MANILA, 1 November — It’s an old tired script: an American coach who has secured working papers to handle a team in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). Of course, the losing party is no other than the local coaches group — the Basketball Coaches Association of the Philippines (BCAP).
Despite BCAP’s vigilance, Talk ‘N’ Text management has secured the necessary working papers for their new American coach, Paul Woolpert, well before their opening game in the season-ending PBA All-Filipino Cup.
While the Phone Pals pulled off fast one anew over the BCAP, yet again the latter was caught flat-footed.
Talk ‘N’ Text team manager Frankie Lim presented to league officials Woolpert’s permits from the Bureau of Immigration and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and a license from the Games and Amusements Board.
It cleared the way for Woolpert, the second American coach tapped by of the PLDT PBA franchise this season after the controversial Bill Bayno, to make his debut in the Phone Pals’ game against Sta. Lucia’s Realtors.
Interestingly, the Phone Pals lawyers pulled off the trick similar to the case of Bayno in the season-opening Governor’s Cup despite a howl of protests from local coaches greeting his appointment.
It can be recalled that Bayno’s appointment in the preseason was bitterly contested by the BCAP, which maintains the practice of hiring foreign coaches is illegal according to Philippine laws.
Earlier, the BCAP said it will not be caught napping this time as it prepared plans to block the appointment of Woolpert as coach of the Phone Pals.
BCAP President Chito Narvasa said they plan to use all legal means to make sure Woolpert does not sit on the bench and call the shots for the Phone Pals
But this time around, Narvasa admitted they were unable to prevent Talk ‘N’ Text from pulling off another fast one.
“We really expected it,” said Narvasa, reacting after he learned that Woolpert, a former CBA All-Star coach and a former scout and video coordinator for the Seattle SuperSonics in the National Basketball Association (NBA), had been granted a working permit by the DOLE.
BCAP’s lawyers were left completely perplexed when the DOLE’s National Capital Region office expeditiously gave Woolpert his alien employment permit despite a protest lodged by the local coaches group.
Nevertheless, the BCAP vowed to pursue the case of Woolpert the same way they contested Bayno’s stint as mentor of the Phone Pals.
“We have to do what we have to,” said Narvasa.
He said they would follow the same course they took against Bayno, whose case remains pending with the Labor Department.
“We did what we had to do, but DOLE has always been biased,” said Narvasa, who reportedly is among those being considered as replacement for PBA Commissioner Jun Bernardino.
The former Purefoods coach said the BCAP will attend the hearings on Woolpert’s case, if and when the DOLE conducts one, but said the best move at this point is to wage the war in a different front — perhaps the Court of Appeals.
“After what happened, I think that’s the best way to go,” he said. “We knew beforehand that we would have a hard time in this case. But it’s a blessing in disguise because now we can raise our case to the Court of Appeals.”
Before DOLE’s decision, Narvasa and his group was confident they had taken all the legal steps needed to block Woolpert’s assumption to the Talk ‘N’ Text post, at least not until a series of hearings is held by the DOLE to discuss the merits of BCAP’s opposition.
Learning its lessons after a bid to stop Bayno’s stint with the Phone Pals was stymied by a technicality, the BCAP formally filed an opposition to Woolpert’s application last week — well within the five-day grace period which the DOLE claimed the group failed to beat in Bayno’s case.
Narvasa also sent the group’s counsel, Gilbert Santos of the Fortun, Narvasa & Salazar law office, to virtually stake out at the DOLE.
But the BCAP members got the shock of their lives when regional director Alex Maraan handed Santos a letter saying that while the DOLE has taken note of the group’s opposition, it has nonetheless given Woolpert an alien employment permit.
“I don’t know really how it happened,” said Narvasa. “What we know is that if there is an opposition to the granting of such a permit, a hearing is supposed to be conducted by the DOLE to discuss the case before such a permit is given out.
“But in this case, what the DOLE basically said was, ‘We have already given him (Woolpert) a permit, we can just settle the issue later.’”
Narvasa questioned the wisdom of Talk ‘N’ Text’s decision to hire another foreign coach at this time when the country is feeling the economic crunch.
“The country is in bad financial situation. Hiring an American coach would mean paying his services with dollars,” he said, claiming that hiring a foreigner for a job a Filipino is capable of is unlawful and citing the great number of Filipino coaches in the country. “It’s really unfair to hire foreign coaches when there are Filipino coaches here struggling to find a job.”
But Narvasa admitted that in some way, their hands are tied to bar foreign coaches despite an existing Surpreme Court ruling against their hiring.
Narvasa fears the SC ruling might not apply on Woolpert “because the labor department treats each case differently.”
Whether the BCAP’s objection over Woolpert turns out to be another exercise in futility, Narvasa said the fight will continue.
“We are not doing this because Talk ‘N’ Text is involved. We are fighting for a principle. And we will do the same against Alaska, Sta. Lucia or San Miguel or Purefoods for as long as a Filipino coach’s job is being taken away by a foreigner,” Narvasa said.
Meanwhile, Talk ‘N’Text officials denied reports that the ballclub has agreed to pay Woolpert a staggering 1.3 million pesos monthly salary until the end of the 2003 season.
“We are guided by strict budgets,’ said Lim. “Management will never agree to hiring any coach, whether foreign or local, if his compensation grossly exceeds the level paid to professional coaches locally.”
But Talk ‘N’ Text’s claims may be hard to believe. The average salary of PBA coaches, according to league insiders, is at par with the paychecks of top coaches in the CBA. And it is highly doubtful if Talk ‘N’ Text could lure Woolpert out of the US and into the Philippines for more or less the same compensation.
Woolpert, in fact, decided to return to the Yakima Sun Kings after spending a season with rival CBA team Sioux Falls, in part to be close to his daughter Naomi who lives in Seattle, according to the Yakima Herald-Republic.
