MANILA, 9 August — First, he was deprived of a golden chance to join the growing list of pampered millionaires in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA).
Then, he was denied a spot in the national training pool for the Busan Asian Games, which many believe had long been reserved for him.
Both, he accepted with an open mind — and gracefully.
Yet who would have thought that Romel Adducul — largely regarded as the most talented local player not playing in the PBA — would end up joining the growing jobless statistics?
Adducul, together with other Metropolitan Basketball Association (MBA) players, have been orphaned by the league’s leave of absence.
His basketball career took this unpleasant turn after the MBA team owners decided to shelve the rest of the league’s season because of major financial problems.
He is one unlucky fellow, indeed: the "Heartbreak Kid" of the MBA.
But the popular cager thought otherwise. For him, there are things far more important than basketball. So what is life for him after the disbandment of the MBA?
"I think this (MBA’s fold-up) is a blessing in disguise," said Adducul, whose powerful shoulders and broad smile helped launched the MBA five years ago. "I can now concentrate fully on my studies."
The 6-foot-5 slotman, who recently led an MBA Selection to a fifth-place finish in the Jones Cup competition in Taiwan, is planning to devote more time and focus on his studies while waiting for the next chapter in his basketball career to unfold.
In the meantime, Adducul said he would rather concentrate on his studies for the remainder of the year to finish his course, than think about basketball.
Adducul is pursuing his studies at San Sebastian College ñ a school he led to a couple of National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) championships.
He is currently in fourth year taking up BS Management course.
Unknown to many, while being the top drawer in the five years that he played in the MBA, and despite his particularly hectic schedule with Osaka-Pangasinan, Adducul has been doing exceptionally well in his studies.
"Even while playing in the MBA, and giving a big part of his time in out-of-town games, what is amazing is that Romel has managed to maintain high grades in school. What more now that he’s concentrating on his studies," said his manager, Ed Ponceja. "I told him, I will support whatever his decision is."
The 26-year-old star center of the Osaka-Pangasinan Waves is arguably the biggest catch among the MBA players who currently are left without jobs, if ever a special mid-season draft is held by the PBA.
The possibility of a mid-season draft came after the demise of the MBA and its reported plan to set up an amateur league in a tieup with the Basketball Association of the Philippines next year.
A number of marquee players from the MBA, led by Adducul, are eager to play in the PBA while others who haven’t received their salaries for months are hoping they could enter a mid-season PBA draft and find a slot in one of the league’s 10 teams.
But Adducul said he is not even thinking of basketball at the moment.
"I must admit that at first, I really wanted to play in the PBA right after the MBA had announced it was closing shop," he confessed, "but after thinking deeply, I surmised that a college diploma is a better achievement than making it to the PBA."
Currently, the PBA board is mulling options on how to accommodate Adducul and other players orphaned by the MBA’s foldup, even entertaining the possibility of holding a mid-season draft for these cagers.
But if it doesn’t happen, Adducul and Co. will have to wait until next year to move into the country’s lone surviving professional league. Adducul sees no problem with that and, in fact, is more worried about his fellow MBA players.
"If the PBA can’t open their doors to us now, I just hope that at least the Philippine Basketball League would accommodate us," he said.
While revealing that he has not been receiving his monthly salary from the Pangasinan-Osaka Waves for three months now, Adducul nonetheless expressed sadness over the MBA’s demise.
"I pity most of my co-MBA players because most of them have families to support," said Adducul, who remains one of the most eligible bachelors in the MBA.
Adducul said he’s not planning to sue the MBA to claim back wages.
His bid to join the PBA 2002 draft was torpedoed by his former MBA team, the LBC Batangas, and the MBA denying him his release papers. Adducul has half a year left in his contract with the Pangasinan-Osaka Waves worth 500,000 pesos a month.
As far as Adducul was concerned, he said he had no regrets about the twists and turns of his basketball career.
He was about to be drafted by the PBA this year but the MBA refused to give him a clearance, promising him that the MBA will survive for many years.
"I have no regrets, that’s part of life,’’ said Adducul.
He said he is not totally closing his door on a PBA stint.
"If it comes, it comes. But like when I was in the MBA, my studies will continue even if I am eventually drafted by a PBA team,’’ he said. This is my bread and butter so I have to stay in shape." Still, he is keeping himself in shape waiting for the opportunity to make the long-overdue jump to the PBA — hopefully, with a diploma in hand.
"I’m planning to apply as a practice player in the PBA to keep myself in shape and be familiarized with the rules before I join the PBA draft next year."
So for Adducul, it’s diploma now, PBA later.
He is still hoping, waiting for the PBA’s doors to swing open for him and his fellow MBA orphans this season.
In the meantime, he has found a better use for his time, a perfect opportunity to finish his college degree. Actually, the MBA’s cancellation, according to Ponceja, means that Adducul can now secure a spot in the PBA.
"There are no more impediments that’s why Romel can now jump to the PBA," Ponceja explained. "Of course, we have to exhaust all options and playing in the PBA has always been Romel’s dream. But we have to respect his decision."
"For the sake of his family who wants to see him obtain a college diploma, Romel has decided to finish his course, and think about his entry into the PBA next year," said Ponceja.
