Virus spread may halt PBA

The coaches agreed that if an outbreak occurs and more than four players have been infected, team practices should be stopped

The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) will be ready if a player contracts coronavirus within the duration of team practices.

PBA commissioner Willie Marcial said they strongly consider the suggestion of NLEX coach Yeng Guiao that team practices would be halted when the number of positive cases reaches four.

“We tackled the suggestion of coach Yeng to put a threshold on the number of COVID-19 cases,” Marcial said.

“The coaches agreed that if an outbreak occurs and more than four players have been infected, team practices should be stopped.”

Marcial and the PBA board of governors have been working their way to salvage the 45th season that saw only one game between defending champion San Miguel Beer and Magnolia.

The league had taken all necessary actions to secure the green light from the Inter-Agency Task Force on the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases in a bid to allow teams to conduct their respective practices.

But now that they were finally given the go-signal to resume individual workouts and conditioning, Marcial and PBA chairman Ricky Vargas are working for the resumption of scrimmages and, eventually, actual games.

“During the coaches’ meeting last Friday, we came up unanimously that in a cluster that has three cases, those players would only get quarantined. But if it reaches four, practices should stop,” Phoenix head coach Louie Alas said.

“Coach Yeng suggested the idea and we all agreed to it.” Meralco head coach Norman Black, for his part, said he is leaving all the decisions to the PBA board.

“We did discuss this when we met with the commissioner,” he said. “We decided that he and the board of governors would be in the best position to make a decision on what should be done.”