BOTH the MPBL and the NCAA courted controversy when they announced rules that didn’t sit well with some but were supported by others, the MPBL’s one Fil-Foreigner per team rule and NCAA’s banning of imports in all sports starting in 2020.
MPBL reasoned that it imposed that rule to support local players, not ncessarily to discriminate against Fil-Foreigners who shouldn’t be taller than 6’4.” However, I think MBPL could have gone through this another way without necessarily discriminating against our Filipino brothers who grew up abroad.
If it wants to spurt local or encourage local to grow, then the league could have compelled each team to partner with a local league and required them to, say, have at least a player (could be more) who should come from that league.
You could say that this will put at an advantage teams from areas with strong collegiate leagues--Cebu and Manila--but if it’s long-term development the league wants, then this could also spur development in the areas the MPBL team are based in.
It’s just the first time the league is implementing this rule and I hope Manny Pacquiao, the league founder, reconsiders his stance because it is simply ironic. I remember Bob Arum saying, at the height of Pacquiao’s popularity, that Manny’s PPV numbers are always high because of the Filipinos in the US, not because of boxing fans. The Filipinos, whether they can tell a right hook from Captain Hook, would watch Manny fight.
These are the same Filipinos that his league is discriminating.
Now the NCAA ban on imports is a bit tricky, while I laud basketball teams who go all local in the collegiate league, a ban on imports, especially across all sports, is a bit too much for me for the sole reason that all schools accept foreign students.
I know this is a basketball concern, which became an issue when the individual awards of the NCAA were dominated by foreign students then I hope the solution—if you can call the ban one—would be limited to basketball only, and not all sports.
I know college basketball and imports are becoming a lucrative business with huge sums exchanging hands whenever someone discovers a new talent, but that’s not only limited to imports, right? Again, I hope the NCAA, and other collegiate leagues, will limit whatever solution they can come up with to basketball if they want to promote parity. Well, how about this, allow imports but come up with a rule that compel coaches to field locals in the final two minutes, that’s going to encourage schools to develop big men, right? As for football, another collegiate sport that has seen imports, having one or two imports may be give a team an advantage but it doesn’t necessarily translate into a win. It’s a team game and one player can’t decide the outcome. If you want proof, look at Lionel Messi in the World Cup.
Those who have been affected by the ban point out the irony—Filipinos root for and hope locals who try their luck in US schools make the cut, which would have been closed to them had the US schools enacted a similar ban.
Banning students or Fil-Ams is an easy way out for the leagues, I hope they reconsider if it’s development they are truly after.