PBA tweaks draft rules for Filipino overseas players

Gilas Pilipinas’ Dwight Ramos, Third Ravena, Ray Parks and Kiefer Ravena. Photo from Fiba

PARIS—The Philippine Basketball Association again tweaked its Draft rules on players seeing action abroad, basically paving the way for easy return to Asia’s pioneering pro league.

Coming up with the new set of guidelines on this matter was one of the highlights of the just-concluded planning session of the league’s leadership in this classy fashion capital, as the PBA continues to come up with measures that would battle player-poaching from neighboring pro leagues in the region.

It will also make things easier for the player who will suddenly have a change of heart to return—or start his PBA career.

Players like Dwight Ramos, Rhenz Abando and SJ Belangel, talents eligible for the Draft who haven’t made themselves available for the Draft and are deemed eligible, will be allowed to join the amateur pool after three years of the first year of his eligibility.

“That would make it easier for them to come back should they decide, and start their careers with the PBA,” chairman Ricky Vargas said.

Ex-PBA players who inked contracts abroad like Kiefer Ravena, Bobby Ray Parks Jr. and Robert Bolick, will have no trouble returning but will have to return to their mother teams who have rights on them—in perpetuity.

There are certain aspects in which the PBA will list someone as “eligible for the Draft,” some of them as one having finished his collegiate career, one who started playing professionally, another is because of age, and the hardship rule that allows the player to play for pay when he turns 19.

Those who stay out of the PBA Draft for four to five years, upon their return, will go to a lottery, the mechanics of which will be determined by the board.

Players who don’t declare for the amateur proceedings and play more than five years can still play, but their fates on how they can enter the PBA will also be determined by the board.

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