CHICAGO - As PBA team monikers go, Blackwater couldn't have gotten it more wrong with their choice.
In this staggered, ongoing, 2021 Philippine Cup Conference at least, Blackwater is anything but Bossing. Instead, it is being bossed around.
At least, the ballclub was right to drop its old Elite moniker. Frankly, it was anything but in more than six seasons in the pro league.
As the current standings would reflect, they are simply inferior, logging an 0-5 record that the team's mother company - Ever Bilena - could only hope to polish or cosmeticize.
And if numbers do not lie, as the sports faithful always say, then I'm afraid there is little hope of a reclamation effort that will turn this campaign around.
Here's how Blackwater sank to the bottom of the 12-team standings.
They've gone winless against Alaska, Rain or Shine, Ginebra, Tropang Giga and San Miguel beginning last July 16, a lousy streak that was extended two days ago when TNT blew them out of the DHVSU Gym in Bacolor, Pampanga, 96-76.
In their five Ls, the Elite have been manhandled by a combined score of 465-376.
You don't have to be a mathematician to know that their losing margin is 17.8 points per and you sure don't have to be a basketball scholar to understand that this team isn't just being defeated, it's routinely being overwhelmed.
So how bad are they exactly?
Words can't describe, maybe some properly prescribed painkillers will help.
Through five games in this conference, Blackwater has made only 92 of 260 field goals (35.3 percent) and 21 of 105 three-pointers (20 percent).
For some reason, Elite's shooting percentages from the field and from downtown are less kind at the official PBA website - 24.5 and 7.7 percent, respectively.
If rebounds are a residue of effort, there's little seeping out of Blackwater, just 33 a game.
And sadly, they have nearly as many assistant coaches (7) as they have assists per game (9).
What's happening to Blackwater is sad. This team is populated with good people beginning with Nash Racela as head coach and the Sy family as owners throwing their wealth and might behind it.
They just can't win because the logistics are wanting. Or to be more accurate, not enough to put up a fair fight against corporate giants.
So the fault here lies not in Blackwater. It's with the PBA.
Without a defined salary cap, independent teams will eternally be at a disadvantage against the super rich teams that have monopoly money to throw around the negotiating room and, allegedly, under the table.
The Sy family, according to reports, parlayed a P150,000 investment into a multi-million peso cosmetics Goliath that now employs 1,800 people.
Deoceldo Sy, the face of the franchise, is a winner. But can he win a lopsided fight against competitors with as much as 20 times the budget that he can allocate for his struggling PBA team?
I doubt it.
This is why the PBA has become so predictable with SMB or TNT owned teams perennially advancing to the finals.
Money talks. Low budget walks.
Am I wrong?