BASKETBALL has always been called by its two other names: ‘basketbrawl’ and ‘boxingball.’
‘Basketbrawl’ happens when both sides trade punches, either involving two opposing players or several players from both teams.
It has happened several times already, the most notables among them were the old Crispa-Toyota free-for-all in a 1975 Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) game, and the bench-clearing incident between Australia and Gilas Pilipinas in Manila just a while back.
In the Crispa-Toyota skirmish, several players were hauled off to Camp Vicente Lim in Laguna after the incident and were ordered to spend the night there to, in the words then of the Metrocom (Metropolitan Command) police, ‘teach them a lesson in anger management.’
In the Australia-Gilas brawl, June Mar Fajardo stood out gallantly for avoiding to join the fray.
‘My mother [bless her soul] taught me to avoid fights before I started playing basketball,’ said Fajardo, earning plaudits from adoring fans.
Now to ‘boxingball.’
It happens usually when one player each from both squads exchange punches or kicks. Or, only one player throws a punch and the victim fails to retaliate because he’s either down on the floor or the scuffle is immediately stopped by cooler heads-usually the calmer players or the referees themselves.
Twice this happened in the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL), the most recent was when Arwind Santos punched Tonton Bringas last week.
Santos, a celebrated PBA retiree now playing for Basilan, hit GenSan’s Bringas with a closed fist in an MPBL game on October 20, causing an injury to the eye of Bringas.
Santos was suspended indefinitely and fined P100,000.
‘We condemn the incident and the MPBL will not tolerate such actions, especially during the playoffs,’ MPBL Commissioner Kenneth Duremdes said in a statement. ‘The league has the full authority to impose sanctions on this deplorable act and we hope that our measures help put these behaviors to an immediate end.’
There is a public clamor for the referees to be penalized, too, for negligence, citing their inability to warn Bringas for having allegedly hit Santos twice during the game.
Unfortunately, Bringas’s alleged rough play was not caught on camera while Santos’s punch to Bringas’s face was seen in full view of televiewers and venue spectators.
While Santos, who complained to the referees about Bringas’s alleged blatant aggression during the game to no avail, claimed he merely retaliated-still, that is no reason to justify on-court violence.
Showing remorse, Santos tried to personally apologize to Bringas. But Bringas balked, reportedly telling Santos: ‘Talk to my lawyer.
Sportsmanship has just absorbed a blackeye-again.
THAT’S IT It made sense when Chairman Pató Gregorio of the Philippine Sports Commission decided to send athletes to the Thailand SEA Games in December minus the bronze medal standard in previous SEA Games editions. Indeed, it’s time we dispatched promising aspirants to the SEA Games because it is a good training ground for our grassroots development program, which Pató is hell-bent to pursue. Cheers!