CHICAGO - The ping of a dear friend's 11:50 pm Viber text message abruptly slapped me wide awake from a deep Sunday night slumber.
"Have you read my story?" the inimitable Snow Badua asked.
Of course, I have.
His tweets and the subsequent story post, where the salacious and sometimes gory details emerge, always explode with shock and awe. Hence, the tagline, Snow Bombs.
Badua's latest hot right-off-the-burner reporting was no different.
"Standhardinger, Sangalang next targets as Japan teams shift focus to big men," the wailing SPIN.ph headline screamed.
This is terrific news for every PBA player with dreams of taking their craft overseas.
An international sports agent told me that this trend of topnotch PBA players and potential draftees stampeding toward the exit doors is tacit recognition that Filipino hoopers are now being "seen as equals talent-wise" alongside our Asian neighbors - the natural-born shooters from Korea and the carefully-nurtured, fundamentally sound cagers from China.
Konichiwa, Thirdy and Kiefer Ravena.
And same to you, Ray Ray Parks, Dwight Ramos, Kobe Paras, Kenmark Carino and the De Liano brothers, Juan and Javi.
THE NUMBER OF FILIPINOS IN THE B LEAGUE IS EIGHT. I HOPE IT SCALES TO 80 BECAUSE IT WOULD MEAN 72 LESS LONELY PEOPLE IN THE WORLD.
"If a Pinoy player is offered a boatload of money to play for a league that is better organized and has a growing fan base that is passionate and hospitable, why wouldn't he take it? It's a great pathway," said the agent who declined to be identified.
But money isn't just the sole motivation here. Players will willingly take less for bliss. Unfortunately, the PBA is being run in a way where only rebellion and discontent grows.
The belief that the Japan B League's aggressive recruitment will break the PBA is laughably ignorant. The PBA has already done a lot of irreparable breaking on its own through irrational players suspensions, oppressive measures, and outdated laws that taunt logic.
"If the PBA hadn't blocked all those Fil-Ams from entering the draft due to arcane eligibility rules, there's no limit to the number of gifted players that could have flooded your league for fans to enjoy."
True.
A part of me, the hopeless romantic that clings on nostalgia for comfort, is lathered with sadness that the league I grew up watching is unable to cope with the pace with which the modern game is moving forward.
But the other part of me, the informed reporter, is being devoured and gutted by anger over how the good 'ole folks in the league office have erected walls while the basketball community around us are building bridges.
A BLACKBERRY IN AN IPHONE WORLD, THE PBA WILL EVENTUALLY GET DISCONNECTED UNLESS IT CONFORMS TO THE TIMES..
With the MPBL and the VisMin Cup providing only a tick of harmless threat, the PBA can still claim to be the only game in town.
But to wallow in comfort and hollow triumph, it cannot.
Because the PBA isn't only the league that can be watched on the internet, the platform where the new generation consumes its sports.
And if it elects to be tone deaf on what's going on around its crumbling fences, the PBA ought to take a listen to this.
Four more players, including three of "the brightest names" will soon be headed to the Japan B League, said my unimpeachable source.
The exodus is growing. And once the players that are already there start telling the players left behind how much better life and hooping is in Japan, a full-blown mass departure will ensue.
If this is indeed, God forbid, the beginning of the end. the PBA only has itself to blame.
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