6 PBA cagers in hot water over practice brawls

TNT’s Ranidel de Ocampo gets away from San Mig’s Marc Pingris for a shot in last night’s still unfinished Game 4 at Philsports Arena. AUGUST DELA CRUZ

MANILA, Philippines — Several players, including San Miguel Beer’s June Mar Fajardo, appeared before PBA commissioner Chito Salud Thursday as the league investigated two ugly brawls that happened in practice games involving four squads recently.

Reigning Most Valuable Player Arwind Santos, also of San Miguel, has also been summoned after he and Fajardo figured in a nasty brawl with Globalport’s Jondan Salvador last week.

Salvador reportedly instigated the melee by punching Fajardo with just a little over three minutes left in a lopsided San Miguel victory. Santos came to the rescue of his teammate.

Fajardo, the winner of the Best Player award of this season’s Philippine Cup, and Santos, showed up at Salud’s office yesterday, while Salvador, who is said to be in a team building session together with the other Batang Pier, will explain his side today.

Also last Tuesday, Meralco’s Gary David and former MVP Danny Ildefonso reportedly came to blows with Alaska import Bill Walker during a practice match.

Reports reaching the Commissioner’s Office said that Ildefonso and Walker got entangled in one play. David came out of nowhere and reportedly hit the Alaska import with a punch to the forehead.

League sources said Salud is expected to impose fines on those involved in the brawls, as the commissioner has never tolerated on-court violence—whether in an official game or otherwise.

The season-ending Governors’ Cup, another short conference where teams are allowed imports of no more than 6-feet-5 in height, gets going on Sunday at the earliest.

That will happen if San Mig Coffee, which totes a 2-1 lead over Talk ‘N Text in their best-of-five championship series for the Commissioner’s Cup, wins Game 4, which is being played at the Philsports Arena in Pasig press time.

Should the Tropang Texters, which swept the elimination round, extend the series to a deciding fifth game on Sunday, the opening of the third conference will be moved to Tuesday.

Air21 battles Rain or Shine and Globalport collides with Barangay Ginebra in the opening double header at Smart Araneta Coliseum.

If the Mixers win Game 4, a separate twinbill will take place on Sunday with Barako Bull taking on Meralco and San Miguel Beer clashing with Aces, also at the Big Dome in Cubao.

The Governors’ Cup eliminations will end on June 16 with the league scheduling 11 games to be played every day except Thursdays.

There will also be no playoffs after the elimination round to determine rankings with all ties to be broken via the PBA quotient system.

Eight of the 10 teams will advance to the playoffs, with the top four squads enjoying a twice-to-beat edge. The Final Four and the title series will both be best-of-five affairs.