Step towards the right direction

By Al S. Mendoza

UP TO NOW, the issue of which route to take to pave the way for basketball unity in the land is as blurred as the vision for reconciliation in our politically fractured nation.

That’s because of just one association that has long been declared out of commission. Candles had been lit for the eternal repose of its soul.

I refer once again to the Basketball Association of the Philippines (BAP).

Expelled nearly two years ago by the Philippine Olympic Committee (POC), the BAP continues to swim its way into perilous waters as though it wants to pull Philippine basketball down into the deep recesses of extinction.

My view is that when you’ve been kicked out by your own constituents, what’s the point in insisting to stay afloat?

Look, the BAP had been long removed from the country’s Olympic movement and yet, it continues to wreak havoc on Philippine basketball – as though it still has the legal, if not moral, personality to represent the sport on the world stage.

A quick flashback.

The POC first suspended the BAP for actions inimical to the Olympic movement.

Instead of mending its fences, the BAP ignored the warning signal from the POC.

The BAP showed signs of remorse when it sat down with the POC to craft a memorandum of agreement (MOA) to allow the POC to temporarily assemble a national team under the POC supervision. The BAP signed the MOA with its own volition.

But then, as sudden as a bolt of lightning, the BAP disowned its signature and brushed aside the MOA.

The POC held a General Assembly and tabled the BAP’s defiance and act of dealing in bad faith.

The General Assembly, composed of 39 National Sports Association (NSA) presidents, voted by a landslide to expel the BAP.  The count was 35 in favor of ousting the BAP for reneging on an agreement, 2 not in favor and 1 abstention.

You liken that to an election wherein a candidate (BAP) was elected out of office, what would happen next?

Well, the candidate would just fade away from the scene, lick his wounds maybe in one corner of the globe.

Not the BAP. 

It went on masquerading itself as still the duly constituted body to regulate basketball in the country.

The funny thing is, the FIBA (World Basketball Federation), instead of respecting the sovereign will of our nation, ignored the POC General Assembly and went on recognizing the BAP as a FIBA member.

What irony, indeed.

Tomorrow, Feb. 5, a Unity Congress to gather all basketball stakeholders in the land will be hosted by the Samahang Basketbol sa Pilipina (SBP), the frontrunner to replace the BAP as POC member. 

Even if the long-dead BAP boycotts the occasion, I believe the congress is a step towards the right direction.

I hope the FIBA thinks that way, too.

(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/general-admission/)

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