The basketball world was rocked by an anomaly of a game pitting the Siquijor Mystics against the Lapu Lapu City Heroes in the country’s newest professional league, the Pilipinas VisMin Super Cup. Different stakeholders chimed in with their opinions, from the Games and Amusements Board (GAB) and the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC), to players from other leagues, to fans from here and abroad, both Filipinos and foreign. 

Everyone had an opinion. Everyone cried foul. Everyone felt that those involved in the tragicomedy acted out horribly by both Siquijor and Lapu Lapu made a mockery of the game they loved.

The Siquijor ballclub was banned from the league. Players from Lapu Lapu were suspended. Suddenly, the wheels of justice rolled like a well-oiled running team on a 3-on-1 fast break. The quest to clean up the game went even beyond the VisMin Cup.

The Department of Justice filed charges against 17 individuals from the Soccskargen Marlins who were suspected of involvement in illegal activities during their stint in the 2019 MPBL Lakan season. House of Representatives Deputy Speaker Mikee Romero also authored a bill that would indict those involved in game-fixing in any sport.

These initiatives, both punitive and preventive, are steps in the right direction to rid the game of shenanigans. The incident in the VisMin Cup has been labeled a travesty, and for good reason. Basketball is a beautiful game and like any sport, it aims to build competitiveness and discipline and promote fair play and sportsmanship. 

But there’s the rub. Travesty to the sport of basketball is no longer strange and isolated in this country. It is something that has been happening even before the VisMin Cup fiasco engulfed the sports scene. The travesty has not been confined to allegations of game-fixing, although irregularities of this nature has been the most blatant attack to the integrity of the sport. 

Where there is money to be made, there will be money that will be gambled, and there will be self-interests that will be protected. Such is the case in basketball which happens to be the most commercially-viable form of sports entertainment in the country. Basketball in the Philippines is where the big-name corporate sponsors gravitate to because it enjoys the widest reach and the largest fan following.

In 2018, PBA D-League newcomer Mila’s Lechon pulled out of the Aspirants’ Cup after only four games where they failed to notch a single victory. Their average losing margin was 26.3 points. 

But more than the double-digit losses, what caught the ire of league officials was how the Mila’s Lechon players seemingly showed no desire to win games and repeatedly committed head-scratching turnovers and botched shot attempts, all of which appeared deliberate in nature. 

It was also discovered during an investigation after the team lost by 47 points to Zark’s Burger-Lyceum that the players of Mila’s Lechon were urging the opposing team to run up the score so that the winning margin would reach 50 points. 

Stories of game-fixing have infiltrated even a bastion where the game is supposed to be still pure and unadulterated, the collegiate leagues. The shooting of then FEU player Mac Baracael in 2008 remains an unsolved case to this day. It is believed that the motive of the attempt on his life was to silence him after he reported game-fixing issues to authorities. 

Being associated to game-fixing has also hounded a current pro player which has earned him the monicker King Archer even though he is not a product of De La Salle University.

The travesty to the game, at least from the viewpoint of discerning fans, is also evident in the PBA. The term “sagip kapamilya” has taken on a different meaning in basketball parlance. An example of this, as those who followed last year’s PBA Philippine Cup bubble claim, was the crucial game pitting league leader Ginebra against San Miguel, which needed a win to assure itself of a playoff spot. 

Fans could not wrap their heads around the following things which unfolded: against San Miguel, Ginebra’s Stanley Pringle logged only 18 minutes and scored just 7 points when in the game prior which they won against the Tropang Giga, he was fielded in for 41 minutes and exploded for 28 points and grabbed 12 rebounds. 

Japeth Aguilar played 39 minutes against Tropang Giga but against Ginebra’s sister team, he was on the floor for just 17 minutes. LA Tenorio had zero points and zero assists in 26 minutes of action against SMB after registering 15 points and 9 assists in their previous game. Curious that Ginebra’s main guns all had off nights in the same game which they lost, 66-81.

“Sagip kapamilya” extends beyond the playing court and often weaves its black magic at the negotiating table where deals are made between and among teams owned by the same conglomerates, and between the richer ballclubs and their suspected farm teams. 

The kinds of trades that have been happening in the league – like when a flagship franchise of a conglomerate fills in its hole in the middle by getting its hand on a key big man of a sister team, or when a league powerhouse squad, after a dominant season, still gets the top overall draft pick by trading a number of nominal players – does not happen in any other self-respecting professional league in other parts of the world. 

Any act that runs contrary to the values that basketball stands for is an insult to the game and to those who treat the game with reverence. It is also a slap on the face of Filipino fans who live, breathe, and eat basketball which has become part of the fabric of Philippine society. 

The game of basketball has been good to Filipinos. It is but fair to demand that the stakeholders of the game in this country stop their acts of travesty and treat the game and the fans with the respect that they deserve. – Rappler.com