You openly criticize your superiors and isn’t that disrespect? Insubordination even? You ought to be punished?
You bet.
The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) has a remedy for that: Fine anyone disregarding the rule on discipline.
Players criticizing PBA officiating are meted fines. Usually in sums large enough to punch a big hole in the pocket.
You are a coach and you do the same? You are not only fined big time but you may be in for a suspension.
That is not original. Copied from the NBA, basically. Not bad. You copy what is good, and that’s being smart.
I will never forget the late, lamented Rudy Salud when he was PBA Commissioner.
“Let us not suspend a player or even a coach for criticizing officiating,” he said to me. “That’s not hurting the player and coach but his team.”
The remedy?
“Fine the player or the coach,” said Rudy, who also wrote the constitution and by-laws of the PBA. “And not just a small fine but make it huge enough to hurt his bank account.”
I cite Rudy’s PBA rule in the wake of boxer Eumir Felix Marcial’s rants on social media against the alleged meager financial support for him from the Philippine
Sports Commission (PSC) and Abap (Alliance of Boxing Associations of the Philippines).
“Since last year when I was in the United States and until I came here in Zamboanga City, do you think a monthly allowance of P43,000 is enough for my preparation for the Olympics?” said Marcial on Facebook.
OMG! I don’t know what to make of that.
He’s not done.
“Do you think I can rely on P43,000 for plane tickets, accommodation, food, coaching staff, supplements, masseur etc?” Marcial said. “All of these... have been provided for by private sponsors and of course my own money.”
Marcial turned pro recently and he wants amateur officials to spend for his needs? His P43,000 is basically the same monthly fee of all Olympic-bound athletes. Unfair if the PSC gives him more than his fellow Olympians.
Alas, the PSC and Abap have no disciplinary mechanism to punish wayward athletes.
But to be honest, if I were in their shoes, I’d do just one thing: Marcial out of the Tokyo Olympics.
A thug has a termite appetite.