CHICAGO - Sorry I'm late to the party; I got sucked into that vacuum of officiating-related mess that has consumed Season 88 of the UAAP men's basketball tournament.
But to paraphrase a line from the classic movie Godfather III, just when I thought I was done talking about shenanigans in the PBA for a while, the league pulls off a stunt that quickly reels me back in.
READ Converge faces long wait for Dave Ildefonso after PBA trade
Last October 15, Ginebra traded Maverick Ahamisi and Aljon Mariano to Terrafirma in exchange for the Dyip's Season 51 first-round pick.
Famished for playing time, just 13 minutes a game in the previous Philippine Cup, where he averaged a meek 5.0 points per in 13 games, Ahanmisi, according to Ginebra coach Tim Cone, "wanted to go."
The 33-year-old Mariano, on the other hand, was calcifying on the Gin Kings' bench and played just a total of 20 minutes and 34 seconds in six games last conference.
SUBTLE TRADE
So, basically, coach Tim is getting a new car for a pair of used, unwanted tires.
But I can't really fault Cone for pulling off this heist. He's merely doing his job, which is to improve his roster in the face of talent erosion triggered by the flight of Jamie Malonzo to the Japan B.League and the advancing age of 38-year-old Japeth Aguilar.
The real bad actors here are the PBA and Terrafirma.
Not only did the league consent to a lopsided trade that clearly aided a powerhouse team; the trade committee did it with a haste that suggests railroading.
Unlike the Converge-Titan Ultra swap involving Dave Ildefonso, a transaction that required some tweaking, the Ginebra-Terrafirma swap was simply announced as approved.
If you still think the PBA is a soap opera, think again. The PBA is a dramady, a show that haunts fans with unjust drama laced with laughable plots. And it's making a mockery out of the draft process that is meant to promote parity
PHASE OUT THIS DYIP, PLEASE!
And then there's Terrafirma, which continues to dishonor the spirit of competition by choosing to be bad. How else can we explain the Dyip's continued mediocrity when they have amassed five No. 1 picks in the last seven years?
The only difference in giving away a prime asset this time is that Terrafirma is for sale, hopefully gone tomorrow, good riddance. The franchise couldn't care less about the mess they'd leave behind.
What a crying shame.
Meanwhile, Ginebra positions itself to have a swing at arguably the best player of the Season 51 PBA Rookie Draft, which could be the next important big man in its team after Aguilar.
Michael Phillips.
It's a big joke, really.
But the thing is, no one is laughing.
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