Masked mutiny, corporate rift or plain sabotage?

There seemed nothing wrong when June Mar Fajardo, Philippine basketball’s  newest treasure of a big man, begged off from the national training pool. He had to rest and let heal a bad foot.

Nobody took a second look, or asked why Fajardo had to call in sick immediately after collecting his second MVP trophy from the pro league.

Did the trophy fall on June Mar’s footwear when he tried to put the prized PBA silverware on the shelf?

* * *

It was, of course, a totally different story when other stars, supposed shoo-ins in the national training pool, also begged off one after the other.

There was no sore foot to blame but, just the same, members of this select group offered diverse excuses that, pardon this, sounded doubtful, abnormal, if not wholly odd.

One wide-bodied strongman had to go in order to link up with his father in Paris, the reason he had to take a French leave.

* * *

Seemed fine, there was indeed rhyme, but no sane reason there.

Then this other big fellow said he had an injured finger—the pinky—and he could not play for at least 12 weeks. The poor finger had to be operated on.

One fleet-footed guard named his difficulty as plain—if not too simple—fatigue.

At least, excuses were submitted separately, not in a single stationery of the powerful corporate giant that owns most of the certified national stars.

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With the uncanny timing of the mass leave-taking, we can’t blame many-time national team member and four-time PBA MVP Ramon Fernandez for suspecting shameless commercialism behind this mass pullout from the national basketball squad.

The foreign national coach was yesterday scheduled to release names of players who will form the Gilas Philippine pool.

Will those who took part in this move, which had appeared more like a masked mutiny, still be named to the the national pool?

Or will the national team be a victim of what also appears to be a corporate power play within the shaky national basketball setup?

The foul air also smells of sabotage.