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Mendoza: Japeth joke happily ends in big laugh
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SubscribeI JUST raised a glass to Japeth Aguilar.
By deciding, finally, to play for Burger King, he restored my faith in the Filipino’s ability to honor his word.
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A big laugh even – with a forked tongue?
A quick flashback.
Japeth, the 6-foot-10 son of the former national player himself, the now US-based Peter, was Burger King’s No. 1 choice during the PBA Draft Pick.
Almost instantly after the fact, Burger King’s top gun Lito Alvarez offered Japeth the maximum deal of P8.7 million over a three-year contract to suit up as a Whopper.
Bizarrely, and almost in an instant, too, Japeth balked.
“I’ve changed my mind,” Japeth said. “I now want to play for the Philippine Team.”
What’s this, a charade? Moro-moro?
Hey, this is not an inter-color event we are dealing with here.
This is the PBA, a 35-year-old institution that holds the distinction of being Asia’s first play-for-pay league — among many distinctions.
Japeth’s U-Turn had cost him the specter of an automatic two-year ban in the PBA.
It could have been worse since Alvarez, the current PBA chair, had seriously moved for an indefinite ban on Japeth.
League rules say a player turning his back on draft procedures would earn him a minimum of two years stay in the freezer.
And, after he had served out his sentence, he would have to deal anew with the drafting team – in this case for Japeth, it’d be Burger King again.
So, there’s really no way out for Japeth.
Like a prisoner, the key to Japeth’s jail cell is Burger King.
Japeth could only go to another team on Burger King’s say-so.
And it could take forever.
So, if Burger King would decide to be heartlessly cruel, it could make it a lifetime ban for Japeth.
Thus, the message being hammered through here is, no one messes around with the PBA and gets away with it scot-free.
Figuratively, you try to commit murder in the PBA, and you get collared even before you could start hatching up your evil plan.
The PBA has mastered everything that nobody gets away with any sort of crime one is trying to concoct. Not even a whispering whimper aimed at a referee’s rueful call.
And so, by conceding, cheers to Japeth as he has sent the right signal: You can’t win against the PBA.
Not even by a whisker.
Feedback: Your views and reactions
Wow. Please bear in mind
Wow.
Please bear in mind that Japeth has not yet signed any contract that binds him to play for BK. You speak of the PBA as if it's bigger than it's players or even the fans.
BK made a bonehead decision in letting go of Santos before even signing Aguilar. Talk about counting your chicks before your eggs hatches. As Aguilar stated, he did not cross any rules. By not signing with BK, BK will have the rights to him for the next 2 years. Which is fair since if a player gets drafted by a team and that team does not offer him a contract, he gets released to the free agent pool with nothing to hold against the team.
The concession that was done (through MVP) was all for show. They knew Aguilar wouldn't be happy to play with BK so to save face, BK Management drew a plan so ship Japeth to a team that's MVP-controlled that will subsequently release him to Gilas.
If you try to see it from an unbiased standpoint, all this was just another PBA team bullying a player that it thought it had in its hands and when the player decided to play for flag and country and also for a better coach, it snapped and unleashed hell on the player.