PBA to start off season with simple opening rites, triple header

Raymond Almazan’s block on Stanley Pringle. PBA IMAGES

MANILA, Philippines—Gone are the muses and parades for an opening ceremony as the PBA’s 46th season will start off on a simple yet busy curtain raiser.

League Commissioner Willie Marcial said Friday that the season’s opener on July 16 will have three games with an opening ceremony kicking off the proceedings at 11 am at Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig.

Triple headers will be the staple schedule of games–which would be played on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays—for a month until the 3×3 tournament starts.

“We’re good to go, I’ve talked to Mayor Vico [Sotto] and he allowed us to play at Ynares,” said Marcial in Filipino during a virtual press conference. “I’ll personally meet with him next week and he knows how important the game of basketball is to Filipinos.”

The full schedule is set to be released, Marcial said.

As the COVID-19 pandemic is still going, fan attendance won’t be allowed and the minimal of people will be allowed inside the playing venue as the league employs a closed-circuit setup for its games.

Players, coaches, and staff will also be administered RT-PCR tests three days before the opening and the PBA mandated a 10-day cycle of tests throughout the season.

Though 95 percent of its players and staff are vaccinated, the PBA still set up a strict quarantine protocol in the chance that an individual tested positive for COVID-19.

Marcial said that the infected player’s team and its latest opponent would be put under self quarantine.

“Unlike the NBA which only quarantined the infected player, what we’ll do is we’ll quarantine the two teams and everyone belonging to those clubs,” said Marcial.