THE PBA stands for Philippine Basketball Association?
Wrong.
Well, correction.
It used to be that. The league’s founding fathers had decreed that in 1975.
Today, 40 years later and with four of its esteemed commissioners having dribbled off to the Great Beyond, PBA stands for Physical Basketball Association. If they all turn in their graves for that, uwaa!
Look what’s been happening in the league thus far.
Players continue to get hurt now in seeming wild abandon. Mostly, as a result of player physicality.
Only very recently, a nonplayer had fallen prey to a player’s brazen display of a bump-and-run tactic that stunned a public not used to seeing Ugly American stuff.
In Game Two of the ongoing PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals, Yeng Guiao fell forcefully on the seat of his pants, after getting himself sideswiped by a human 10-wheeIer in the form of an Ivan Johnson.
Is Ivan The Terrible risen from the grave?
It looked like boxing. But it can’t be, because Guiao wasn’t in shorts but in street clothes, and wasn’t wearing Cleto Reyes gloves.
To those not in the know, Guiao is the coach of Rain or Shine.
And who is Johnson? He isn’t just Talk ‘N Text’s import; he is also today’s most intimidating import, looks-wise.
OK, we go now to shapes and sizes.
Johnson is inches short of 7 feet. In the periphery of 250 pounds.
Guiao is not even 5-foot-8. Weighs 150 lb, more or less.
Before he felled Guiao, Johnson pretended not seeing the standing Rain or Shine coach near the bench. He was looking the other way when he bulldozed poor Yeng with a massive shoulder takedown.
Guiao saw himself got thrown away and, thank God, he suffered no major injuries.
Johnson was slapped a foul, when he should have been immediately thrown out.
The next day, the papers reported not only Rain or Shine’s 116-108 victory over TNT that leveled the series at 1-1. In the news also was Johnson getting fined P150,000.
A while back, import Rolando Balkman from Puerto Rico strangled Arwind Santos, his own teammate at San Miguel. For this, he was yanked out, never to be allowed back into the league for the rest of his life.
Why Johnson was not meted the same, it is not for me to say.
Just last Sunday, Johnson was at it again.
Johnson did not just foul Paul Lee, Rain or Shine’s most lethal weapon. Johnson also knocked off Lee’s two front teeth.
But the warrior that he’s been famously known for since his tough-kid days in Tondo, Lee emerged from the dugout and, despite a bloodied mouth and gum, he continued to play. He even scored several points more to help lift Rain or Shine to a 109-97 win for a 2-1 Painter lead in the best-of-seven series.
I pray and hope that in Paul Lee, we are not seeing here a Pancho Villa, the boxing legend from Iloilo who died fighting after having his tooth extracted just days before he climbed the ring?
Shouldn’t officials be wary, especially in the wake of Lee’s pronouncements, that he’d play again today, declaring, “I’d like to finish the series and help my team win the title.”
Enough of bloodletting, please.
Or, are we again set to see the PBA transformed from Physical Basketball Association to Philippine Bloody Association?
The Red Cross watches on the fringes.
THAT’S IT. People keep asking me: “Why did Robert Jaworski, as a leading figure in the Selection Committee, allow active players to be in the PBA’s Top 40 players?” This space is open for you, Big J.