THE commissioner of what was supposed to be a Philippine Basketball League (PBL) that is brought back to life could do nothing but professionally take in stride the defection of its teams to the inaugural Developmental League of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). Nolan Bernardino, son of the late PBA commissioner Jun Bernardino, said he is not harboring any ill feelings against the teams that abandoned the PBL.
In fact, his Sports Vision team has already moved from the incident and wished those teams good luck in their stint in the Developmental League.
“We just have to learn from this and move on. We’re not taking this personally because it’s their decision and we have to respect that,” Bernardino told the BusinessMirror on Thursday after talks of reviving the PBL bogged down when three of its members decided to join the D-League at the last minute.
“Ang sa akin lang, nakakapanghinayang because we’re talking here of a 28-year-old basketball institution that has produced so many basketball greats in the country,” he added.
On Tuesday Benardino appeared in the weekly Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA) Forum and announced the return of the PBL after a year in hiatus.
But Cobra Energy Drink, Pharex and Café France decided to join 11 other teams for the inaugural D-League, putting the PBL back to its grave.
“At first, I was really shocked because we’re getting ready for the technical aspect tapos biglang nabalitaan nga namin ito,” said Bernardino.
“But it’s a business-to-business deal. Kami sa Sports Vision, we are all sports lovers and if one door closes, another will open. Sayang lang because we believe in the PBL as a basketball institution,” he added.
Based on the deal between the PBL and Sports Vision, league chairman Ding Camua of Pharex will take charge of the recruitment of teams while Sports Vision will handle the operations. But Bernardino said they will only get involved with the PBL under a six-team format.
“We decided to guest in the PSA Forum kasi nga para magkaroon na ng ingay and I told them sana full force kami to show everybody that we’re really serious in reviving the league,” Bernardino said.
Camua and Pharex team manager Jean Alabanza joined Bernardino in the forum, but not officials from Cobra, Excelroof, Café France and FCA-Ani Agriculture. The PBL was supposed to open on March 12, the same day the D-League will start. Among the three that jumped ship, it was only Café France, through Bernard Yang, who informed Bernardino about its decision to join the D-League.
“Mr. Yang called me up yesterday [Wednesday] and he was also disappointed with the turn of events. He was gentleman enough to tell me that they will try out with the D-League, which is no problem for me,” he said.
Bernardino also reiterated that they are also supporting the D-League of PBA commissioner Chito Salud.
“We believe in the thrust of the D-League and we know it’s a noble project by the PBA. Mas maganda sana kung mas maraming liga for our basketball players,” Bernardino said.
Joel Orellana, Business Mirror
