The 33rd season of the Philippine Basketball Association, the first play-for-pay league in Asia has kicked-off last Sunday at the Araneta Coliseum with some new additions on the country's best basketball league.
I have been a basketball enthusiast since my childhood days and up to now it has been really one of my wildest ambition to be a basketball player even though I'm short of certain physical attributes like height so all I can do is watch basketball games in front of my television. I've seen them all, from NBA to US NCAA to our very own PBA(live) and UAAP. My mother and I have been fanatics of Alvin Patrimonio during my early days and now there are some inheritance going on with James Yap glamorous play(those fan enthusiasm and no-airhead play as well as both players have been linked to Kris Aquino). I've seen how the PBA have had its golden years and its downfall and how the players changed their strategies from season-to-season.
Now, PBA boasts its Philippine Cup(even though the first pick of the last 3 seasons are all Filipino-Americans) opener with some rule changes along with executive changes and here are some of those new additions to the PBA.
I have been a basketball enthusiast since my childhood days and up to now it has been really one of my wildest ambition to be a basketball player even though I'm short of certain physical attributes like height so all I can do is watch basketball games in front of my television. I've seen them all, from NBA to US NCAA to our very own PBA(live) and UAAP. My mother and I have been fanatics of Alvin Patrimonio during my early days and now there are some inheritance going on with James Yap glamorous play(those fan enthusiasm and no-airhead play as well as both players have been linked to Kris Aquino). I've seen how the PBA have had its golden years and its downfall and how the players changed their strategies from season-to-season.
Now, PBA boasts its Philippine Cup(even though the first pick of the last 3 seasons are all Filipino-Americans) opener with some rule changes along with executive changes and here are some of those new additions to the PBA.
NEW Commissioner:
After the morality issues of former PBA Commissioner Noli Eala, he has been replaced by a former PBA executive and now the new officer-in-charge Sonny Barrios. Eala has done so much for the PBA. We've seen how he managed to take charge of a league already on its downfall and then back to a stable condition. I think it is the first challenge for Sonny Barrios as now new head of the league.
NEW Players:
PBA teams beefed-up their rosters during the 2007 Annual Draft by putting some really promising college players from both the UAAP and NCAA led by Joe Devance from the PBL as Welcoat's top pick. Though the issue of citizenship of many of its players would never be erased from the league history, these Filipino-American players must prove that they have the skills not only those physical skills but the moral decency as well as proper behaviors.
NEW Rules:
The PBA adopted some of the rules used in FIBA tournaments to prepare its players for international competition as well as to give the fans a more exciting game play. Some of the new rules are:
-The PBA 3-point line has been shortened to FIBA's 20 feet line. This means that shots made beyond the blue line would be considered as a triple. As a result, I've seen the game opener of Air21 and Magnolia and it produced a more scoring opportunities for both teams especially those with players who has those long range capabilities. Expect a game to end reaching century-mark scores like what we saw on Sunday and expect players to have those Kobe Bryant mentality like what KG Canaleta of Air 21 did last Sunday. It would be a shooting parade the whole season. I think this rule is advantageous to those teams who have a lot of guards in their rotation because guards are used to have that long-range mentality. It's just too bad for those teams who are used to playing defensively using the zone defense as this rule would tempt players to shoot more beyond the arc. James Yap, RenRen Ritualo and Mark Caguioa sure loves this rule.
-"The Paint" is now trapezoidal in shape from the traditional rectangular meaning there would be a wider space for those big men like Asi Taulava of Talk N' Text and the two Danny's of Magnolia. We would really now be able to see who could dominate the paint more in a physical game but the disadvantage is that the "No Parking" zone area or the 3-second violation is prone to this rule. To adjust to this certain rule, players must now start moving more quickly and freely around the floor. I think this rule adds more physicality to the basketball game as what Purefoods and Sta. Lucia did in their game earlier where in there has been 9 technical fouls and 2 players were thrown out of the game.
-The "controlled hand check" is now allowed to speed up the game which I think will be advantageous to those shooting guards as they have the capability to take over games. Expect a fast-paced action packed game in the next weeks of the league.
Anyways, teams would try to adjust primarily on these rules to adopt it to their basketball system and a new brand of play would be seen in the league.
After the morality issues of former PBA Commissioner Noli Eala, he has been replaced by a former PBA executive and now the new officer-in-charge Sonny Barrios. Eala has done so much for the PBA. We've seen how he managed to take charge of a league already on its downfall and then back to a stable condition. I think it is the first challenge for Sonny Barrios as now new head of the league.
NEW Players:
PBA teams beefed-up their rosters during the 2007 Annual Draft by putting some really promising college players from both the UAAP and NCAA led by Joe Devance from the PBL as Welcoat's top pick. Though the issue of citizenship of many of its players would never be erased from the league history, these Filipino-American players must prove that they have the skills not only those physical skills but the moral decency as well as proper behaviors.
NEW Rules:
The PBA adopted some of the rules used in FIBA tournaments to prepare its players for international competition as well as to give the fans a more exciting game play. Some of the new rules are:
-The PBA 3-point line has been shortened to FIBA's 20 feet line. This means that shots made beyond the blue line would be considered as a triple. As a result, I've seen the game opener of Air21 and Magnolia and it produced a more scoring opportunities for both teams especially those with players who has those long range capabilities. Expect a game to end reaching century-mark scores like what we saw on Sunday and expect players to have those Kobe Bryant mentality like what KG Canaleta of Air 21 did last Sunday. It would be a shooting parade the whole season. I think this rule is advantageous to those teams who have a lot of guards in their rotation because guards are used to have that long-range mentality. It's just too bad for those teams who are used to playing defensively using the zone defense as this rule would tempt players to shoot more beyond the arc. James Yap, RenRen Ritualo and Mark Caguioa sure loves this rule.
-"The Paint" is now trapezoidal in shape from the traditional rectangular meaning there would be a wider space for those big men like Asi Taulava of Talk N' Text and the two Danny's of Magnolia. We would really now be able to see who could dominate the paint more in a physical game but the disadvantage is that the "No Parking" zone area or the 3-second violation is prone to this rule. To adjust to this certain rule, players must now start moving more quickly and freely around the floor. I think this rule adds more physicality to the basketball game as what Purefoods and Sta. Lucia did in their game earlier where in there has been 9 technical fouls and 2 players were thrown out of the game.
-The "controlled hand check" is now allowed to speed up the game which I think will be advantageous to those shooting guards as they have the capability to take over games. Expect a fast-paced action packed game in the next weeks of the league.
Anyways, teams would try to adjust primarily on these rules to adopt it to their basketball system and a new brand of play would be seen in the league.
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