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Saturday, September 03, 2005
Eala, PBA guv clash on status of national cage team
Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) commissioner Noli Eala, on one side, and league-governor Lito Alvarez, Buddy Encarnado of Sta. Lucia Realty and Ricky Vargas of Talk ’N Text, on the other, have clashed on varying views regarding the national basketball team program headed by Vincent “Chot” Reyes.
Air21’s Alvarez is lobbying for the disbandment of the national training pool along with Encarnado and Vargas.
But Eala expressed a contrasting stand, saying what Alvarez has said isn’t necessarily the position of the PBA board.
‘Not representative’
“I guess that is his (Alvarez) personal opinion and I respect that. But I think that does not represent the position of the PBA board since we agreed from the very start that we would want to compete anew in international tournaments,” Eala said.
The suggestion of Alvarez to scrap the current program backed by San Miguel Corp. surfaced after the International Basketball Federation (Fiba) decided to reject the Philippine Olympic Committee’s plea to recognize the newly-formed Philippine Basketball Federation Inc. (PBFI) in lieu of the expelled Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP).
Encarnado said he’s supporting Lina since the banishment of the Philippines from Fiba-sanctioned tournaments will make the current program of Reyes virtually useless.
No tournaments
“If there’s no tournament to compete in, why should we prepare for tournaments that will not happen? We have to sit down with BAP and PBFI. If there’s no hope for our stint in international competitions, it’s a no-brainer,” Encarnado said.
While Vargas said the RP team’s training “is a waste of money, time and effort” if it cannot be able to play.
Eala doesn’t agree.
“While it’s true that we cannot participate in the world championships, the essence is really to form a strong national team for the long term,” he said. “We should get these players to play together for a long time so this team will be ready to play in actual competition when the call comes.” (JSV)
(September 3, 2005 issue)
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