PBA: EUROPEANS TO REPLACE AMERICAN IMPORTS
Manila, Oct. 29, 1998 - The growing popularity of the Metropolitan Basketball Association is prompting the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) to drum up ways to energize the league beginning next year. The PBA plans to American imports with Europeans for the foreigner-flavored second or third conference.
The PBA board of governors also decided to allow each member team to hire a Fil-American player directly provided that the player will be able to prove that one of his parents is a Filipino.
The PBA decided to review its current program and formulate new ones in light of the threat posed by the aggressive marketing of the MBA.
The use of Europeans as imports gained wide acceptance from the members after it was noted that the"fans are tired of the Americans." Since the PBA began in 1975, teams have always used American imports.
PBA officials were not worried that it might be difficult to find as many talents in Europe as in the United States as the game has progressed dramatically in the continent which has several professional leagues and inter-European tournaments.
The direct hiring of Fil-Ams who will not pass through the draft was also intended to liven up the all-Filipino conference. The PBA, however, has no open-ended salary policy on the Fil-Am it plans to recruit. The board reportedly agreed that any Fil-Am hired will have to settle for the rookie salary cap of P150,000.
A PBA source, however, suggested that the cap could be circumvented by providing a player a side contract separate from the standard contract which is a wide-spread practice in the PBA as well as the MBA and PBL.
Reported by: Sol Jose Vanzi
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