LOCAL professional basketball league commissioner Willie Marcial is the recipient of this year’s Executive of the Year award from the Philippine Sportswriters Association (PSA).
Mr. Marcial, the 10th commissioner of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), is being honored by the PSA by successfully steering the league in staging a tournament “bubble” last year amid the pandemic.
The award is one of 32 awards to be handed out in the virtual PSA Awards Night happening on March 27.
Forced to recalibrate their season last year because of the coronavirus pandemic, Mr. Marcial led the league’s push to save its Season 45 by holding a tournament bubble in Clark City in Angeles, Pampanga.
From October to December, the PBA wove its way through the many challenges of holding its first-ever bubble tournament en route to completing the delayed Philippine Cup, with the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings crowned as champions.
The successful PBA bubble proved to be a viable “blueprint” for other leagues to follow in holding their own confined tournaments.
Mr. Marcial is the second PBA commissioner to be named Executive of the Year by the PSA after Chito Salud in 2012.
Past winners of the award are William Ramirez, Ramon S. Ang, Manny V. Pangilinan, Wilfred Uytengsu, Hans Sy, Ricky Vargas, Dan Palami, Jude Echauz, and Philip Ella Juico.
The PSA Awards Night will be held virtually at the TV5 Media Center. It will be aired on March 28 over One Sports+ from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo