CHITO SALUD BARES PLANS FOR UPCOMING PBA SEASON
By Eddie Alinea
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 18 Aug 2014
Payback time!
This is how PBA Commissioner Chito Salud describes what the coming 40th Season of the country?s Asia?s first professional basketball league will be.
Salud said now that its goal of helping Philippine basketball back to the world stage has been achieved after the national team romped off with the silver medal in last year?s FIBA-Asia World Cup qualifying tournament held right here, the PBA will be looking forward to paying back its fans for whatever shortcomings the league had done to them the last season.
For one, the son of the former PBA commissioner himself, the late Rudy Salud, announced the other day that provincial games, a regular feature in the PBA calendar the past 38 season, will be back starting with the 40th Season?s Philippine Cup which unfolds October at a venue still to be decided.
?Ang maibabalita ko lamang na maaasahan ng ating fans ay babalik at makikita na muli kami sa probinsya (What I can relay and assure our fans is we will again be seen in provinces which we barely did the past season),? Salud assured in last Saturday?s ?Sports Sabado? radio program aired over DZAR and, likewise, viewed live at www.sonshinetvradyo.com
?We know we?d been remised in giving our provincial fans games they were expecting, but we?ll make up for that,? Salud, a lawyer, added during the weekly forum, sponsored by Rain or Shine, Philippine Sports Commission and the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office. ?Babalik po kami at makikita ninyong muli dyan sa inyong mga lugar.?
?We are thinking of playing from 10 to 12 games in the different parts of the country outside of Metro Manila and we are already finalizing our schedule for the entire season,? he said event as he thanked the fans, despite the league?s shortened calendar last year brought about by the preparation of the national team and its eventual participation in the FIBA-Asia qualifying, continued watching the games.
?Marami pa pong dapat asahang pagbabago ang ating fans sa susunod na season na hindi ko muna maipahahayag until such time that those would have passed the scrutiny the PBA Board of Governors,? Salud said, adding that the board?s the board will have planning session in Madrid in the course of the national team?s participation in the World Cup, which opens its curtains in August 30.
The Pba top man told the program?s hosts ? SCOOP president Eddie Alinea and veteran journalist Vic Endriga - 10 regular members will be represented in the Madrid planning session although the entire board, including the three new teams ? NLEX, Kia Motors and Blackwater Sports?will be on hand in its first regular meeting for the season during the Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea where the Nationals will also be seeing action.
Outgoing chair Segismundo of Meralco will be presiding over the Madrid planning session, a duty he will pass over to incoming chair Pasto Gregorio of PLDT.
Salud reported that the league?s 39th season that had been a huge success in terms of accomplishing the main goal setup before it raised curtain up?help the all-PBA Philippine team to the World Cup for the first time since the country?s aborted 28 years ago.
?Yun lamang makita natin ang ating mga kababayan ay nanood ng lahat laro ng ating pambansang koponan ay sapat na para kami sa PBA matuwa (The mere fact of seeing our countrymen watched all the games of our national team is enough for us in the PBA to be happy).?
?But what is more important is we ended up second and made it to the World Cup, a fact which we could only dream the past three decades, is something we all should be thankful for and be proud of,? he reasoned out.
?That is why I would also like to thank our teams, our players, especially the fans and even the media for their sacrifices in ensuring that our mission is accomplished. ?That, to me, spelled the success I am saying.?
Salud welcomed the addition of the three new teams as part of the league?s advocacies to give opportunity to new talents discovered in the schools leagues UAAP and NCAA as well and the PBA-owned Development League as well.
?The addition of these new teams, definitely, assured talents from the amateur leagues of their place in the pro-ranks, including those who had graduated from the amateur ranks earlier and those who are yet to be picked our drafting season son August 24,? Salud related.
?That is why our fans can expect more thrilling and exciting games with the rookies expected challenge the veterans for supremacy,? he opined.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.
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