PBA ushers in 40 years of ‘people’s game’

By: Bong Lozada - 10 years ago

PBA Commissioner Atty. Angelico T. Salud. PBA IMAGE / Nuki Sabio

MANILA, Philippines—In honor of the people that have built the oldest professional basketball league in Asia, the top honcho of the Philippine Basketball Association said that it is their “responsibility” to continue the tradition into the 40th year of the league.

PBA Commissioner Atty. Chito Salud ushered in the 40th season on the PBA to commemorate the “founding fathers” of the league that had to give the public the “people’s game” during the height of the martial law.

“This is in honor and admiration of the founding fathers and the next generation that followed them,” Salud said Tuesday at the Edsa Shangri-La during the PBA Opener Press Lunch.

“For the heroes, sung and unsung, that started the PBA during the height of martial law.”

PBA had its inaugural season in 1975 and was first called the Metropolitan Industrial and Commercial Athletic Association with companies paying their amateur players allowances.

Leopoldo Prieto, the Philippine coach of the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, was the first commissioner of the league while Domingo Itchon of Tanduay was the first president.

Salud said that the early life of the PBA was all about survival as they had to find ways to stage the games amid the curtain of military rule, but it was a vital source of inspiration for him as the PBA Commissioner.

“Survival was the order of business,” Salud said. “It baffles me but it inspires me.”

“The PBA is a source of inspiration and pride, it is an institution far from perfect and that’s what makes it exciting.”

PBA is set to open the 2014-2015 season at the newly-built Philippine Arena in Bulacan that would pit expansion teams Blackwater Elite and Kia Sorento, which has eight-division World Champion Manny Pacquiao as its playing coach.

Perennial crowd favorites Barangay Ginebra San Miguel would attempt to start its redemption as it takes on usual power Talk ‘N Text Tropang Texters.

Salud said that the 40th season of the PBA also serves as a “thank you” to the pioneers for having the idea of building a professional basketball league in the Philippines.

From nine teams in its inaugural season, the PBA now has 12 teams, two of which are current expansion teams with Kia having at its disposal the supernova of a boxer from General Santos City.

Salud said that it is their responsibility to “carry the torch and pass it to the next generation” that would bring the league to another 40 years.

“This is the people’s league; it teaches the lesson that destiny and fate is at the hands of the people,” Salud said.