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The Final Score: The pulsating and puzzling PBA draft


The rookie draft is supposed to answer questions, not create more of it when the day’s done. We ask about prospects weeks before draft and expect resolutions by the time the twenty-first over-all pick slips into a PBA team jacket. The 2010 PBA Draft, however, played out like an episode of Lost. We set out looking for answers, only to plunge into some bizarre parallel universe built by the Dharma Initiative. By making Nonoy Baclao the first over-all pick, Air 21 raised eyebrows the way Venus Raj did when she blurted out “Major Major". They did what? She said what? And inquiring minds started to purr like engines. Rabeh Al-Hussaini’s perplexed brain was roaring like a Shelby Mustang. We were 99% sure Al-Hussaini, the most dominant big man in the draft, would go number one. Air 21, however, is never afraid to turn that one percent into one big move. Baclao was stunned but thankful. Al-Hussaini was stunned but baffled. If this is a television series, we’re only in episode one. Yet Air 21 already hurled its best curveball during the first at-bat of a 9-inning game. Now what? If there’s anything the 2009 Japeth Aguilar saga taught us, it’s that we wait. Figuring out Aguilar’s next move before, during and after last year’s PBA Draft was like predicting the final verdict of a pendulum. What we find out today may not matter much tomorrow. Besides, it’ll be more fun to watch events unfold in a September more topsy-turvy than Ronald Tubid on ten cups of coffee. Wanting to know if Baclao and Al-Hussaini will start the season in Air 21 uniforms isn’t so much a product of naughty thinking as it is a result of a franchise’s reputation. Air 21 isn’t averse to wheeling and dealing. They’re not afraid to surprise. Call them business-savvy. Or call them bold. While others look down on Air 21’s penchant for sending away prized recruits (remember Japeth, Jay-Wash and Mac-Mac?), there are those who see merit in Air 21’s PBA business model. The goal of every team is to win. The concept of winning, however, is relative. When PBA teams enter into agreement, as most business deals go, trust that it’s always a win-win proposition. It may look lopsided on the surface. But teams have wants. Teams have needs. Some teams want to win regardless of monetary demands. Some teams need to compete without breaking one piggy bank too many. Some teams want to do good business and the PBA is a business. And some teams just need to financially survive. Air 21 may or may not have started a chain reaction which will send any or all of their high-profile picks somewhere else. Fans are just as intrigued with the chances of John Wilson and Jimbo Aquino with Ginebra. Teams will manage their picks based on priorities. Hence, Sunday’s proceedings only mark the beginning of busy times ahead. And now all we can do is wonder. All we can do is wait. -- GMANews.TV