Bobong Velez’s passion for the PBA

Long after Carlos “Bobong” Velez produced his last PBA game on television, the league rightfully honored him on opening day last Sunday with a place in its Hall of Fame.
Velez’s Vintage Enterprises covered the PBA from 1982 to 2002. I won’t bore you with what Vintage did during the heyday of Ginebra, Purefoods, Shell, Alaska and San Miguel in the 1990s. That’s already public knowledge.
Instead, allow me to give you a behind-the-scenes recall of a ritual every Vintage announcer and producer went through. It will give you an idea of Velez’s passion and concern for the league that helped produce the PBA’s Second Golden era after the Crispa-Toyota days.
It was known as The Panel Meeting.  When it was called, all talents, key producers and directors had to attend. Held once every two months, or whenever there were production and announcing concerns to be addressed, the meeting was usually scheduled in the early afternoon.
But as anyone who attended these sessions knew, the meeting could last all the way into the night.
Velez was in his element during these meetings, displaying his keen understanding of the game he had played in the NCAA for both La Salle and Ateneo.
Often, game situations on tape were reviewed with Velez giving comments and suggestions on how a play could have been described better. He also had a critical eye on the talents’ attire and overall look and his fashion comments could eat up a huge chunk of the meeting.
To Joe Cantada, Pinggoy Pengson, Andy Jao, Steve Kattan, Jun Bernardino, Romy Kintanar, Joaqui Trillo, Quinito Henson and, then later on, to our batch that included Ed Picson, Bill Velasco, Butch Maniego, Chino Trinidad, Noli Eala, Jimmy Javier, Randy Sacdalan, Rado Dimalibot and others, the panel meetings were opportunities to learn from each other.
We left our egos at the door so that we could all improve. We would break down words, phrases and play patterns. We would dissect if a pass was a bad one or a mistake by the receiver. Even the players’ monikers or sobriquets were discussed to check if they were catchy, appropriate and entertaining.
I still use the lessons I picked up from those lengthy panel meetings and other training sessions. The first lesson I got from Velez was to view the game as a race from macro and micro perspectives.
A macro view of a sporting event asks why is one team leading and why is the other behind. The micro lens spots which players are making the victory possible or the loss an unfortunate result.
Of course, there were disagreements and occasional skirmishes but they were too few to remember because there was more learning and laughing going on. Those who went through those days and moved on to other production groups have genuinely missed the rigor and learnings from those sessions.
Velez clearly had a business interest in the PBA but his larger vision was making the league succeed as a sports entertainment format for all the stakeholders.
He wanted everyone to enjoy basketball as much as he did as a player and later on as a keen observer and fan of the game.
Velez has often credited the panelists for the success of the Vintage coverage as they were the “frontliners” as he called them. But it was truly a team effort with the producers and with Velez at the helm.
His passion for the PBA was of Hall of Fame caliber throughout his years with the league.