PBA board set to tackle key league issues

FILE–Members of the PBA Board of Governors. –PBA IMAGES

PARIS—The entire leadership of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) arrived here on Thursday for its annual planning session where it is set to discuss how the next season will run and address certain concerns facing Asia’s pioneering professional cage league.

Led by board chair Ricky Vargas of TNT and commissioner Willie Marcial, the league officials will be in the French capital for the next four days to tackle certain issues like rules changes, its continued East Asia Super League participation and what concessions Bay Area can be granted when it plays in the PBA again.

“There are other things that will be put on the table when we get there,” Marcial told the Inquirer, hours before boarding an Etihad flight to Dubai for the group’s layover. “We will be open to [divulging] all of them after the planning session.”

The return to the three-conference format starting with the opening with the all-Filipino tournament in early October is a cinch to be approved. The league played just the Philippine Cup and the Reinforced Conference this year to give way to the country’s cohosting of the Fiba (International Basketball Federation) World Cup.

Players from the PBA will make up the Gilas Pilipinas squad with Jordan Clarkson of the Utah Jazz in the NBA likely to be tapped as its naturalized player.

Bay Area’s participation for the second straight season will be discussed and high on this topic is the ticklish issue of the number of imports that will be allowed to reinforce the Dragons.