MANILA: There were basically three newcomers in the Philippine Basketball Association this season: the NLEX Road Warriors, Blackwater Elite and the KIA Carnival.

Of the three, KIA had the least basketball pedigree upon joining Asia’s pioneering pro league, making everyone scoff at the idea of the company throwing its hat into the PBA.

But with the 40th Season nearing its close, KIA has surprised a lot.

No, the Carnival have yet to make a playoff appearance, though they still have two chances of at least claiming a tie for a quarterfinal slot in the Governors’ Cup.

But what is commendable as far as their first season is concerned is that the Carnival have gone on to establish their character in the league, unlike, sad to say, the Elite, who have bowed out for the third straight time with only one win to show in their first 10 games of the season-ending conference.

KIA has made great strides in as far as being a contender is concerned.

The Carnival have so far pushed the right buttons by signing up PJ Ramos in the Commissioner’s Cup to almost make the playoffs.

Hamady N’Diyae, a Senegalese who had a brief NBA stint, is close to taking the Carnival to the playoffs, their fates to be known by Wednesday at the latest after they have played the second of their last two games.

When you get to watch KIA games live at the venues, you will be surprised that the team has slowly found a small following, a following that is outside of the players’ wives or parents and kids, and those who were not given tickets by management to watch.

This corner has been in the PBA for a long time that we know when fans are the veritable “relatives” of the company. Some teams even have their employees come to the game in their company uniforms just to watch and put warm bodies in the stands.

Those fans are required to shriek and applaud even though they are clearly rooting for the players of the opposing teams.

There have been a lot of PBA teams before that did that, because management knows that players gain extra energy if their efforts are continually being applauded.

That’s why practically every player in the PBA wants to have a chance at playing for Ginebra, San Miguel or Purefoods, because those teams have massive fan bases that they practically play on homecourt every night.

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NLEX dominated the D-League before buying the Air21 franchise at the end of last season and carrying over the core of the Express led by the ageless Asi Taulava and Mac Cardona.

The Road Warriors failed to make it past the eliminations of the Philippine Cup and made the quarterfinals of the Commissioner’s Cup with Al Thornton as their import.

Like the Carnival, NLEX has two games left but they don’t hold their destiny in their hands.

NLEX, aside from Taulava and Cardona, have named players in its roster and had been installed as contenders even before the season started, unlike KIA and Blackwater, which were immediately dismissed as doormats or whipping boys for the season.

If memory serves, the Road Warriors won all but one of the first seven conferences in the D-League, the only one championship that slipped away belonging to Blackwater.

That’s why making just one quarterfinal appearance and failing to march past the eliminations in the Governors’ Cup even with two imports is certainly an under-achieving season for the Road Warriors.

Blackwater was supposed to be the smarter team compared to KIA. The Elite were supposed to go a long way – compared to KIA. And because having more experience playing in the commercial leagues – compared to KIA – Blackwater should have had more inside knowledge of the game, again, compared to KIA.

But looking back, way back to the expansion and Rookie Drafts, that wasn’t the case.

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KIA and Blackwater had the same players at their disposal in the expansion draft, where the 10 regular teams were made to protect just 10 of their players with the ones left out made available for the Carnival and the Elite to choose from.

The local lineups of both squads have the proverbial heaven and earth difference, with the KIA players always willing to fight it out to their last drop of blood to avoid humiliation.

Blackwater’s locals, on the other hand, have been content on playing to the tag that they were given at the start of the season: Whipping boys.

LA Revilla was one of the great choices of KIA, with the 5-foot-7 point guard out of La Salle in the UAAP emerging as one of the top sentinels in the league already. Revilla commands the respect of his peers during games and is fast gaining a steady following.

The Elite have lost their last two games by a combined margin of 70 points, while KIA will come into its last two games with a 4-5 record, the losses coming by narrow margins, including a 94-90 defeat by Rain or Shine.

Another big boo-boo that Blackwater committed this year was when it traded away its first round Draft pick next year to Talk ‘N Text, who could go on to tab Fil-Tongan Muala Tautuaa first overall next season.

If the Texters don’t get to the 6-foot-7 man-mountain, another prospective franchise player in the Draft would be Ray Ray Parks, who is now in the midst of trying out for an NBA team in the United States.

Expansion teams usually take about two to three years before they make a dent in the PBA. KIA didn’t waste much time and immediately made an impact by beating some of the heavyweights like Ginebra, San Miguel and Purefoods.

At the rate things are going, and with the Carnival still owning their Draft rights for next season, KIA may take a little less time in becoming a force, most especially if Manny Pacquiao remains with the team and continues to provide encouragement and motivation.

Just encouragement and motivation, nothing more.