PBA looks to spread wings for Season 45
By Michael Angelo S. Murillo
Senior Reporter
WHEN the Philippine Basketball Association’s Season 45 unfurls beginning March 1 it will see the league spreading its wings, adding new offerings to complement its steady fare.
A 3-on-3 tournament and more on-the-road matches are just some of the new things fans could expect from Asia’s first play-for-pay when it returns back to action.
Proceedings for the PBA Season 95 kick off on March 1 with the season-opening tournament Philippine Cup.
Five-time defending champions San Miguel Beermen begin their title defense on opening day against the Magnolia Hotshots Pambansang Manok in the lone scheduled match at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Preceding it is the annual Leo Awards where the top individual awards for last season will be handed out.
For PBA Season 45, the league has decided to retain the same format it had last year, taking into consideration its commitment to the Gilas Pilipinas national team, which is set to see action in various competitions spread throughout the year.
The Philippine Cup will see the 12-team field play in a single round-robin elimination with the top eight teams advancing to the quarterfinals with the top two teams earning a twice-to-beat advantage.
Teams 3 and 4 will play the no. 6 and 5 teams, respectively, in a best-of-three quarters.
The surviving four teams after play in a best-of-seven semifinals series, with the finals also a race-to-four wins affair.
The All-Filipino tournament is set to last till June to be followed by the Commissioner’s Cup which will feature foreign reinforcements with a height limit of 6’10”.
Then follows the Governors’ Cup, also import-laden with a height limit of 6’5”.
League officials said the season-ending tournament will spill over to January next year to accommodate Gilas’ calendar.
“We’re trying to move from a calendar year to a flexible year. We’re going to extend to January 2021 because this (calendar) will accommodate the window of qualifiers for the FIBA Asia Cup. So we organized it on that basis,” PBA Chairman Ricky Vargas of TNT was quoted as saying by the league Website.
3-ON-3 TOURNAMENT
This season will also see the PBA have its own 3-on-3 tournament designed, league officials said, to help the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) in its bid to make it to the Olympics.
It is planned to start sometime in March and is being organized to be a standalone event.
The event will feature teams from all 12 PBA franchises plus the possible participation of non-PBA entities.
“We decided to make it a standalone program, something like the D-League. It will be run by an executive director under the supervision of the PBA commissioner,” Mr. Vargas said.
Adding, “Our involvement in 3×3 reassured the SBP president that the PBA is all out to support the SBP. We’ve been doing that at least in the last four years.”
The PBA has also lined up out-of-town matches, including the annual All-Star Game from July 10–12 in Passi, Iloilo.
Five games in the provinces have already been set for the Philippine Cup, namely in Bataan, Cagayan De Oro, Panabo, Dipolog, and Iloilo, with more eyed as the season progresses.
The league played a doubleheader in Dubai last year and it is something it is looking at doing anew, with Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Dubai, and the United States, among the likely host.
