LOOK who’s running the PBA (Philippine Basketball Association) now.
It is not PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial, nor the PBA Board, but the government.
Willie and the PBA Board aren’t on their own now and that’s a result of the exigencies of the times. But instead of resenting it, they should be thankful. That means the government is there for them. Noble.
Being the rightful “captain of the ship,” the government takes control when disaster lurks, in the process helping avoid the PBA’s iceberg of disaster that is the coronavirus dubbed by Trump as “China made.”
Always, the government can come in during a crisis as that’s guaranteed in the Constitution.
The Covid-19 pandemic is one such calamity that requires government intervention. Outright. Anything that concerns general welfare is government concern.
For one, the PBA draws crowds so that amid the pandemic, spectators are out. No gallery, no need for social distancing. Fair enough.
For another, the PBA needs a bubble to ensure health safety in restarting its Philippine Cup on Oct. 11. The NBA had just done it—with smashing success.
As defined, any bubble keeps participants housed in one place, untouched by strangers, tucked away from public view. Their loved ones may be an exception but only after they pass health protocols.
In retrospect, who needs them, anyway? The husband is out working. He needs focus, total concentration. In times like this, even your beloved becomes a distraction.
But the PBA bubble isn’t fool-proof. It will show leaks one way or the other—especially if some bastards foul up protocols by breaching rules.
It has happened not once but twice—the second one stopping the league indefinitely on account of suspected virus-positive tests involving bubble occupants that, thankfully, turned out false.
With today’s (Tuesday) resumption of games, it shouldn’t matter that a brutally revised schedule is now in place to hopefully hit championship dates.
It’d be rough sailing from hereon to body and mind but then, isn’t everybody into it?
It has basically boiled down to the survival of the fittest. The winner merely survives.