IS IT A BIRD? IS IT A PLANE? A member of the NBA entourage performs Tuesday night a high-flying slam dunk at Smart Araneta Coliseum using a trampoline to try to pacify the disappointed crowd that expects a game between the NBA stars and Gilas Pilipinas. AUGUST DE LA CRUZ
MANILA, Philippines–Telecommunications giant Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT) on Wednesday began the process of refunding disgruntled ticket holders after the highly anticipated game between a group of National Basketball Association (NBA) stars and the Gilas Pilipinas national team was reduced to an awkward exhibition of drills on Tuesday night at Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The NBA has also issued a statement regarding the fiasco caused by the league’s refusal to allow the visiting players to suit up for the match, saying the organizer of the event failed to complete the required steps needed for the American professional league to sanction the event.
“Under the terms of the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement, players are allowed to participate in off-season basketball games or exhibitions when requirements for those events are met, including ensuring that appropriate safeguards be in place, and the promoter seeks the proper exemptions from the NBA and the player’s team,” the NBA said in a statement released yesterday.
‘Accountable for passion’
In a late-night press conference held immediately after the fiasco, PLDT/Smart chief Manny V. Pangilinan said the refund system was put in place because the organizers of the event “clearly created that expectation and perception [that there would be a game].”
“Our job at PLDT is to be accountable for that deception, that’s why there’s an offer for a [refund],” added Pangilinan, the country’s acknowledged basketball godfather who ordered the cancellation of Wednesday’s event, which would have pitted the NBA players against the Nationals again.
House probe
“Our responsibility is to the Filipino basketball fans,” Pangilinan said. “It is a basketball clinic but we clearly appreciated the expectation that there would be a 5-on-5 [scrimmage] or a game, the sort that follows a clinic, that much is clear to us.”
Militant lawmakers on Wednesday called for a House probe on the controversy with Kabataan Rep. Terry Ridon saying that “the MVP Group deserves the ire of basketball fans for failing to deliver its commitment in the aborted game.”
ACT Teachers Rep. Antonio Tinio said it was time to look into the MVP group’s bankrolling of pricey sporting events considering that its businesses are mostly state franchises like telecommunications (PLDT, Smart and Sun Cellular), power (Manila Electric Co.) toll road (North Luzon Expressway) and water (Maynilad Water).
An electric atmosphere dissolved into a chorus of boos and angry curses on Tuesday night when national coach Chot Reyes and PLDT executive vice president Ariel Fermin took to center court following dazzling player introductions to announce that no game would take place.
The crowd began booing shortly after, with some cursing and walking out of the venue.
On its Facebook page, PLDT announced the steps needed for ticket holders, some of whom paid as much as P24,000 to watch the game, to refund their tickets.
“We wish to apologize to our Filipino basketball fans for the sudden and disappointing turn of events today,” Pangilinan said in a statement that accompanied the post. “We ourselves are extremely disappointed by this unexpected development.
“All we wanted was to give our Filipino basketball fans a real treat while at the same time, through this benefit event, help our countrymen who are still recovering from Super Typhoon Yolanda and more recently Typhoon Glenda.”
Fermin said that ticket holders for Tuesday night’s events as well as Wednesday’s game would be refunded in full.
RefundIGW@gmail.com
Fermin said refund seekers would just need to send these details: Full name, ticket number, contact number and e-mail address either to 0919-6140865 or RefundIGW@gmail.com. The 10-digit ticket number can be found at the left portion of the ticket, below the seat number.
While certain legal issues may need to be ironed out, the organizing East West Private LLC said it was very clear from the start that it made no promise of a game for Tuesday and Wednesday.
“I just want to be very clear; we have always told everybody that we cannot announce a game,” Maria Espaldon of East West said in Tuesday night’s emergency press briefing.
“If you look back, we vetted everything,” she added. “Tweets by MVP (Pangilinan) have been very, very clear. We have not actually said that there’s a game.”
Espaldon added that her group hedged on official pronouncements of a game because “we were trying to fall within the guidelines of the NBA.”
Based on the NBA statement, it seemed as if East West Private had known as early as months before the event that the NBA would not sanction any game between the visiting stars and Gilas Pilipinas.
Created impression of a game
That meant that any NBA player who saw action on Tuesday night and Wednesday faced potential fines and suspensions.
“The promoter of this proposed event, East West Private LLC, was informed of this process several months ago but did not take the required steps,” the NBA said in its statement.
It seemed East West Private had hoped that even if it missed the NBA deadline for gaining official sanction, NBA officials would still grant its sanction in the name of charity.
“We were hoping the NBA, despite the fact that we had missed the deadline, would have said [OK because] it’s for charity and it’s for the benefit of the typhoon victims of Haiyan (international name of Yolanda). We explained all of that to them. They just were not having any of that,” Espaldon said.
It was unclear, though, why East West and PLDT allowed the idea of a game to marinate in the public’s consciousness despite the nonsanction of the NBA.
Fermin said the agreement with the event organizer provided a format involving a basketball clinic followed by a 5-on-5 game between Gilas Pilipinas and the All-Stars.
Press releases and buildup articles leading to the event clearly created an impression that there would be a game.
Assured of scrimmage
A source told the Inquirer that hours before the event on Tuesday night, even Pangilinan was assured that some sort of a scrimmage would be played between the visiting NBA stars and Gilas Pilipinas.
East West Private LLC was the same outfit that previously brought in Kevin Durant, Derrick Rose and Kobe Bryant along with other NBA stars for an exhibition game against the Gilas national team.
But Durant and company came to Manila at the height of the NBA lockout in 2011 and were not yet covered by the league’s collective bargaining agreement.
Akbayan Rep. Walden Bello agreed that a Congress probe on the incident was in order, adding that “such power over our economy, government and sports (by the MVP Group) should not be tolerated.”
Over social media, fans posted screen grabs from text messages and e-mails sent by PLDT’s customer care arm offering ticket discounts for the “charity game.”
Some fans have also taken to social media to express dissatisfaction over the refund process.
Twitter user Gerrald Mateo (@gemateo) said he tried the published hotlines “eight times this morning around 9:40 a.m. Tried it again now and it says ‘the number is not in service.’”
Grace Tambungui (@tubby_tom2) wrote: “ALL LINES ARE NOT IN SERVICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Marlon Jae Sabino (@marlonjae) tweeted in response to an Inquirer post about refund experiences that he “sent an email 830 am to the email add they provided with complete details. No rep up to now.”–With reports from Gil C. Cabacungan and June Navarro