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BEING
drafted into the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA)
is still well worth the wait, even if the league’s 10
teams are a bit stingier than before.
The 17
players taken in the annual rookie draft yesterday at
the Market! Market! Mall in
Taguig City, led by
Filipino-American forward Joe Devance, could expect
salaries of at least P50,000 monthly—if the teams that
picked them do sign them up to PBA contracts.
Despite
Asia’s first play-for-pay league declaring gross
earnings of P209 million for the past 2006-’07 season,
the money won’t exactly trickle down to the lottery
picks and the handful of undrafted hopefuls who became
free agents after the Sunday event.
During
the height of the PBA’s rivalry with the now-defunct
Metropolitan Basketball Association (MBA), a PBA
first-round draftee could expect a base pay of P150,000
monthly—triple the average salary of a high-ranking
corporate executive—exclusive of won-game bonuses and
practice-game allowances.
“Ngayon
e kung ano-ano na lang ang binibigay nila sa mga bata
[Now the teams just give any salary they want to the
players],” a veteran player agent told BusinessMirror,
asking he not be named.
The
agent, who saw one of his clients drafted in the second
round, said PBA teams used to give low draftees—meaning
from the middle first round onward—about P60,000 a
month, besides the perks that vary with each of the
league’s squads.
“Now
they’d be lucky to get 50 [thousand] plus bonuses and
allowances,” said the agent, who also disclosed that
even the won-game incentives could change from player to
player.
The high
picks like No. 1 Devance, who once played for the
University of Texas at El Paso, are assured of P150,000
a month plus bonuses that usually go for P4,000 per won
game in the eliminations, P6,000 in the semifinals and
P8,000 in the finals.
But less
heralded players who get drafted could get base salaries
of just above P50,000 plus half the won-game incentive
rates of the top four draftees, the veteran agent added.
The
unselected draft applicants, meanwhile, could apply as
practice players for the PBA squads and earn about
P20,000 a month, with the more generous franchises also
giving them money for each game the team wins, starting
at P1,500 for the eliminations.
“And
then, to boost their income, some of these players ask
permission from their PBA teams to also play in the PBL
[Philippine Basketball League],” the BusinessMirror
source said.
Compared
to PBL teams, however, the agent admitted that PBA squad
still paid their players substantially better, which is
why players still aspire to make it to the 33-year-old
pro loop after stints in the country’s top collegiate
leagues.
Being a
former varsity player for a University Athletic
Association of the Philippines (UAAP) or National
Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) school also gives
a PBA draft applicant an edge over others who aren’t,
the BusinessMirror source added.
As a
proof, he pointed out that 11 of the 17 picks in
yesterday’s rites—presided over by PBA officer-in-charge
Renauld “Sonny” Barrios—came from UAAP and NCAA
colleges, the highest being Ateneo’s JC Intal, drafted
fourth overall by Air21.
Teams,
however, could save on paying rookies by intentionally
passing on their turns in the draft and then signing up
any of the rookie free agents available, the agent
added.
Red
Bull, whose board representative Tony Chua is the
current league chairman, passed twice in yesterday’s
draft after taking UAAP Finals MVP Jojo Duncil with the
first of their three second-round picks. Talk ‘N Text,
whose board delegate Ricky Vargas is the outgoing PBA
chairman, made the other pass in the two-round drafting.
Healthy
cash flow
VARGAS,
meanwhile, is leaving the league in the black, recently
declaring that total PBA revenue rose P20 million in
2006-’07 from P189 million in the past season, while net
revenue climbed from P73 million to P75 million.
The
Phone Pals representative, picked Executive of the Year
by the PBA Press Corps in recent rites at the Bayview
Park Hotel, also said the league has P64.9-million cash
on hand, up from last year’s P62 million despite the
different investments and sacrifices the league has
entered into, such as its arena project and its support
of the national team that tried to qualify for the
Beijing Olympics.
Of the
league’s income, Vargas said they had paid P30 million
in taxes plus cash dividends to the national government.
“From
investing in iPBA and radio, to loaning of key players
to the National Team, resignation of our marketing head,
despite all these, we have no overdue accounts,
receivables have gone down and all teams have healthy
equity,” he said.
“We are
heavily investing for the future. We have already zeroed
in on the future home of the PBA coliseum in
Quezon City.
I am happy to say that a working committee of the Board
has been formed and is committed to see this through,”
Vargas added. |
