Vargas makes sense with his quintet spin
I LIKE what Ricky Vargas had just said. If he would have his way, he wanted Talk ‘N Text to be the team sent to future basketball battles overseas.
It made sense.
It defied conventions, yes, but under the current circumstances, it would be the most practical thing to do.
It actually solved tomorrow’s problem of seeing us almost always scrounging for players most suitable for international assignments.
That has been a nagging issue every time a tournament abroad stared us squarely in the face. Basically, Vargas’s thesis is, to avoid issues on
what PBA teams would dispatch their players for deployment abroad, Talk ‘N Text could remedy that by becoming the only team to represent the country internationally.
It does away with ticklish concerns about whether a team’s championship dreams are being compromised if the squad’s top players are allowed play overseas.
Every stint outside of home grounds presents risks, such as player injuries that could substantially affect a team’s performance when the PBA comes along. And this is not to say the player’s future is also being jeopardized once a hard court accident happens. Let’s get down to the basics. Vargas, a top gun in the MVP ( Manny V. Pangilinan) empire that owns TNT, is also a major cog in the SBP ( Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas), the basketball body tasked to oversee the sport’s welfare in the country. And MVP is the titular head of SBP.
The irony is that, while it is the SBP that takes care of the Philippines’ tournaments overseas sanctioned by the Fiba (World Basketball Federation), the PBA houses the country’s bulk of the best players in the land.
However, the PBA’s member-teams are not bound to lend their players for global jousts for reasons that are self-explanatory.
In light of this, Vargas’ solution holds water. TNT should be it from here on.
And if I may suggest: Since MVP’s empire includes ownership, too, of NLEX and Meralco in the PBA, let us make the future Gilas Team a mix of TNT-NLEX-Meralco. If other PBA teams would offer their players, MVP's factotums will have the final say.
Anyway, it’s been that way for quite some time now— the Gilas basketball program a virtual domain of MVP’s tentacles for years.
And so to Vargas? Attaboy!