WHEN the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) unfurls its Season 46 expect its offering to go beyond five-a-side competition as also on tap is the league’s inaugural 3×3 tournament.
Designed to help in the further growth of the sport in the country and the Philippines’ Olympic push in the discipline, the league is currently in the process of finalizing the staging of the event, which is targeted to have three conferences of six legs each. It will culminate in a grand championship.
In a media briefing last week, PBA officials said all currently competing teams in the PBA will be fielding in a 3×3 team, save for the Alaska Aces, whose representative to the board Dickie Bachmann is the chairman of the about-to-be-staged tournament.
“When Governor Dickie was appointed the chairman of PBA 3×3, he also gave up Alaska in terms of the team joining the PBA 3×3. That’s a sacrifice for him as well,” said PBA Chairman Ricky Vargas in the briefing.
Apart from the PBA teams, the 3×3 tournament is set to host guest teams.
For the competition, each team is allowed to tap six players following FIBA eligibility rules on 3×3.
Unlike in regular PBA play though, eligibility rules are more relaxed for 3×3 particularly for Filipino-foreign players.
As long as one has a Philippine passport, he is automatically eligible as opposed to the usual procedure of requiring players to secure documents from the Bureau of Immigration and Department of Justice.
Such a setup opens the possibility for players like Jason Brickman, Taylor Statham, Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser and Jeremiah Gray to parade their wares in the tournament.
Said players applied for this year’s rookie draft, but found themselves ineligible after failing to complete their papers.
The PBA is also hoping that through the 3×3 tournament, they get to provide employment for players, especially during this time of the pandemic.
It is also positioning PBA 3×3 as complementing efforts of the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas for three-on-three basketball.
The country is set to compete in the FIBA 3×3 Olympic Qualifying Tournament in May. The sport is to make its debut in the quadrennial sporting spectacle in Tokyo this year.
PBA 3×3 will run simultaneously with the five-on-five competition, with matches to be played every Friday and Saturday. The league looks to announce the full tournament makeup in the coming weeks.
The PBA is targeting to begin its Season 46 on April 11, pending approval from the government on pandemic-related concerns. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo