CHICAGO - While dealing with the imminent threat of losing a franchise player to a burgeoning foreign league, it has become evident that the PBA's most popular team will not back down from what is shaping into an intense bidding war.
Multiple sources told SPIN.ph that Ginebra San Miguel is "constantly pressuring" Japeth Aguilar to sign a renewal on his current contract that expires on December 31.
Amid recent reports that a payday of "upwards of $40,000 a month" awaits Aguilar the moment he becomes a restricted free agent, the Gin Kings are throwing in a pile of cash on the table.
How much exactly?
"June Mar Fajardo money," I was told.
A six-time-MVP and 8-time champion who plays for Ginebra's sister team San Miguel, the 6-foot-10, 250-pound Fajardo is universally-acknowledged as the highest-paid PBA player.
"He pulls around P1.2 million a month," said a PBA insider. "More like P1.1 million a month," a former PBA head coach chimed in,
Either way, Aguilar is about to enter the exclusive multi-millionaire player's club inhabited by Fajardo and a select group of stars that include Jayson Castro, who is pulling in around P700,000 a month according to a former TNT executive that I spoke to.
The fact that Ginebra has not blinked in the face of a potential cash war with the Japan B.League is hardly a surprise.
And here's why.
Ginebra's parent company is San Miguel Corporation, which according to its own website, had a net income of P34.2 billion pesos in the first nine months of 2021 alone, a revenue stream that nearly tripled what SMC made over the same period last year.
SMC PRINTS MORE MONEY THAN THE CENTRAL BANK AND THE BEER GIANT ISN'T SHY ABOUT SPENDING IT ON THE THREE TEAMS THEY OWN IN THE PBA.
Again, I texted SMC sports director Alfranchis Chua to comment on the offer given to Aguilar.
Again, my messages were left only as "seen" but not replied.
No offense taken.
I get it, I'm not easy to like.
SMC's generosity should be applauded, especially in this holiday season. But what if the cash-giving is breaking the rules?
Courtesy of an internal PBA memo passed three years ago, the max contract for top players was raised from P420,000 to P500,000 a month.
Mockery of the rules
The salary cap was meant to limit spending in a way that would allow the poor teams to compete with the rich. But this so-called rule appears to have been honored more in the breach than in the practice.
If not, then tell me why the hell does Aguilar have a reported offer of more than twice the supposed cap?
Instead of making a mockery of the rules, why won't the PBA just stop this charade and eliminate the salary cap altogether. It has spiraled into a clown show that godforsaken teams like Blackwater, Terrafirma and Phoenix LPG must not find amusing.
GOING BACK TO AGUILAR, HE STILL HASN'T ACCEPTED THE OFFER. AND HE HAS STAYED QUIET, IMPERVIOUS TO THE NAGGING TO RE-SIGN THAT IS BORDERING ON HARASSMENT.
"Still status quo," said somebody close to the player.
Aguilar has his eyes on that $40,000 a month but he wants assurances the offer is real. The nimble big is worried that he would be out of a job "for at least three months" when the next PBA conference ends and the B-League season begins.
That's understandable.
The problem is, none of the four teams in Japan can make him an offer right now because he is under contract with Ginebra and luring him would constitute tampering.
Words of advice, Japeth.
Trust the courtship. And patience is a virtue.
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