MANILA, 7 February 2003 — If you think imports playing in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) are “untouchable” — think again.
The PBA has decided to slash the imports’ salary by 30 percent down from the previous basic pay of $20,000 per month to $14,000.
This came about after the professional league — facing spiraling costs in maintaining teams — reduced the salary cap for local players starting this year — from a maximum monthly salary of 500,000 pesos to 350,000 pesos.
So now, the imports — majority coming from the US, particularly ‘discards’ from the National Basketball Association (NBA), are the targets of the league.
PBA Commissioner Noli Eala said the board has agreed to impose a 30 percent reduction on the salary cap for imports.
“In line with the thrust of the board to reduce expenses, and consistent with the reduction of the salary cap as well for local players, the imports’ salary cap was also reduced by thirty percent. Import bonuses were also reduced by another 30 percent, as well as their benefits,” said the new PBA boss.
He said the board members reached a gentleman’s agreement on this matter that they believe would prevent the imports from getting more than the salary cap that was recently agreed upon.
“We have a system in the PBA. However, at the end of the day it’s the code of ethics and the gentleman’s agreement that will be the primary considerations of the team to comply. We’re doing this so the local players will know that we’re also doing something about the imports,” said Eala.
The move, he said, only shows that the league has become “more responsive to the times,” and that it is beginning to take note of the fact that a lot of companies and the member teams in the PBA are in a very difficult financial situation.
From now on, it has also become the responsibility of the teams to make sure that player salaries don’t go out of control.
“We are keeping this in check. But I think this does not mean that the excitement in the league will suffer. And the players have graciously accepted the new policies of the league and this is good. It also augurs well for the league that the players are playing so hard not because they are being paid so much but because they love the game,” said Eala.
As part of its realignment of expenses to conform to the difficult times, the board also decided to make downward adjustments in the bonus scheme for imports, who will compete in this year’s reinforced second conference.
Likewise, Eala announced a 6-foot-5 height limit for the imports seeing action in this year’s Reinforced Conference scheduled Aug. 24 to Dec. 12.
After a discussion of various options on a handicapping system that would have given the lower half of the PBA’s 10 teams some relief in terms of competitiveness, the board eventually voted against handicapping and decided to set a height ceiling of 6-foot-5 for imports.
“We have set the height limit to six-feet-five with no handicapping. The balance in the league is so tremendous right now that there is no need at this point to use a handicap and do some favors to other teams. Each team will have to field 6-foot-5 imports,” he said. “The board felt there was enough parity in the league. And at 6’5”, you have the flexibility you need. Usually, 6’5” imports can play the front-line or the back court.”
The 29th PBA season will begin Feb. 23 with the staging of the All-Filipino Cup scheduled until July 13. In the first two weeks of August, the Asian Invitational will be held with six local teams going up against four foreign squads.
The top five teams in the All-Filipino will be seeded to the invitational tournament with the last slot to be a tossup among the five others after a single-round elms. The order of drafting for next year will be decided based on the records of the teams in All-Filipino (50 percent), Reinforced (40 percent) and Asian Invitational (10 percent).
Meanwhile, the PBA announced it will put up a $20,000 cash prize for a foreign team that will emerge the champion in the inaugural Asian invitational tournament late this year.
“We know that the foreign teams will treat the tournament as a tune-up match, so we thought of putting up a pot to entice them to go all out in their games,” said Eala about the decision. The Asian invitational is an innovation this year and will take the place of one of two import conferences the league usually holds. Invitations were already sent out and the league is working on the schedules of the Japanese and Korean leagues to finalize which two entries will participate this year.
At the same time, the board settled their differences spawned by the controversial broadcast rights.
