LIVING up to Barangay Ginebra’s rallying call to “Never say die,” the PBA is not giving up on restarting its truncated season despite the latest blow to its return timetable.
The hope is that this latest setback is not the knockout punch, as the PBA pushes to save a basketball season that looks to increasingly fade away.
The new government edict putting Metro Manila back under MECQ (Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine), after a brief dalliance with ECQ (General Community Quarantine), is the latest to hit the PBA’s planned return in September.
With the metropolis now under MECQ for a minimum two weeks, the PBA reopening sked has been moved to October. Before this, the PBA was already in the final stages of its planned training session, which were to be followed by scrimmages, exhibition games, and then the grand reopening.
These activities have now all been moved back. But the never-say-die commissioner, Willie Marcial, holds on. If MECQ is lifted after August 14, he sees the PBA returning in mid-October.
“Ang sinasabi ko nga, kahit sagad ang opening...pweding mag-resume second week of October,” he said in a recent Spin.ph interview.
The worst-case scenario for him is that teams will not be able to practice for a month, including the whole of September and parts of August and October. He explains that teams need to practice at least one month before competition to avoid injuries. If the PBA has less than a month, he concedes, it will be difficult to have even one conference before year’s end.
But while Marcial posts optimistic scenarios, the final decision on when the PBA can resume is ultimately not his to make. The final authority will not be the commissioner or the PBA board or even the government.
It will be the coronavirus, the invisible enemy that has shackled Philippine sports, frustrated contingent businesses, and driven athletes and fans to depression. Unless the government and the people work together, this virus will continue to wreak havoc on society and the country and, along with it, the PBA’s dream of a comeback.
The sad part is, there is no sign the curve is being flattened. The government has practically conceded the fight by putting all its eggs in one basket — the discovery of a vaccine, and more particularly, of China discovering it and putting the Philippines on top of its list of beneficiaries.
We’re at the mercy of the kindness of strangers.
Yet there is no question that other nations, also battered by Covid-19, will make their citizens the first and main beneficiaries of the vaccine. At best, we wait and get crumbs. Because in this year and the next, there seem to be no government moves at strengthening the health system, nor is there enough movement in government investments and projects to keep our labor force going.
We stay alive only because we must.
Yet, even in a scenario this grim, the PBA does not look like it’s giving up. It continues to rally its troops, rolling with the punches, facing up to one government edict after another, until the day it finally resurrects on the hardcourt.
Come to think of it, that’s not a bad way to do things. Indeed, never say die!
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph
NOTICE ON UNAUTHORIZED AND UNLAWFUL USE, PUBLICATION, AND/OR DISSEMINATION OF SPIN.PH CONTENT: Please be notified that any unauthorized and unlawful use, publication, and/or dissemination of Spin.ph’s content and/or materials is a direct violation of its legal and exclusive rights to the same, and shall be subject to appropriate legal action/s.
