Narvasa fines 3 Star players, says officiating ‘fine’

PBA Commissioner Chito Narvasa. PBA IMAGES

PBA commissioner Chito Narvasa said that he sees nothing wrong with the way the 2017 PBA Philippine Cup semifinals has been conducted.

The league chief also said that his office is open to any parties who want to discuss concerns regarding the officiating.

Narvasa talked to the media before Game 5 of the San Miguel-TNT series on Thursday, explaining that as far as his standards go, the referees have been fair for all four teams.

“I think it’s fine,” he said. “If they find something wrong, they can go to the Commissioner’s Office.”

“We’re trying to run a good game, a fair game for everybody. The opportunity for them to win is present. What they do, of course, is all subjective. I’m trying to be as objective as possible.”

Narvasa also shared that he met with Star team manager Alvin Patrimonio, head coach Chito Victolero, and players Marc Pingris, Allein Maliksi, and Jio Jalalon earlier in the day after the Hotshots cried foul on what was perceived as an unfair officiating.

The commissioner handed fines on the Hotshots for their actions in their 93-86 Game 4 defeat.

“They’ve been fined. I fined three players from Star simply because we had a good conversation today and they are very apologetic about it,” he said.

Victolero was slapped with a technical foul for continuous complaining in the third quarter, while Jalalon was later seen punching Sol Mercado.

Maliksi also made a “cooking” gesture late in the game, while Pingris told reporters after the game, “Watch out for my next movie, ‘The Cooking Show,'” alluding to what he thought was a slanted officiating.

The PBA has yet to release the amounts of the fine, but said that Patrimonio, Maliksi, and Pingris were slapped with the penalty for “comments detrimental to the league.”

“It was all explained to me in very nice in the way. There is nothing wrong with the way we treat each other, we have a very good relationship with these people, and all it needs to do was to explain to them,” he said. “They have their own views about the officiating, and we’re trying our best to make it a fair game and they’ve already acknowledged that.”

Game 5 of the heated affair is on Friday at Mall of Asia Arena, with Star and Ginebra looking to go on the hill in their best-of-7 semifinals series.