THERE is so much physicality now tattooing the PBA Philippine Cup. It is understandable, but it is also detestable.
While it is a given that emotions run high among players each time the jockeying for a Finals seat is on, triggering tempers to reach boiling point at times, cooler heads must prevail at all times.
Worst, even coaches and players glued supposedly on the bench sometimes join the fray, adding fuel to an already volatile situation.
Violence can erupt in an instant due mainly to the lack, if not absence, of immediate human intervention.
Mayhem prevention actually starts from the Commissioner’s Office.
Include the PBA chairman.
Both must impose discipline on all teams without exception, with the Commissioner the chief executioner, implementing agent and policeman from the opening toss up to the final buzzer.
If only to offer my own bit of counsel, Commissioner Willie Marcial, before the jump ball, must call both the coaching staff of opposing teams to remind them of the league rules to be followed to the letter, particularly on the proper decorum when a player is dispatched on the court.
Next, the Commissioner must call the team captains to the center court and require them to lead the way in maintaining peace and order at all times during the course of the game.
Of course, the referees must also be routinely advised to be on their toes at all times, persevering to make the right calls to the best of their abilities every second of each contest.
Since players either make or break a game, they should make a firm resolve to behave 100 percent all the way, never losing even an iota of reality grip for a game to finish violence-free, if not accident-free.
To be physical is to be defense-oriented. That is all very fine.
But if being physical is to hurt your fellow player, you ought to be in the MMA, or in Maute territory maybe.
In the PBA, be tough, not rough.
You hurt your brother and you might end his basketball career, which supports a family—and, probably, his brother/sister trying to earn a college degree.
Think before you foul, hit.