Troubled PBA must spare sports media right away

It was an incredible feat delivered by the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) when it launched its 43rd season minus a commissioner on Sunday.

Congratulations are due, mainly to the body that carried out the rescue.

There was a very serious emergency and the tried-and-tested Ricky Vargas, super take-charge guy with the MVP group of companies, emerged out of nowhere as the new pro league chair.

Vargas announced at the season launch that the PBA was stronger than ever.

There was no big crowd to applaud at Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Whether the loud claim was valid or not, nobody could seem to tell. It’s the right of the PBA to say whatever it wanted to tell. It’s their ballgame, a league governed by their own rules.

Now, hold it please.

Lest we all got carried away, we would like to raise an issue, before it gets buried and forgotten.

It may not be a serious topic to others, but wasn’t it an outright clamp-up, a dirty gag order imposed on sports media during the announcement of the season opening?

As reported by sportswriters present, they were allowed to attend the opening press con, but were strictly prevented from asking questions.

This, to put it mildly, was out of this world. Frankly, it’s a slur, a trampling of inherent rights.

The PBA can do whatever it wants to do with its league.

But it has no right to demean sportswriters, who were visibly brutalized during that dubious press conference.

This is unacceptable.

Aghast, the inquisitive Noli Cortez, battle-scarred scribe with Malaya, tried to vent displeasure by asking the PBA man on the floor if they could at least bare the names of the respective PBA team muses.

It was unclear how the PBA manager responded, or if there were indeed team muses assigned during the hastily assembled opening ceremonies.

As could only be expected, Chito Narvasa, the immediate past PBA commissioner, was absent during the Sunday opening.

Everybody wanted to get a few words from him.

A man at the PBA bureau yesterday said they don’t have Narvasa’s cellphone number.

He said Narvasa had refused to be interviewed.

He instead advised this reporter to try Willie Marcial, who has been appointed PBA officer in charge following Narvasa’s exit.

Who’s the head of the PBA Press Corps, and why was this blasphemy allowed?

The press corps head is Gerry Ramos. He has issued the following statement on Narvasa’s resignation:

“He did the reasonable and the ‘only’ thing to do to end an impasse that had so seriously divided the entire Board. In effect, he also spared the PBA from further eroding, and thus overcome one of its worst times since (only) six teams were left to start the 1985 season due to the country’s economic crisis.”

So, is Narvasa, in this case, the real savior of this PBA season?

We can hardly wait to congratulate him.

By all means, please produce him.