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THE
Philippine Basketball League (PBL) isn’t too cozy with
the “apprenticeship program” being hatched by the
Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).
Virgilio
Angeles, chairman of the PBL, yesterday said the pro
league’s plan to allow top amateur players to “train”
with its teams while its top stars serve on the national
team only profits the PBA.
“We are
committed to helping the national team program, but this
new proposal… benefits only the PBA as far as we can
tell,” Angeles said in a statement.
Nearly
all of the country’s top amateur and collegiate stars
play in the PBL, but the PBA’s offer for them to play in
its Fiesta Conference next month would rob RP’s top
commercial league of its top draws.
“We just
wish we were consulted by the PBA Commissioner [Noli
Eala] on this matter before they even made these
statements to the press,” said Angeles, who sits on the
PBL board in behalf of Toyota Otis. “It’s as if the PBL
does not even exist.”
He also
said the PBA’s statements about giving “better
compensation” to the players than what they are
receiving in the PBL “foments disinterest and unrest”
among the League’s talents—who would be moving on to the
pro loop anyway without the PBL’s objection.
“Most of
these players will be available for the [PBA] draft in
October, which is just months away,” said Angeles,
echoing the concerns of the PBL’s team owners.
“Most
only have one conference left with their PBL teams and
we look forward to them showing what they can do to the
PBA teams and their scouts. Do we really need to rush
them when so many other talented players are languishing
on their [PBA] reserve and free agent lists?”
Angeles,
a longtime associate of Toyota Otis team owner Atty. Rey
Oben, said the PBA’s coming shortage of stars may be the
opportunity for other young pro players who were
recently drafted to shine.
“But
because of the presence of so many great players in the
PBA, they are forced to wait,” he said.
“The PBA
has its own interests to protect and so do we,” the PBL
chairman added. “Our teams invest time, money and effort
to develop these young men into complete individuals
first and basketball players second. We then try to
inculcate in these players the proper values which
include patience, loyalty and respect.”
Angeles
said the pro league’s moves were sending the wrong
message to the PBL.
“It
seems the PBA did not even think of us as their partners
in the long-term development program of the sport,” he
said.
“Nearly
all their great players currently came from the PBL,
which only goes we are doing something right in
continuously providing new talent for the pro ranks.”
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