BARRING any last-minute changes, Bay Area Dragons won’t be taking part in the season-ending PBA Governors Cup.
Commissioner Willie Marcial said the original set-up was for the Dragons to just see action in the ongoing Commissioner’s Cup, and the agreement doesn’t include playing as well in the season’s final conference.
“Ang usapan lang is Commissioner’s Cup,” said Marcial of the league’s arrangement with the guest team from Hong Kong, which is currently battling defending champion San Miguel in a best-of-five semifinals.
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Besides, the commissioner said accommodating one more team for the Governors’ Cup could pose a problem for the league as far as scheduling is concerned.
The PBA is eyeing a January 22 kickoff for its final tournament of the season, which will have a compressed schedule in order to give way to Gilas Pilipinas’ preparation for the 2023 Southeast Asian Games in Cambodia, and the FIBA World Cup, which the country will be co-hosting with Japan and Indonesia.
Under the plan, the league is looking to schedule playing a triple header a day and additional game days in the hope of wrapping up the entire conference by April.
“So sa scheduling pa lang nga ng 12 teams ang hirap na dahil nga sa Gilas, yun pa kayang 13 teams,” said Marcial.
The Dragons were accepted as guest team in the Commissioner’s Cup as they were then in the middle of their preparation for the inaugural home-and-away season of the East Asia Super League (EASL) set last October.
But the EASL decided to forego its home-and-away tournament for the time being and instead, will hold a Champions Week to be held in Japan from March 1-5.
The Dragons, who have been in the country since August and introduced to Filipino basketball fans the likes of Myles Powell, Andrew Nicholson, Kobey Lam, Chuanxing Liu, Hayden Blankley, Glen Yang, and Zhu Songwei, pushed through with their campaign in the Commissioner’s Cup, where they are just one win away from clinching a berth in the finals.
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