Yet, Adducul reiterated he’s willing to make the big jump to the PBA making himself available for special drafting, or lottery, for the second time this year.
He’ll play for the premier league, even today. Even if it’s halfway through the 2002 season. If the PBA decides to invite him to join the league, Adducul said: "I’ll accept that promptly."
PBA chairman Butch Alejo, in an effort to perk up interest and give the upcoming All-Filipino Conference a major boost, said: "There were talks, but nothing official about the possibility of holding a mid-season draft."
"The PBA would like to be able to offer very exciting basketball to the public," said Alejo, indicating that there is, indeed, interest in holding a mid-season draft prior to the All-Filipino Conference.
However, Alejo said "it will require some time for the board to deliberate on the options we have, pointing out that the PBA "really doesn’t know whether these MBA players are available."
Outgoing PBA Commissioner Jun Bernardino said he still has to see any letter from a player or a players’ group requesting for a mid-year draft. But he opined it’s going to be "very difficult."
"We sympathize with the players that are now somehow homeless or have been displaced because of the recent announcement of the MBA, but we also have to realize that once we open a draft in mid-season, we will also be displacing some players from the PBA," said Bernardino.
Though not discounting the possibility of holding an unprecedented mid-season lottery to accommodate Adducul, Bernardino said "at this point, all MBA players who feel like going to the PBA will have to go through the proper procedure, meaning the draft."
He stressed "there are things that we really have to study because we do not want to create something that will boomerang on us. We want to help everyone but we want to take our steps slowly so that we will not be taking drastic steps that we will be sorry for in the end."
Any move outside the traditional process, Bernardino said, will be undertaken only after "questions pertaining to the matter, like contracts, rights and obligations, are first addressed."
He added the MBA’s vow to return with a restructured format should also be considered.
"The MBA closed shop but they said they will honor the players’ contracts. Those contracts are therefore still binding and could cause problems," he said.
Loyzaga, who assumed the MBA leadership only this year, is working on forming a new basketball league that would replace the MBA.
It may not necessarily be a rebirth of the old MBA, but the former PBA star hopes it would fill the void left by the once-thriving countryside-based league.
"I’m optimistic that there’s still a place for another league here," said Loyzaga, a many-time national player who played in the PBA for 12 years. "And I believe that if you put up a league that is regional in nature like the MBA, the people in the provinces will embrace it and call it their own."
The changes he had hoped to institute in the MBA he will now incorporate in a new league he plans to put up, with support from the prime movers of the MBA and the sanction of the Basketball Association of the Philippines — one clear indication that the new league would be amateur in status.
The lessons he learned in his six-month stint with the MBA would also come in handy, he said.
Loyzaga said he has held talks with several entities — from the BAP to some potential television partners to the PBL and the PBA — for the project he hopes to unfurl either late this year or in January at the latest.
Once the fine prints are laid down, Loyzaga will present it to the original MBA movers, hoping they would jump into the bandwagon.
"I’m optimistic," he said. "So we’ll see."
The PBL, meanwhile, has kept the door ajar for Adducul, who saw action in this league in 1997 for Chowking.
MBA’s fold-up has ignited some interest among teams in the PBL to acquire Adducul’s services. PBL Commissioner Chino Trinidad said Adducul and other past league players are welcome.
The league’s salary cap is 50,000 pesos a month, a far cry from what many ex-MBA players are receiving from their respective teams.
"Everyone of them would be welcome," said Trinidad.
In fact, the PBL is currently re-evaluating a proposal for more former professional players to boost its member-squads. The move would increase the number of ex-pros to five from the present three. Just a week after the MBA announced its temporary closure to give way to restructuring, the league’s Web site — mba.ph — is being flooded by fan messages calling for moves to make the MBA a "public corporation."
Some fans even went to the extent of organizing a movement they called "I love the Philippines, Save the MBA," which aims to collect donations, which the fans said would "help ease the league’s financial burdens."
When told of the fans’ reactions, MBA Chairman Santi Araneta assured legions of the league’s regional followers that "their pleas are heard" even as he thanked them for their concern in seeing the MBA continue its grassroots development thrust.
"It’s really touching. The fans’ reactions moved not only me but also other MBA officials. And they give us reasons to reassure and reiterate that we are not yet writing the demise of the league," Araneta said.
Ramon Tuason, the league’s business development director and among those tasked to restructure the MBA, also said some "positive developments" over the past days point to the possible revival of the league next year, although it may drop its identity as a professional league.
"Part of the restructuring is making sure the new MBA would not rival the other leagues but complement them instead. That alone should assure our fans that we will return," Tuason reiterated.
"But we also have other commitments that we have to settle first. We do not turn our backs on them and soon after we have put the league in its new place, we will be ready to go and give it another try," Tuason added.
Araneta and Tuason also said team owners and other financial backers are staying put in hopes of finding a new league identity.
In another development, the owner of MBA team Olongapo Volunteers plans to send the bankrupt league a statement of account asking that it pay their players their back wages for April-June.
LJ Gordon, the team owner, reportedly will send the demand letter to the MBA following the decision of MBA officials to disband the league after failing to generate enough advertising revenues and gate receipts to keep the association afloat.
Olongapo said it wants the MBA to pay up because it gave the league its full membership dues for the season which include the payroll for April-June.
