PBA Draft: UAAP cancels season 83 which means the 2020 PBA draft

 

The 2020, or basically the next PBA draft, is looking like it could even be much deeper with the breaking news of UAAP!

UAAP decided that it will not push through for this academic year 2020-2021, citing the risk to the health of the athletes and people involved.

This is a surprising move overall, as the PBA just concluded their bubble and crowned Brgy. Ginebra San Miguel as their champion.

So, what will be the effect of this on the PBA, especially the upcoming draft?

The graduating students and aspiring entrants of the next draft now faced the question of basically giving up one year of professional basketball to play in the 2021 UAAP. 

I expect that it will turn out to be 50/50. What I mean is that around half of them will decide to remain for the next UAAP season. While around half of them will go straight to the PBA draft.

The biggest names that will face this conundrum are Kobe Paras, Ricci Rivero and Javi Gomez De Liano. All of them only have one more eligibility year left. Are they willing to postpone their entry to the professional league for another year?

Especially now that they are part of the Gilas program. SBP suggested that those who were part of the Gilas pool last November will participate in a Gilas draft.

Other than those UP stars, the other big names that we will look forward to will be Jerrick Ahanmisi, Ken Tuffins and Shaun Ildefonso. Actually, Ahanmisi already said that he will join the upcoming draft.