Brittle as a dried twig

FIRST, a referee is sent home for a bum call. Second, a referee is quarantined for testing positive of the coronavirus.

Thinking of what will happen next should be the least of our worries.

Thinking positive is the only option left amid the pandemic.

Of the first referee, PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial said: “It pains me to sack him because he is one of our best referees.”

Me, too. That is why I would have preferred for Marcial to suspend and fine the referee for his mistake. Sending him home was unfair.

After the second referee was declared virus-free following three successive tests, Marcial had him quarantined for 14 days.

The PBA bubble has always been as brittle as a dried twig. The Covid-19 lurks like the proverbial thief, ready to strike even in the dead of night.

It’s being invisible is deadly enough.

It’s being virtually invincible makes it even more fearsome.

But since we are already at it—restarting the country’s No. 1 sports entertainment on October 11—there’s no turning back.

One bum call does not make a tournament bust.

One virus victim does not make a tournament a failure.

The event would not have been a go anyways if health safety protocols were not deemed as impregnable as President Duterte’s wall of bodyguards. Safeguards had been put in place.

Thus, things had been holding on even as the Philippine Cup resumed without its No. 1 attraction, June Mar Fajardo. The 6-foot-10 is still recuperating from a leg injury, his absence likewise putting San Miguel Beer in a hole as deep as the Mindanao Deep.

Aren’t the Beermen gunning for their record sixth straight All-Filipino crown, and Fajardo his seventh MVP trophy?

While Fajardo is out of it, San Miguel, feeling the ill-effects of a slot now practically unmanned, is struggling to stay afloat with its 2-2 record in a series that advances eight of the 12 teams to the next round at Clark’s nearby Angeles University gym.

The games go on even as two other players had succumbed to injuries early in the series, including Terrence Romeo, another of SMB’s mainstays.

We just have to lean on the Filipino’s never-say-die spirit. Virus or no virus.