Friday, September 23, 2022

Opinion: This Is The Biggest Problem In The PBA Right Now


Calvin Oftana (left) and Jamie Malonzo have been traded to stronger teams recently. Photo credit: PBA Images.

Editor's Note: The opinions expressed here are those of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion or views of Sports Buzzer PH.

There's no denying the recent trades involving 2020 second and third overall pick Jamie Malonzo and Calvin Oftana has further improved Barangay Ginebra and TNT Tropang Giga even more respectively.

This has become the normal thing in the PBA now. The new normal scenario of the big guns getting bigger because of "trade hacking", as some have already coined it.

Sure it helps the cause of these bigger teams and their fan base. But it harms the PBA as a whole in the long run.

Why? Because the league-wide balance of power further diminishes. Needless to say, a more level playing field is crucial to keep fans, like us, interested. 

Of course, I'm not speaking for all fans, but I know most fans do like a little bit of uncertainty when it comes to watching basketball games. A toe-to-toe fight involving two evenly-matched top-notch boxers is more exciting to watch than a match between a world champion and an amateur, right?


Another example is when playing NBA 2K video games. It's much better to play against a real, live player with the same skill set than to play against the computer, right? Am I the only one feeling this way?

To be clear, I'm a fan of Ginebra since the days of the Big J, and I'm happy about the Malonzo trade. But I'm also a fan of the PBA as a whole, and I feel that there's something off when it is this easy to change things around, so to speak. For me, it's a bit obvious that these are one-sided trades.


There's also this other term that emerged as early as 2015: "farm teams". Apparently, these are professional basketball clubs that merely serve as "training ground" or entry-level squads for new players. 

In other words, they are not trying to win or to be competitive at all. They simply exist for the sake of those bigger and more influential squads.

Once the young player is "ripe", then he will be traded to a higher level basketball team of the same group. On paper, these farm teams are independent and not connected to the higher level teams. But behind the scenes, or "under the table" as some would controversially call it, they really are.

Some examples of alleged farm teams in the PBA are Blackwater Bossing, which is allegedly a farm team of the MVP group, and NorthPort Batang Pier and Terrafirma Dyip for the SMC teams.

Jamie Malonzo (#13). Photo credit: rappler.com

This "farm system" happening in the PBA right now technically negates its own rule that no two sister squads can trade players with each other. And so the league appears comedic to its fans because there is an easy and obvious way to circumnavigate around its supposed to be regulations. And league management is just letting it happen no matter how hilariously obvious it is.

During his exit interview, Alaska team owner Wilfred Uytengsu himself said that PBA officials should find ways to restore parity in the league for it to "continue to be healthy". 

Uytengsu said that the success of an independent team spells the success of the whole league. This is because fans will get a quality game every time even if teams from the bottom of the standings are playing.

And happy fans means a healthy and successful league.


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