Gabe Norwood stays with ROS Elasto Painters

Photo by PBA

MANILA—Gabe Norwood, the former Rookie of the Year left as the cornerstone of Rain or Shine, Wednesday signed a maximum pact to stay as an Elasto Painter for the next two Philippine Basketball Association seasons.

And on the heels of Norwood’s signing came a statement from new PBA chair Mamerto Mondragon of ROS saying that his squad favors increasing the maximum individual cap and bonus schemes of the players.

The PBA is being haunted by under-the-table allegations for quite sometime, with the one made very recently by Alaska team owner Wilfred Steven Uytengsu now being taken seriously by the league.

“I think that the bonus scheme for all the players, as allowed by the league today, is too small,” Mondragon told the Inquirer over the phone, referring to the won-game incentives of the players ranging from P4,000 in the elimination round to just P8,000 in the Finals.

“Let’s be realistic, that’s not a lot of money,” he said.

Mondragon said he will propose bigger sums for the players as far as won-game bonuses are concerned during a special board meeting today.

He also said that his squad is amenable to increasing the base pay of the players from a maximum of P350,000 a month, as what Norwood signed, to as much as P400,000.

“Gabe signed his new contract with the understanding that his bonus scheme will automatically increase should the board approve a new one,” Mondragon said.

By-phase bonuses of the players will also be touched in today’s meet, with Mondragon batting to make the maximum of one and a half to two months for players whose teams enter the Finals.

“Everything over that, as what we have been hearing for so many years now, will be considered under-the-table and should be sanctioned by the league,” Mondragon, a lawyer, said.