CHICAGO - As TNT and Ginebra began battling for the PBA Governors' Cup title on Sunday night, another powerhouse team, which ought to be on that big stage, was at home watching.
Despite an enormous budget, four imports in this conference alone plus a slew of big-name max players in their line-up, the Magnolia Hotshots have continued to be pillars of underachievement.
And that has led to several SPIN.ph readers, including at least two Magnolia players, to ask me if a coaching change is imminent.
READ COLUMN: Jerom Lastimosa is closer than ever to Magnolia debut
My answer is I don't know and I don't care. Not my circus, not my trapeze. And besides, I usually never advocate for people to lose their jobs.
Apparently, some do.
An X account (@MagnoliaHShots) which has 35,000 followers and is a devoted fan page of the PBA team recently conducted a poll asking if Chito Victolero should be fired, kept, or promoted to either a governor or consultant.
THE JURY IS OUT.
A staggering 82.6 percent voted for termination. A kind five percent opted to give him a chance while 12 percent wanted the embattled coach bumped as a consultant.
Somehow, one percent of the voters thought it was a wonderful idea to make coach Chito the franchise governor.
"Hope this reaches management," the owner of the account told me and my friend Snow Badua via a post on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Here's my advice to all who have a thirst for some blood-letting at Magnolia. Stop wasting your time and energy chasing a fantasy. Victolero is not going anywhere anytime soon, if ever.
Victolero is extremely well connected. He deals directly with billionaire team owner Ramon S. Ang, sources said, and Chito is also tight as a leotard with SMC sports director Alfranchis Chua.
A VERY LUCKY COACH.
In other words, coach Chito, who used to talk to me until I criticized, FAIRLY, his team's perennial struggles, is a made man that is untouchable in the SMC universe.
The argument that a shake-up at Magnolia is soon to follow after Terrafirma fired Johnedel Cardel last week is a non sequitur.
The main difference between Victolero and Cardel is that Chito has a 'chip while Johnedel only has a chip on his shoulder.
I mean, is coaching Terrafirma really a job given that there seems to be little interest in winning as shown by the habit of trading away assets and zero accountability from the suits who allegedly run the show?
To paraphrase an old political joke about the relative uselessness of an elected vice position: A mother had two sons. One went to sea, the other coached Terrafirma. Neither has been seen again.
Instead of saying he was hurt and that he was a "good soldier," Cardel should be thankful he held that position for four more years after the expiration date. Complaining will only make him less employable in the PBA.
Good coaches such as Ariel Vanguardia and Frankie Lim never had the luxury of a long rope during their recent PBA tenures, but they went on with the program and never complained about their fate.
Chito Victolero is indeed a lucky man.
Even in the midst of an excruciatingly brutal six-year title drought, his bosses still got his back.
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