Kung Sheung Cup at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium in Hong Kong. They are Gerry Codiñera, Ren Ren Ritualo, Wayne Arboleda, John Ferriols and Yancy de Ocampo.

The presence of these PBA players, however, was not enough as the RP team absorbed a 21-point beating against USA Fukien, a team bannered by four American imports.

In this case, Eala said, the PBA had been properly informed.

"FedEx asked permission for the Hong Kong tournament. They said they’re really carrying the FedEx name anyway plus the fact that it’s something that they’ve been committed to a long time ago," said Eala.

Regarding the Jones Cup case, Eala said FedEx asked for a little leniency.

"The PBA in practice has not allowed this but again, since there’s no clear-cut policy we can be a little lenient in treating this situation at the moment. In fact, Mr. Lito Alvarez (FedEx team manager) told me that Mr. Bert Lina (FedEx team owner) was put in a bind in this one," said Eala.

Lina is one of the biggest supporters of amateur basketball. He is also president of the national cycling association, and there’s no question that he meant well in lending two of his players to the Jones Cup team.

The PBA, Eala stressed, has a clear-cut policy only as far as the lending of its players to the quadrennial Asian Games where it once signed a memorandum of agreement with the Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP).

"Mr. Alvarez told me they were just put into that situation where Mr. Lina is a patron of amateur basketball and they couldn’t say no. And he told me if there’s a clear-cut policy next time, they will really abide by it. And I said maybe at this time that there’s no clear-cut policy we can be a little lenient," Eala added.