PBA News: Alaska is right, San Miguel is wrong

(c) PBA Media Bureau

Did coach Alex Compton begin a narrative that can change the league forever? 

In an article by Inquirer, coach Compton was quoted, "...they added Christian and now they added Terrence. Kawawa ang liga."

The San Miguel Beermen was not happy with it so they published this statement to the media:

The San Miguel Beermen is the last remaining pioneer team in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) when it was founded in 1975.

As the flagship team of the San Miguel Corporation (SMC), it is incumbent upon the Beermen to keep on improving its team lineup every year to make it even more competitive and win more championships for the benefit of its fans who expect nothing less.

It is unfortunate that Alaska team head coach Alex Compton had to make a statement against the Beermen and the league when he actually traded away competent players like RJ Jazul and Calvin Abueva.

It is also widely known that Terrence Romeo was offered to all the PBA teams before he was traded to San Miguel Beermen.

Despite Mr. Compton’s unnecessary remarks, we are still excited about what the future holds for PBA, our teams and the fans.

Each PBA team has a responsibility to create the right chemistry and harness talents to come up with a formidable squad. This league has gone a long way in providing entertainment and appreciation for this great sport and for that we thank all the people who have been a part in building it.

First things first, what was wrong with the statement of coach Alex? 

If you think about it, coach Alex may just be implying that San Miguel has just way more talent than all the other PBA teams, thus "kawawa ang liga".

It felt like SMB just burned themselves. They are the ones that assumed that coach Alex is implying something negative and now created a misconception.

Of course, it did not end with that SMB statement because the owner of Alaska was awarded Lifetime Achievement Award by the PBA Press Corp. 

In receiving the award, Mr. Wilfred Steven Uytengsu said the following:

I can tell you that we always respected the league and honor the game by not participating in these tactics. I believe that we have a greater responsibility than just winning games and that is to set an example to the next generation how to do things the right way.

Over the years, we and the PBA have been challenged with certain controversies that could and should have been mitigated, circumstances that led to an unlevel playing field. This started with the Fil-sham debacle.

In more recent years, we’ve seen dubious trades that create an even more unlevel playing field, creating further disparity in the league. This, coupled with under-reported salary caps, only separated the teams further and further apart.

So, San Miguel was wrong about? 

it is incumbent upon the Beermen to keep on improving its team lineup every year to make it even more competitive and win more championships for the benefit of its fans who expect nothing less... Each PBA team has a responsibility to create the right chemistry and harness talents to come up with a formidable squad.

Because Mr. Uytengsu was right about:

I believe that we have a greater responsibility than just winning games and that is to set an example to the next generation how to do things the right way.


It is actually a much bigger responsibility to win the right way than to win at any cost. The current version of San Miguel will be remembered as one of the best core ever to be assembled but in the eyes of the public, it will always have an asterisk.

Why?

Because it was not built the "right" way. PBA fans know what they did.

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