Bare Eye
PBA: Stop the savagery, please
By Recah TrinidadPhilippine Daily Inquirer
The opening game of the PBA Governors Cup Finals on Sunday was complete with all the ingredients. It was terrific, exciting, colorful, and many more.
It was extremely physical, rugged and rough.
It had more than its share of the so-called fireworks.
It also reached a reckless point when Tim Cone hurled a chair on the playing floor.
Cone vehemently protested a noncall on the hard-driving James Yap.
The B-Meg coach was slapped a technical and was ejected.
***
Of course, it was not only that noncall which got Cone’s goat.
He reached the breaking point after his men got pitifully left on the receiving end of a barreling, battering offensive.
The banging and the charging were so rampant it was easy to suspect the officials could also be preparing to try out for stints in a rugby tournament.
These referees, of course, could not be expected to work ultimate fight matches, although there was one baseline scuffle when an official was dragged down the floor as though he was working a mixed martial arts fight.
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It’s baffling how basic rules on decent physicality had been thrown out of the window.
If to cops, the referees had refused to police the game.
Or if they had to perform as band members that could use rules to enhance the athletic dancing on the floor, they goofed.
Were they naturally dumb, or were they ordered to go blind?
If not, how and why did they help the game border again and again on the savage?
***
Something must be done and Cone warned the series could go totally out of hand.
“The officials must do something about it,” he said.
Cone was seen several times livid, screaming over glaring noncalls.
Explained coach Yeng Guiao of winner Rain or Shine: “I’m really proud of the way the boys handled the pressure and the way we played our defense in the second half.”
Cone explained they were not tired.
They, however, played tame and wasted in much of the second half.
Did they give up out of frustration?
“That’s their style of play,” Cone said. “But I’m afraid people might get hurt if you do that.”
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The league commissioner could look at Cone’s stand two ways.
He could take it as a plea or a warning or both.
Cone said they will break down the video and present it to the Commissioner.
Of course, it goes without saying Commissioner Chito Salud must do something quick.
Cone explained he had tried hard to keep his fiery, frustrated players under check.
“I can only do so much and the referees have got to help us out,” he said.
Suggestion: The referees must be told to do their job and prevent the Finals from slipping into a savage mess.
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Tags: Basketball , PBA Governors’ Cup Finals
