The commish according to Sonny

By Beth Celis
Inquirer
Last updated 00:21am (Mla time) 09/30/2007

MANILA, Philippines--AFTER THE two-day directional meeting of the PBA board in Macau early this week, league followers should be closely monitoring the process involved in the selection of a permanent commissioner. But before we go to that, first things first.

Since the qualities of the commissioner will depend on the kind of company he will serve, the board will first have to decide if the league will turn corporate. Right now the PBA is classified as an association.

In Macau, the board agreed to hire an outfit that will evaluate the pros and cons of going corporate.

Chair Tony Chua of Red Bull said it is about 90 percent certain that the league will become a corporation. The evaluation is just like going through the process of due diligence, he pointed out.

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Tony said the criteria for choosing the commissioner, or the chief executive officer, will be determined by a five-man committee composed of himself, vice chair Joaqui Trillo, treasurer Robert Non and governors Ricky Vargas and Lito Alvarez.

The actual selection, however, will be done by the entire board.

“We do not have a short list yet. We will have to go back to square one. The floor is open for nominations. Anyone can nominate,” Tony explained.

Because the criteria have not been established, Tony said that even he does not have a specific candidate in mind as of now.

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Having served under four commissioners in the last two decades before the Noli Eala regime, OIC Sonny Barrios should know the qualities that would make an ideal PBA leader.

But before I popped the question, I thought it would only be proper if I asked Sonny if he was interested in the position he was presently occupying on a permanent basis.

Sonny’s reply: “I’m not going for the long haul. This is as far as I go. I can stay as long as they’re still looking for a commissioner, but nothing permanent.”

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If he were asked to join the selection committee, Sonny would have a ready list of his own criteria for choosing a commissioner. First, he said, the man must love sports.

“If not basketball, at least some other sport or sports in general. It doesn’t have to be love, interest will do. Because if you do not have this interest, you will not last.”

Second, Sonny said the commissioner must have management expertise, or corporate exposure, because he will be managing office and people. A knowledge of marketing will definitely help, he said.

“Remember our old slogan that said the PBA is more than just basketball? Well it is a business too, which means that the commissioner will have to be competent in every facet of the PBA.”

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For Sonny, the PBA commissioner should be a pretty exceptional guy with a well developed sense of fairness. His objectivity must be well-established because he has to be trusted by, in this case, l0 competing entities. “He should understand fully the uniqueness of the structure of the league where he is hired by a collegial body and can be fired by it. Lastly, he must be conscious of the league’s different publics which include the employees, the owners, the media and the paying public. He has to know the PBA’s reason for existence.”

Former commissioner Rudy Salud’s concept of the PBA is “Filipino basketball played by Filipino players for Filipinos in the Philippines.”

Hey, that sounds really profound. It says so much if you try to read between the lines.