There were two good pieces of news that came out in the January 4, 2009 issue of this paper.The first was the announcement that Liga Filipinas will be opening its second season in General Santos sometime in February. This is definitely good news because Liga Filipinas fills in at least two existing gaps in the country’s basketball calendar. One is the need for a regional league that brings to the countryside big time basketball, which the local folks can patronize, not only because of the quality of the games, but also because most of the players are from the province or city where the team is based. In fact, the defending champions, the M. Lhuillier Cebu Niños has announced that it will go with a completely Cebuano line-up this conference, instead of availing of the 70-30 rule (a team may enlist players who are not natives up to 30 % of the player roster). This should make basketball crazy Cebuanos root some more for the Niños in this season’s tournament. The other reason is that Liga Filipinas will give players who graduate from schools outside of Metro Manila a longer playing career in a big time tournament. I should do a research on this, but very few Cebuano collegiate standouts get to crack the Philippine Basketball League and the Philippine Basketball Association. Those who do are not able to keep their slots in the teams that drafted them. Most, if not all, of them feel more at home in the smaller leagues such as the Liga. Hopefully, with a little more experience and confidence, these latent basketball stars would eventually be able to make the big time. For improvement, maybe Commissioner Noli Eala (if he is still around as he is now Executive Director of SBP) or whoever is in charge can take a look at the tournament format. I am sure the same was adopted for cost reasons, but it was a little confusing to the public and did not generate that much excitement. The second piece of good news is the plan to put up a Cebu Basketball League.
This used to be big. Most of us can still remember the CICAA and teams like Coca Cola, Gaisano, IPI, La Fortuna, PLDT, Cebu Ice, IBAA and others that escape the memory for the moment. There are actually enough talent available, even with Liga Filipinas. I have been to some of these town fiesta tournaments and pleasantly surprised how much basketball talent there is in the cement and asphalt courts, just waiting to be harnessed. Whoever will run the league should avoid the pitfalls in the past, more particularly in the competitiveness of the teams. What destroyed the previous inter-commercial leagues was the desire of the owners to win all the time, no matter what the cost. So teams who could afford or were willing to spend money beefed-up their teams, sometimes with imports from Manila, just to score a win. There should be very clear and strict rules how team rosters are formed and how the balance of the teams in terms of talent are maintained. The lesson from the past is that when a team becomes too dominant, the other teams lose interest, and leave the league one by one. So there it is. With the CESAFI, the Partners Cup, Liga Filipinas and the proposed commercial league, Cebu should have a year long treat of quality basketball tournaments. One thing that should also be done is to coordinate the schedules of these tournaments so that they would not overlap, and allow the collegiate players a chance to play for teams outside of the safer varsity environment. With all the other things happening in the basketball scene, this should be a fruitful new year for the sport. Lastly, my personal wish is for the basketball biggies to have just one agenda: the good of basketball, particularly here in Cebu. | 
