Kobe mum on the NBA’s Manila fiasco
SACRAMENTO, California—Kobe Bryant should know a thing or two about NBA goodwill games and appearances in the Philippines.
And yet basketball fans on the “Black Mamba” watch have not heard a word from the superstar and probably never will about the recent NBA fiasco in Manila.
The Los Angeles Lakers mainstay has been a frequent visitor to our fair city. Last year, he returned to promote a line of mobile phones.
Three years ago, Bryant led an NBA team that included Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma Thunder, Chris Paul of the Los Angeles Clippers and Derrick Rose of the Chicago Bulls as player-coach in two exciting exhibition matches.
One game was played against a selection from the PBA, the NBA’s Asian cousin, and the other versus the Philippine national squad.
Bryant knows all too well why the league disallowed some of the NBA crown jewels like James Harden, Tyson Chandler, Brandon Jennings and current Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard to suit up for a charity game with the World Cup-bound PH national squad a week ago.
Except for international goodwill matches blessed by shoemakers Nike and Adidas, the players association of the world’s foremost basketball league frowns on arrangements made by pipsqueak organizers.
Without a shoemaker-partner, the NBA warned that should they play in Manila, the visiting players would face financial fines.
The NBA said a tiff with Smart Gilas and games of h-o-r-s-e later did not meet its guidelines.
Bryant also should be on the ball why Harden, Leonard and company would agree to something the league might scowl at.
First of all, there is the money involved. Yahoo Sports said some of the players were set to pocket $150,000 (P6.5 million) to take part in a two-day schedule.
Second, NBA players love fanfare and adulation from diehards. And by all accounts, NBA players are treated like rock icons by the basketball-crazed Filipinos.
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Before the much-hyped event dubbed “The Last Stand,” the NBA warned against violations under its Collective Bargaining Agreement with the players association that leave its players in Manila vulnerable to harm or injury.
The NBA prides itself as a global force with resident managers assigned around the world, including Asia and the Pacific. There is even a PH country honcho who seems inattentive to media when needed most.
NBA drum beaters claim the league’s social media operation reaches nearly 280 million fans globally. Its website is said to have recorded more than seven billion page views last season.
So why did the debacle happen at the Smart Araneta Coliseum where a scheduled skirmish between NBA players and Gilas turned into a training session instead?
Was the NBA’s displeasure of the charity game passed on in forceful terms to the organizer and PLDT, the chief sponsor?
Or was it a case of the immortal movie line that says: “What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.”
