The leadership of the Philippine Basketball Association departs for the fashion city of Milan in Italy on Monday night as it charts the direction Asia’s pioneering professional cage league will take for its 45th Season that will open with the Philippine Cup on March 1 at Smart Araneta Coliseum.On top of the list of activities to be discussed will be the holding of the first-ever 3×3 tournament, which will open a couple of weeks later, as the league will continue to try helping the country put a team in that event in the coming Tokyo Olympics in July.
All member teams of the PBA will have 3×3 teams, and their players will be different from the regular rosters that they have playing three conferences—the Philippine Cup, the Commissioner’s Cup and the Governors’ Cup—during the season.
Ricky Vargas is the chair of the board and, like in the past years, will have the honor of drawing up some of the new ideas which his fellow members can vote on.
Commissioner Willie Marcial bared that interest in the 3×3 league is so high that several corporations have declared interest in joining. That, too, will be discussed in Milan.
Games of the 3×3 league will be played in between games of the Philippine Cup, so that the fans all get the chance to see them and at the same time, break the players in to playing in front of big crowds.
Bobby Rosales of Columbian is the vice chair, Siliman Sy of Blackwater is the treasurer, and Alfrancis Chua (Barangay Ginebra), Robert Non (San Miguel Beer), Rene Pardo (Magnolia), Al Panlilio (Meralco), Rod Franco (NLEX), Raymund Zorilla (Phoenix Pulse), Mert Mondragon (Rain or Shine), Erick Arejola (NorthPort) and Alaska’s Dickie Bachmann are all attending the planning session.
“We are hopeful for fruitful talks in Milan,” Marcial said.
Continuing to support the Gilas Pilipinas program will also be discussed as the Philippines campaigns in the Fiba Asia Cup qualifiers slated on Feb. 20 and 23 with 13 PBA stars named by the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas to the new pool. INQ