Dwindling attendance? Refs could be culprit

The Philippine Basketball Association is in one of its biggest box-office slumps, with fans shying away from watching the games live and leaving the leadership no clue as to what’s wrong.
Chito Narvasa is in his first year calling the shots for Asia’s pioneering pro league, and save for a few games that drew good crowds, coming to see playdates leaves sports scribes wondering what is happening.
The Barangay Ginebra-Star two Sundays ago drew an attendance of close to 17,000 fans, but before and after that, the Araneta Coliseum is opening to crowds that sometimes number less than a fourth of that.
Refereeing has been Narvasa’s main thrust since taking over full time from Chito Salud. He said that referees should call what they see, his formula for making sure that the referees don’t make calls based on judgment of game situations and what have you.
It is backfiring on the league, as games sometimes drag to a halt as referees — as per the commissioner’s instructions — are calling everything they see that robs the games of their beauty.
Has refereeing gone so scientific lately that is it taking its toll on the action on the floor?
Yeng Guiao, the Rain or Shine coach, has been an outspoken person ever since he burst into the basketball scene more than two decades back. He is not one to keep his feelings to himself no matter how much fines the Office of the Commissioner has slapped on him in the past.
In one of the Elasto Painters’ losses in the ongoing Governors’ Cup, Guiao didn’t hold his disgust — as usual — and was promptly thrown out of the court in the second half after incurring a second technical foul for vehemently protesting a call against one of his players.
While in the dugout watching the remainder of that game, reporters approached the former Pampanga Representative and got more than they wanted.
“That’s why no one is watching our games anymore,” Guiao said in the native tongue, putting the blame on officiating for the dwindling gate attendance.
Guiao has been around long enough — and he handled the defunct Philippine Amateur Basketball League in some of its best years — that it is safe to say that he knows what he is talking about.
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In the old days, during the Toyota-Crispa rivalry, the glamorous Purefoods-Ginebra days and even when some other teams are lording it over the league, attendance hasn’t been this poor.
It’s nice to look back at how Tommy Manotoc handled the league when he was deputy commissioner to the late Mariano Yenko, when he introduced the no-harm, no-foul rule to let the players play and not leave anything in the hands of the referees as far as deciding the outcome of the game is concerned.
That policy was legendary as it helped the PBA reach a popularity as the best pro league in Asia.
In times of trouble, it would be nice to look back at things that worked in the past and not delve into something strange — and new — that fans don’t really understand.
Letting the players play is the best policy to adopt in any sport. In basketball, there should be contact, because that’s the nature of the sport.
So when referees call all the touch fouls they see, it stops action and robs the fans of seeing something great happen because the players heard a whistle which could have been let go in the first place.
Maybe the current leadership of the league — the all-powerful board of governors included — should look back at something like the no-harm, no-foul rule to fire up the fans’ imagination once again and save whatever is left of this season.
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Manny Pacquiao, the boxing icon who became a Senator and wants to play professional basketball, suffered his first knockdown in the PBA on Friday night in Mahindra’s losing game against Rain or Shine.
Left as the last line of defense in a fastbreak play by the Elasto Painters, Pacquiao, all 5-foot-6 of him, tried the challenge the 6-foot-5 Jewel Ponferrada from going for a layup only for Mahindra’s James White to come from behind to smother the Ponferrada attempt.
Ponferrada was head and shoulders above the eight-division world champion and, after being denied by White, fell and dragged Pacquiao with him to the floor.
Pacquiao entered the court with 2:47 remaining in the second period and almost had a horrific accident in that play, which could have put his forthcoming mega-buck fight in jeopardy.
Pacquiao is used to playing basketball games against his friends and his ABL team where practically no defense is played on him. In the PBA, he will never get that kind of señorito treatment.
Paul Lee, the superstar Rain or Shine guard, said before that game that they will deny Pacquiao every time he gets a hold of the ball because they are afraid of getting it from Guiao if the senator makes a shot in front of their face.
Ponferrada made Pacquiao feel that way on Friday night.