PBL not dying a natural death, says league exec

The Philippine Basketball League’s (PBL) merger with Liga Pilipinas is not a way of saving these organizations from dying a natural death. "Contrary to what many people believe, the PBL is not dying a natural death," PBL officer in charge Butch Maniego told GMANews.TV in an interview through social networking site Facebook.

"The league just needed to be reinvented, which would require some time," added Maniego. The PBL, the country’s longest-running amateur cage league, and Liga Pilipinas agreed to merge and decided to run a joint tournament, which is a step towards the formation of the country’s newest version of the D-League (developmental league) patterned after the US NBA’s National Basketball Development League. The NBDL is the breeding ground of future NBA players while pro players who were left unsigned by their respective mother teams were given chances to prove their worth to the club’s farm team. The proposed local version of the D-League will be directly under the supervision of the PBA. PBA chairman Lito Alvarez initiated the merger of the two struggling leagues. "Signs are not encouraging both for the PBL and Liga Pilipinas. If we don’t come in, chances are, they might not be able to survive the trying times," said Alvarez, also the president and team manager of the Air21 Express. Alvarez said the joint venture will be the precursor of the planed D-League, which will be headed by Sta. Lucia’s Buddy Encarnado and assisted by Ginebra’s Robert Non and Pato Gregorio of Talk ‘N Text. But Maniego, who worked for many years as a sports broadcaster, did not hide the fact that the PBL was affected by the economic crisis and is one of the reasons why their group agreed to merge with Liga Pilipinas, an association that caters to provincial teams. "We needed to cut some costs to make it more attractive to new players and keep our old ones despite the difficult economic times," added Maniego, who took over the helm after long-time PBL commissioner Chino Trinidad resigned last month. Maniego thinks the merger would give the PBL and Liga a new identity. "It's an opportunity for both leagues to become more relevant within the local basketball landscape," explained Maniego, whose group has yet to name its candidate to become commissioner of this new joint tournament with Liga Pilipinas. – JVP/Rey Joble, GMANews.TV