Officiating will give birth to new stars

WHEN PBA teams come to terms that not all contact committed against them is an edge to be exploited, and the referees can consistently implement the current philosophy on the officiating, then the basketball games can proceed without minding too much the guys with the whistles. Because, really, the mark of a great basketball game is when you don’t notice the refs, and coaches don’t go ballistic with every non-call or call against them that are perceived to be nonexistent.
It’s obvious that the coaches and the referees are the ones going through the major adjustments in this new approach.
Coaches crave for every little opportunity to earn another possession or gain access to the free throw line. And when they don’t get it, they perceive it to be a failure to implement the rules properly and cry havoc about consistency.
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The consistency complaint can be a valid point.
In the Talk ‘N Text-San Miguel Beer game at the Cuneta Astrodome last Sunday, it was being consistently whistled when suddenly in the third quarter, even the most obvious contact was being ignored during a long stretch of changing possessions.
If the game was closer than what it was, tempers could have flared from both camps.
Talk ‘N Text was just connecting on everything while the Beermen groped for form. One can only suspect that the game review the next day in the PBA office was a meticulous one.
Commissioner Chito Salud, who took a lot of effort to observe the games on the sidelines when he was still deputy to Sonny Barrios and to later spread the word about his new take on officiating, has acknowledged that the current implementation is going to be a work in progress.
He has encouraged the media to express their views in the hope of creating an atmosphere of learning, without sacrificing the need to implement the rules of the game.
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The great thing that has emerged from this new officiating perspective is that useless ticky-tacky fouls are not being called, the flopping rule has thankfully disappeared, and the defense is being rewarded for its work ethic.
The superstars of the league will have to invent new moves and ploys to earn their points beyond the 15-foot line.
Teams may have to get nimbler players, those quick enough to beat the traps and the enforcers. Maybe this was in the mind of Alaska coach Tim Cone when he got Bonbon Custodio to back up Cyrus Baguio.
No need to sacrifice anything in the impact and quickness department when Baguio or even LA Tenorio need a breather on the bench.
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In the old Micaa, many players gained their reputations as enforcers because they could play a mean defensive game with gulang (street smarts) and balya (physicality).
The refs then allowed a fair amount of contact that rookies and offensive players had to hurdle to earn their right to play in the big boys league.
Conversely, players sharpened their games to avoid being banged by the enforcers. It was the era when we saw Freddie Webb sprinting, Danny Florencio flying, Jun Papa and Jimmy Mariano nailing long toms and Rudy Soriano weaving undergoal magic.
Maybe we’ll see some more new stars of this generation emerge with moves that will defy the defense and even the whistles.