I THINK it’s just right if the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) moves its opening in May—or even at a later date.
Even better, it adopts the bubble platform again. With its success in 2020, I don’t see any reason why it won’t achieve the same results if and when it is done again this year.
With the pandemic’s rage not seen to die down that fast, it’s really high time that we take measures, drastic they may seem, to adapt to the virus’ penchant for viciousness.
While it is, indeed, expensive when it was held the first time at Clark—not to mention the mental and physical toll it brought to all the players, coaches and the entire PBA personnel all clustered in the bubble—it was all worth it in the end.
Money can be earned, but lost opportunities can be hard to recover. So, bite the bullet if need be. For the sake of the so-called basketball republic.
To quote PBA commissioner Willie Marcial: “April is off. We can’t do that anymore…Teams need at least two to three weeks to get in shape before we can even begin the season.”
And, if I may add another one: Let’s make it a one-conference season again? While two conferences are fine over a six-month period, the risks involved may prove too much in the end. But with just one conference, bigger are our chances to escape the wrath of the coronavirus.
Less movement, good. Less exposure, the better. Less contact, the best.
It’s not the quantity but the quality. With one conference, as in a Philippine Cup again, we even do away with imports. Imagine the expenses saved. Not to mention the rigors of health protocols these aliens will have to go through.
Simplification is the call of the times.
THAT’S IT With his recent nail-biting win in the Texas Open, Jordan Spieth is suddenly a force to reckon with in the Masters teeing off on Friday (PH time). Winless since his 2017 British Open victory, Spieth, 27, has become a wise-money bet in the first major of the year in Augusta, Georgia. His Masters triumph in 2015 at the age of 21 made Spieth an instant poster boy in golf. He followed that up with a US Open win in the same year before piling up 10 PGA Tour wins, capping his run by taking home the Claret Jug in the 2017 British Open for his 11th career victory. Then came his inexplicable slump lasting nearly four years. Now that he’s a winner again, expect the old Spieth to fly high anew, starting with the Masters…I bid farewell to my dear buddy, George Alcantara, who succumbed to Covid-19 Monday. He was the most trusted lieutenant of the late, lamented Rudy Salud, a former commissioner of the Philippine Basketball Association who wrote the PBA By-Laws and Constitution. Reunited in the Great Beyond, the duo will be all laughter and joy again.
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