INQUIRER Sports

ACCUSATIONS AND DENIALS flew during the Congressional hearing Wednesday that looked into the attack by a player on a fan during a recent Philippine Basketball Association game between Burger King and national developmental squad Smart Gilas.

Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas executive director Noli Eala charged that Burger King came out for the game committed to dish out fouls that were “dangerous [and] bordering on dirty.”

After a flagrant foul midway in the second quarter, Whoppers guard Wynne Arboleda assaulted a courtside fan, Alain Katigbac. Arboleda, who was later banned for the rest of the young PBA season without play, claimed he merely reacted to repeated verbal abuse from Katigbac.

In the same hearing, Katigbac fought back tears as he recounted the incident, where Arboleda was caught on tape kicking and repeatedly punching the fan.

“After this ordeal, I continue to suffer from the blows of Mr. Arboleda,” Katigbac told the hearing. “I still experience severe pain in my abdominal area. I have also have recurring headaches and feel severe pain behind my right ear.”

Arboleda, meanwhile, denied accusations that the team had received orders from coach Yeng Guiao to rough up the young national training team to put the players “in their rightful place.”

PBA chair and Burger King team governor Lito Alvarez admitted that the players were told to “teach the guys how the international game is being played but not to the extent of playing dirty.”

The attack on Katigbac came with six minutes to go before the halftime break. The fan denied he hurled invectives at Arboleda. “I just told him he was too old to catch up with the younger [JVee] Casio,” said Katigbac.

Rajko Toroman, the national team coach, said he had never seen an international game in his two decades as a coach where six unsportsmanlike fouls were committed in the first half alone.

Toroman refused to speculate on what drove Arboleda to attack Katigbak although he said he felt that the player was under “tremendous pressure.”

Eala, who resigned as PBA commissioner in August 2007, added that “there was a lot of friction when we (Smart-Gilas) came in” and the “fouls committed were dangerous and bordering on the dirty.”

Gil C. Cabacungan Jr.