Going ’international’ would do pro league better

By Dennis Principe
Business Mirror
September 10, 2007

Amiable Red Bull team manager Tony Chua wants nothing but the best not only for the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) but for Philippine basketball as well.

Chua recently assumed his post as the PBA’s new chairman, succeeding Ricky Vargas of Talk ‘N Text.

“Perhaps I’m a little nervous because I’ve never been a chairman in my entire life. Thankfully I’ve learned from previous chairmen like Ricky Vargas, Buddy Encarnado [of Sta. Lucia] and Ely Capacio [then of Purefoods],” disclosed Chua.

In mapping out his strategies for the league, Chua will try to instill not only among players, coaches and team and league officials but also to Filipino basketball fans about the potentially exciting qualities of international rules.

“I’ve been telling other teams that we should get European imports for us to get an idea of how they play,” said Chua. “In Europe we can find the best players because they now have the world caliber players.”

Chua maintains that his dream of seeing European players play in the league will just be a request to the other team members and will not be a mandatory order from the league.

“It is the prerogative of the team which import to get but since we are already involved in the efforts to reinforce the national team, we might as well get those who could help us adapt to international plays,” said Chua.

Chua is adamant FIBA rules will eventually be appreciated by Filipino basketball fans as opposed to longstanding beliefs that the adoption of international rules will not be beneficial to the league.

“True, the PBA is about entertaining people but we also saw that fans are excited about international [plays] because they often get to see international tournaments on TV,” said Chua.

Chua said that because the league still attained success at the gates since it enforced a FIBA-friendly calendar two years ago, he sees no struggle for the league should it implement certain FIBA game rules.

“That’s the reason why we changed our calendar, to take part in international competitions. I think it’s also about time to make adjustments to FIBA rules” added Chua.

Sometime this month, the PBA board will convene in Macau where the adoption of FIBA rules will be tackled.

Recently, a committee was formed to specify FIBA rules that will be used in the coming PBA season.

Rough welcome

Chua recently took his seat as chairman but was welcomed rather brusquely as he started his tenure with the league still reeling from the unenthusiastic impact of the controversial resignation of commissioner Noli Eala.

Early last month, Eala formally announced his resignation as league commissioner almost a week after a decision favoring his disbarment as practicing lawyer was meted out by the Supreme Court.

“It’s a challenge for us in the PBA. Right now we are forming a search committee to determine who will be the permanent commissioner,” added Chua. “But right now we haven’t settled on the criteria in selecting our permanent commissioner.”

Nearly a week after Eala’s resignation, the PBA named Renauld “Sonny” Barrios as officer-in-charge.

Barrios temporarily took over as league boss when former commissioner Jun Bernardino had to undergo a major heart operation in 2001.

At the end of the 2003 season, Barrios was one of the candidates to succeed Bernardino but eventually lost out to Eala.

Lucky Tony

Chua admitted he was in an uneasy situation after Eala resigned as he knew all the responsibilities will fall on his lap.

“Of course, as incoming chairman I hold all the responsibilities,” revealed Chua.

Good for him, Chua added, that he learned a lot of things from his predecessors in running the affairs of the league.

“They have their own styles and I’m lucky I learned a lot from their tenure,” admitted Chua. “I was really concerned about the resignation of Eala because I had nowhere to turn to. Basically it looked like I would have to do everything.”

Another factor Chua said that is making work easy for him was the availability of Barrios as OIC of the league.

“I’m so blessed because everything is blazing in the sky for me. When Eala resigned, we were about to get Sonny Barrios. So everything has been ironed out for me to sit as chairman,” said Chua. “I really talked to Sonny and I told him that my first agenda is to do something good for the officiating. In a matter of one day we addressed the problem.”

Better officiating

Chua’s other longstanding desire is to improve the officiating of the league, something that he intends to feverishly work on while he is chairman.

Chua feels it is one factor that will help a lot in maintaining and eventually improving the excitement of the games from the point of view of the basketball fans.

“If we come out with a fair and consistent officiating people will come out and continue to support the league because they know there’s nothing rigged about the games,” said Chua. “Even on TV when they watch the games, they know that everything is for real and the officiating is okay.”

Although Chua would rather not dwell on the quality officiating the past few years, he just wants to focus on improving the quality of referees.

In taking over as OIC, Barrios revealed that his one major concern is the nagging issue about officiating.

One of the requests Barrios asked from Vargas is to allow him to bring in lawyer Chito Salud, son of former PBA commissioner Rudy Salud.

“It’s one critical area that we should focus on since this is our main thrust, how the games are played. The games are rules and regulations-based,” said the 60-year-old Barrios. “Atty. Chito [Salud] can definitely help along that line. The players should be able to play their game. Referees shouldn’t be onion-skinned and vindictive.”

One of the elder Salud’s many legacies that made him a successful commissioner was his handling of the league’s officiating.

When Salud took over as commissioner, he revamped almost half of the roster of referees and replaced them with more competent game officials.

Working chairman

“The way I look at it, even governors should participate in the day-to-day works to improve the operation of the PBA,” said Chua. “It’s not that nothing was happening before but I want to be known as a working chairman.”

A program that Chua wants to achieve is the establishment of a PBA dome that will serve as the league’s permanent home.

“Its definitely a good program for the league but I will admit it’s still far-fetched. But if ever there are development under my chairmanship, definitely we will push through with it,” disclosed Chua. “I will open that to the board and we’ll see how far development plans go.”

Chua said he intends to complete whatever projects that were started by Vargas and will also set up more significant plans under his watch that will also turn out to be a good jump-start for the next chairman.

“There are so many things lacking in the league. As a chairman I have the right to propose and then convene the board as long as the idea is something that is for the betterment of the league,” added Chua.

Chua’s involvement in the Photokina franchise has something to do with his friendship with team owner George Chua.

“I was not employed with Photokina before. It just so happened that George and I are childhood friends and schoolmates in Letran,” revealed Chua. “We’re both fond of football and that’s where our tie-up began, until I told George, as part of the advertising of Agfa, let’s go into basketball.”

Chua is hopeful that under his term, the PBA will continue to reap the fruits of its laborious but victorious battle against various crises in the past and that it will spill over in their quest to gain international respectability.