For him to agree to spend months thousands of miles away from home and his daughter, said a league source, “Talk ‘N’ Text will have to make it worth his while.”
Earlier, there was a newspaper report that came out in the Yakima Herald-Republic that revealed Woolpert had signed a deal estimated to be worth around $400,000 (over 20 million pesos) when he left CBA squad Yakima Sun Kings to coach the Phone Pals.
Woolpert, who coached Yakima for seven years and led the Sun Kings to the CBA championship in 2000, was lured out of the organization and into the Philippines by the $400,000 package deal that is exclusive of bonuses and other perks, like a house and a car, the newspaper said.
Considering Woolpert was signed by Talk ‘N’ Text through the 2003 season, the deal would have the CBA veteran earning about $25,000 (around 1.3 million pesos) a month for the 15-month duration of the contract — numbers that readily made local coaches’ eyes pop.
The PBA enforces a team salary cap as well as a separate cap on individual salaries, but doesn’t enforce a ceiling on the salaries of coaches. In fact, ballclubs aren’t even mandated to report the salaries of their coaches to pro league officials.
In the same story, Woolpert admitted that the decision to leave Yakima and coach in the Philippines, which he said was ‘one of the most difficult’ he’s ever had to make, was influenced in part by financial considerations.
Still, Lim insisted that the basic compensation package of Woolpert is well within the salary range of local professional coaches, and in some instances even lower.
Lim added that similar to the contracts of other coaches in the PBA, Woolpert’s contains bonus clauses based solely on the performance of the team.
“If the team doesn’t perform well, the bonus clauses don’t kick in,” he said.
Lim stressed that Talk ‘N’ Text management shall abide by the laws governing the employment of foreigners in the country, and that the decision to hire a foreign coach after Bayno’s exit is just in line with the team’s commitment to provide PBA fans with the best possible brand of basketball the Phone Pals are known for.
Lim had gone on a week-long mission to the US to, first, convince Bayno to return, and, if that failed, to look for a replacement.
Woolpert beat out five other American aspirants for the job left vacant after the controversial Bayno resigned soon after the team’s runner-up finish to Red Bull in the Commissioner’s Cup.
Woolpert won out because his style of coaching is reported to be similar to that of the former University of Nevada-Las Vegas mentor.
Woolpert is taking over from assistant coaches Aric del Rosario and Ariel Vanguardia and a team bannered by Asi Taulava, the top scorer of the Philippine team that finished fourth in the recent Busan Asian Games.
The well-built 6-foot-5 Woolpert made his coaching debut in the pro league on a sorry note as the Phone Pals bowed to Sta. Lucia Realty 70-67.
While Bayno was volatile on the hardcourt, Woolpert was more composed, at least in his first game in the land’s premier league. Woolpert’s occasional shouts were directed more to his players rather than the referees.
Woolpert said he was apprised there would be some quarters that would oppose his appointment.
“I knew there was going to be opposition,” said Woolpert. “That’s understandable.”
Like Bayno, Woolpert said he would just let the franchise’s lawyers take care of things.
“I’m just here to coach basketball,” he said.
The former Yakima Sun Kings coach in the CBA admitted he felt a little apprehensive before the papers came.
“I gave my signature and thumbprint on a piece of paper 20 minutes ago, but I don’t really know if I could coach,” he said one hour before the start of their game against the Realtors.
Woolpert said he has a very short-term goal with the Phone Pals, coming as he did only last week.
“In our four or five days of practice, the team’s willingness to learn was outstanding. I just hope that what they showed in practice could be transferred to the playing court,” he said.
Woolpert hinted it would take some more time.
“We’re making major adjustments. So right now we have very short-term goals,” he said.
Woolpert returned to Yakima in 2002-03 after leading the Sioux Falls Skyforce to a 33-23 record and a first place tie for the 2001-02 American Conference regular season title. En route to Coach of the Month honors in December 2001, Woolpert led the Skyforce to a CBA season-high 10-game winning streak (11/25-12/20) in 2001-02.
He served as the head coach of the Yakima Sun Kings from 1997-2001, compiling an 89-71 regular-season record. He also posted a 7-6 record in three consecutive trips to the CBA playoffs.
In 1999-2000, Woolpert led Yakima to a 33-23 mark, second best in team history. The Sun Kings won the 1999-2000 CBA championship with a 109-93 win over the La Crosse Bobcats in the title game. The University of Portland alum became the winningest coach in team history on Dec. 19, 1999, when he recorded his 77th victory, a 106-97 win at Rockford.
Under the volatile and the outspoken Bayno, the former UNLV mentor, the Phone Pals reached the finals of the previous conference and engaged Red Bull, the defending champion, in a classic best-of-seven series that went the distance.
Bayno, however, decided to give up the coaching job despite the team’s strong finish marred by his quite unfriendly relationship with league officials and the group of local coaches.
On the court, Bayno was a firebrand, volatile and extremely emotional.
Before the start of the Commissioner’s Cup quarterfinals, Bayno was slapped a 200,000 pesos fine for criticizing the PBA. Then, he was assessed a 20,000 pesos fine for an outburst during a semifinals game against Alaska. Last Wednesday, Bayno stormed PBA technical director Ricky Palou and accused the referees of cheating his team after Red Bull won Game 6. For his highly objectionable behavior, Bayno was tagged a fine of 50,000 pesos.
PBA Commissioner Bernardino, meanwhile, said the league has no qualms over the decision of Talk ‘N’ Text to appoint a new head coach for the remainder of the 2002 season.
“As long as it complies with the laws of the land and follows the rules and regulations of the league, we respect Talk ‘N’ Text’s decision on the hiring of its next head coach,” said Bernardino.
