I wasn’t really all that excited about the return of the three-conference format for the PBA. I kinda liked the long, slow burn of having two conferences, and how each championship became much more meaningful because there were only two tournaments each year. I suppose I’m in the minority, judging by the comments compiled by Patricia Hizon, when it comes to this. I always suspected I was among the very few who enjoy watching random meaningless Air 21-Barako Bull regular season games. It takes a certain kind of unhealthy obsessiveness, I suppose, to run a sports blog like this one.

There’s also the matter of injuries. I always suspected that the three-conference format, with such a short offseason, contributed to players missing significant court time because they don’t have an opportunity to let their bodies heal. While there are the freaks like Robert Jaworski, Mon Fernandez, and Alvin Patrimonio who have shown incredible durability, I could rattle off names of PBA stars who have missed long stretches of time over several seasons due to injuries: Bogs Adornado, Abe King, Ricky Brown, Dondon Ampalayo, Hector Calma, Samboy Lim, Allan Caidic, Ronnie Magsanoc, Benjie Paras, Bong Alvarez, Vergel Meneses, Vince Hizon, Kenneth Duremdes, Bal David, Danny Ildefonso, Danny Seigle, Eric Menk. And those are just the stars, off the top of my head.

Of course, one could argue that a lot of those guys were just simply injury-prone, and that could be true. But the year-long schedule couldn’t have helped.

I don’t think the measure, touted by media as The Big Idea from new commissioner Chito Salud, is the silver bullet it’s being made out to be. The PBA has a lot of problems, and I’m not sure playing more tournaments solves them.

That said, I think that the handicapping system being proposed for the second import conference is an inspired idea, and I take my hat off to Salud, or whoever it is in the Commissioner’s Office that came up with the plan. Under the proposal, the top four teams will be allowed imports as tall as 6’2”, the next four teams will be allowed 6’4” imports, while the last two teams can suit up 6’6” guys. I’m particularly excited because we might be seeing the return of Tony Harris-types in the PBA.

Question: What’s the single coolest possibility about a PBA tournament with a 6’2” height limit?

Well, here’s your answer:



(Don’t laugh. He might be available!)

UPDATE: Alaska coach Tim Cone left a very insightful comment arguing against handicapping:

I, for one, am certainly against the handicapping, Jaemark. All the handicapping does is reward mediocrity--"I can be bad all year and have no need to get better so that I can have a chance to win in the last conference." We already have teams in the league that are more concerned about making money from selling their players than winning basketball games or championships. With the handicapping, now those teams will be able to have their cake and eat it too. If nothing else, all the handicapping is going to do is perpetuate a very bad system that has been in a place for a few years now. Horrible idea, in my opinion.

Very interesting. What do you guys think?