FILE – PBA commissioner Willie Marcial. PBA IMAGES
MANILA, Philippines—PBA commissioner Willie Marcial warned that players who were part of a Cebu exhibition game that ended in a brawl may face further problems if they failed to receive the blessing of their respective mother teams.
Marcial is scheduled to summon the players, namely Rain or Shine’s Beau Belga, NLEX’s JR Quinahan, NorthPort’s Robert Bolick and Magnolia’s Jio Jalalon for their part in the incident that happened in the Cebu town of Carmen.
The league prohibits players with live contracts from joining similar exhibition games coined as “Ligang Labas” as long as teams give them the green light.
“We allow players to join these games as long as they were allowed by their teams,” Marcial told The Inquirer in Filipino on Sunday. “If not, they’ll be in big trouble.”
There have been cases in the past where players were sanctioned for taking part in unsanctioned games.
Jalalon and current San Miguel Beer forward Vic Manuel were suspended in 2020 while Ping Exciminiano even suffered an injury in one exhibition.
Videos of the brawl have surfaced on social media, spoiling the match pitting a local team reinforced by PBA cagers against a foreign squad.
Based on one video, Quinahan was seen throwing punches at a foreign player while Belga threw the ball at the same cager before cooler heads eventually intervene.
Jalalon seems to be more of a peacemaker while Bolick only watched from afar, even granting photo requests from fans who took advantage of the incident to approach the NorthPort star.
The game was billed as a reunion between Belga and Quinahan, who were a bruising combo known as “Extra Rice Inc.” when was the latter was with Rain or Shine.