MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) has decided to postpone the holding of the Governor’s Cup in a show of full support to the Smart Gilas national team.
“The PBA team owners have agreed to make way for the Fiba Asia tournament by transferring the third conference of the current 2013 season from the original May-July schedule to August-October,” PBA Commissioner Chito Salud said in a statement issued on Tuesday.
Salud said the team owners instead agreed to extend the Commissioner’s Cup, or the second conference, to fill in the gap that will be created with the postponement of the third conference.
“To counter the negative effects on the member-teams of the resulting protracted break between conferences, the second conference will be extended by adopting the format of the recently concluded Philippine Cup. This means that the second conference will finish by the last week of May, instead of April 28,” Salud added.
The decision by the team owners to move the third conference to a later date gives Smart Gilas Pilipinas more time to prepare for the Fiba Asia Championship this August.
The adjustment of the schedules will provide the Philippine team with two months of unhampered training as a team, Salud added.
“In the meantime, regular Monday practices can commence for Gilas Pilipinas as soon as coach Chot Reyes finalizes the line-up of our team. Formal approval of these revisions by the PBA governors will be on February 7, Thursday, in a special board meeting called for this purpose,” he said.
The PBA Commissioner’s Cup kicks off on February 8.