Player agent tells story behind story

(First of two parts)

It’s been more than a week since La Salle admitted to the public that it has fielded an ineligible player in the UAAP. The player in question has been with the team for two years and was part of the champion team in 2004. As a result, La Salle has volunteered to return the trophy, which might end up in the hands of the FEU Tamaraws, the losing finalists that year.

La Salle has formed an investigating committee that was tasked to dig deep into the controversy, which has threatened to rock the foundations of the 68-year-old UAAP. It is now highly believed that the practice of fielding ineligible players has been going on for years now, not only with La Salle but probably the other competing schools as well. Or even in its rival league, the NCAA.

Things are just expected to get worse as the number grows. And it is. Just the other day, reports came out that the controversial case does not only involve one player, often described or identified as Mark Benitez, but two or even three more. As the La Salle investigation slowly moves on, more speculations arise and more problems, or so it seems, now remain to be solved.

On condition of anonymity, a player agent, one of the finest in the country, talked about the raging controversy. Knowing the ins and outs of amateur basketball and even in the professional ranks, he shared with The STAR his thoughts on such possibilities, on how things are done by some schools and how the players may end up being crucified when in fact, they have become unwilling victims themselves, in their schools’ bid to win it all – at all costs.

Here’s what the player agent has to say:

Star: Can you share us your thoughts on the issue?

PA: The difference between the pro leagues and the collegiate leagues is that in the PBA or the PBL, the players go through the draft while in the UAAP or the NCAA, it’s finders’ keepers. So if a school discovers a good talent but the player is lacking in academic requirements, they find ways to fix it. That’s what they do.

There are those who get away. In fact, I think there are those who already got away. But there must be strong connections from the inside. The players cannot act alone. Because everything is computerized now and your school records can all be opened through the computer.

So even before the results of such exams are released, some enterprising members of some schools like liaison officers or assistant coaches — they befriend the ones handling the computers. Then failing grades can be adjusted to passing grades.

Star: Are the players liable?

PA: The players don’t have anything to do with it.

They’re not the ones doing it but the schools. You can even say that the players are the victims here. There are some very good players who will not or cannot make it if they go through the complete process. Some of them are really weak academically.

I haven’t done this for any of my players but I know that there are some who get away with it. Some schools do it even to high school players. For example, they discover and manage to lure a fourth-year, they will enroll that student in their school as third-year student. By doing this, they can make use of him for two years in the juniors division while the player completes his residency. Why enroll him straight to college and not make use of him for two years while he is completing his residency?

So after two years playing in high school, he can play outright in the seniors division once he steps into college. Parang nag-repeat lang ng year ang student.

What could be more wrong is if you try to accelerate him to a higher year.

Star: You mean the UAAP battle begins with the recruitment of players?

PA: Yes. The schools are just making sure that talents they’ve discovered will not end up being taken by the others. Sometimes, even those completing residency are still being snatched by other schools with better offers. So a very good high school player can start getting benefits.

Star: And La Salle exposing the anomaly?

PA: I think exposing this case was not entirely the initiative of La Salle. You know, Mark Benitez came from JRU (Jose Rizal University) and maybe there were some feelers from JRU that someone has started asking some questions about the player. So they jumped the gun on them by announcing that they have discovered discrepancies on the papers of a player or two.

Somehow, may link ang JRU and La Salle because there are already a number of JRU players who end up playing for La Salle in the UAAP. Like Marc Cardona. Parang nagkaka-tulungan sila sa recruitment ng players.

And since La Salle claims that exposing the news was their own initiative, then they might as well announce later that they’ve found another, then another one when sub-consciously, they already know who these players are.

Star: Who would know of such actions?

PA: Even the coaches should know. But probably they did not participate in it. But they should know. Like (La Salle coach) Franz Pumaren, I think he knew it.

Because if you’re my player and I’m your manager, the first person I will approach is the coach. And he will ask you to join practice and tell me that ‘okay, he’s good."