PBA ‘advice’ to Pacquiao

If you read between the lines of the statement made by PBA commissioner Chito Salud during Monday’s press conference hosted by Kia for its PBA team, you can assume that he strongly advised Kia playing-coach Manny Pacquiao to concentrate on being a coach first.

Salud said the PBA will have to follow its  rules, and this requires all players wishing to  play in the pro league, Pacquiao included, to go through the Rookie Draft.

The Sarangani congressman didn’t say if he plans to appeal an exception to the rule with the league board. He also didn’t say if he’s willing to go through the Draft.

PBA media bureau chief Willie Marcial said Pacquiao has up to Aug. 13 to file his application to join the Draft on Aug. 24. Overseas-based players with Filipino roots have an earlier application deadline.

“I think Manny will do it,” Marcial said. “I don’t think he will ask for an exemption. I believe he will go through the process.”

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Surprisingly, Pacquiao arrived at the press conference early. He is known to come to functions as late as three hours. This time, though, he was on the sixth floor of Pacific Star building in Makati with his entourage at 1:15 p.m. Call time was noon. The venue was overflowing, probably because everybody wanted to see the eight-division world boxing champion.

The first thing Pacquiao said when he spoke to the media was that he’s very excited about his new role.

“Before boxing, I already loved basketball. That’s why when the offer came for me to become Kia playing-coach, I got very excited,” he said.

Asked how he would handle the demanding responsibilities of a world boxing champ and a PBA playing-coach at the same time, he said: “Time management lang yan!”

Curiously, nobody asked the Pacman which players he wanted to be in his team. Everybody probably knew that none of the expansion teams will be able to acquire players without going through the Rookie Draft and the dispersal draft.

The free-agent rule has changed, according to Marcial.

“When before, teams could deal directly with free agents, they now have to sit down and amicably discuss their choices to avoid conflict,” Marcial said.

He didn’t say, though, if the new rule applied only to expansion teams.

Pacquiao revealed that basketball has  always played a major part in his training regimen for boxing.

“One day every week, I devote my time solely to basketball,” he said. “I do nothing but play basketball.”

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HOOPVINE:The Pacman was asked during the presscon if he planned to draft his brother Bobby, who has been attending the Kia tryouts. “No,” he said. And what about his 6-foot-4 relative Rene Pacquiao, who played in the D-League and has also been attending the tryouts? “He’s OK,” Manny said… A highly reliable source said Pacquiao would receive a monthly stipend of P600,000 from Kia for his services as playing-coach… It looks like NLEX has finalized its negotiations for the purchase of the Bert Lina-franchise Air21… NLEX management is reportedly looking at the contracts of Air21 players, according to a player agent.