Last Wednesday, the House Committee on Games and Amusements held a hearing to look into the Wynne Arboleda incident that happened during the Burger King-Smart Gilas game three weeks ago. The investigation delved into, among other things, the allegation by SBP executive director Noli Eala (and repeated by Smart Gilas loyalists) that Burger King coach Yeng Guiao had ordered Burger King players to rough up the developmental team players. The loyalists had taken a Twitter report by Patricia Hizon about Guiao’s pre-game speech instructing his team to “put them in their place” as evidence that the fiery coach wanted a hit out on the Gilas boys.

Except it wasn’t true, as Patricia herself attested to during the hearing, and that the statement was taken the wrong way by people with certain biases. There were NO directives for BK players to hurt anyone, according to her.

Here was Patricia’s original tweet of Guiao’s speech: “Malayo pa bago nila makuha spot niyo. Pero pakita niyo that this is your spot. Put them in their place and have pride.”

Now, it’s not hard to imagine Guiao instructing his players to play extra-physical against anyone; it’s part of the image he cultivates. But coaches do that all the time. Last season, Alaska coach Tim Cone threatened physical violence against Mac Cardona if the Talk N Text guard doesn’t stop his taunting. In the US, longtime Temple coach John Chaney was involved in a controversy after he instructed one of his bench players to take hard fouls against an opponent who subsequently got injured.

But what Yeng Guiao’s speech that afternoon betrays isn’t his guilt, but instead his extraordinary understanding of his players’ psyche. It shows why he’s been so successful in taking unheralded players and motivating them to play above themselves.

Consider this: there are only ten teams in the PBA, and each team only has 14 spots. At any one time, the maximum total number of active PBA players is only 140. Think about that number, and consider how many Filipinos play basketball, here and abroad. That number is miniscule and each spot is very precious.

Then take a look at the Burger King roster. They have two marquee scorers, Gary David and Ronjay Buenafe, neither of whom played in the elite collegiate leagues; playing for Lyceum and Emilio Aguinaldo College meant that they had to work doubly hard to get noticed and eventually get to where they are. Arboleda, often mocked for the fact that his father-in-law owns the team, had to take the long route to success. He lucked out in getting a spot for the Laguna Lakers after his college coach at MLQU was tapped to handle the team, and he parlayed that into PBA stints with Pop Cola and Tanduay. He actually made it to the PBA ahead of the Lina Group.

Beau Belga, Aaron Aban, and JR Quinahan were first-round draft picks whose original teams had given up on them. Richard Yee was unceremoniously cut from Purefoods despite spending ten years with the team. Chico Lanete, Mark Yee, and Egay Billones played for no-name collegiate programs, toiled in the commercial leagues, and went unsigned by professional teams before someone finally took a flyer on them. Carlo Sharma once thought that his PBA career was over after he was cut from Shell. Even rookie Ronnie Matias faced crazy odds, playing out of Philippine Maritime Institute (who knew they had a basketball team?) before having an excellent PBL career that led to him getting drafted this year. I got my Yeng Guiao rookies crossed, Larry Rodriguez played for PMI, while Ronne Matias played for the University of Manila Hawks. Matias joined Adamson in the UAAP, but I can't remember him seeing action for the Falcons. He's been around.

Each and every player on the team has worked very, very hard for a spot in the league. Some of these players probably feel that they’re only one step away from losing their spot; some of them almost did.

On the other side were Smart Gilas, a team composed of highly-touted collegiate stars. Most of their players were heavily recruited by the best college programs since high school, and those who weren’t, quickly gained prominence and following in the top two collegiate leagues. The most popular players on the team have starred in television commercials, and all of them have been signed to lucrative long-term contracts to play for the program. Without having proven anything yet, they have been handed the financial security and the popular acclaim that has been so elusive for Burger King players.

What Guiao did merely was to point out the situation to his players: these guys are here to take your hard-earned spot, put them in their place. So they did.

Wynne Arboleda played physical, dirty even. But the others guys on Burger King also put Gilas in their place. Ronjay Buenafe and Gary David kept torching Chris Tiu and JR Cawaling. Richard Yee outfoxed Japeth Aguilar. JR Quinahan abused Rabeh Al-Husseini. They showed that these young guys do not belong on the same court, especially when Gilas plays without an import. At least, not yet.

The Wynne Arboleda incident was indeed unfortunate, and SBP loyalists have taken it as an opportunity to go at Yeng Guiao again. Between those two things, we failed to see what the locker room pep talk really was when taken in context: a pretty good speech.