The PBA Philippine Cup is in its Final Four stage, with the league holding games everyday for the last four teams standing.

That means that Rain or Shine and San Miguel, which make up one half of the semifinals, and Alaska and GlobalPort will be playing every other day until winners from both best-of-seven series match-ups emerge.

If both go to deciding Game 7s, that would mean that all four teams would have played a total of seven games in 14 days starting last Monday, and for the two that would come out on top, it would mean playing at least another four games — if there is a sweep.

The Commissioner’s Cup, the second offering of the season, will then open on Feb. 10 no matter what happens. The current conference will end on Feb. 3 at the earliest and Feb. 5 at the latest, meaning, if the title series goes all the way to seven games.

This country has been enamored with basketball for such a long time, there’s no question about it.

Basketball in this country is what baseball is in the United States as far as national pastimes are concerned.

And like the Americans, the Filipinos cannot live without a basketball league going on somewhere.

The PBA has been trying to squeeze in three conferences into its yearly calendar in more or less nine months, claiming that it is trying to accommodate Gilas Pilipinas, our national cage team, for its international schedule around September and October of each year.

Players who make up the national team all come from the PBA, the league that plays three conferences inside nine months — or even less — so that the commercial viability of the league stays and that team owners get their money’s worth in terms of advertising and marketing mileage.

It doesn’t take rocket science to figure that one out.

Teams — at least the serious ones — shell out no less than P50 million a year in salaries and operating expenses just to be able to maintain competitive rosters.

That doesn’t count won game bonuses to players and coaching staff depending on what stage they end up each tournament. Championships won can cost management double that amount since contracts of players, especially the marquee ones, specify multiple month bonuses for winning titles.

The league claims to be making a sacrifice for flag and country by lending its stars to the national team.

But with the current setup, what the PBA continues to lend are players spent from a season-long grind, who, when pushed harder for national duties, could wind up eventually injuring themselves and becoming liabilities in the end.

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This year, with the Philippines to take part in a wildcard tournament for one of three remaining Olympic slots in July, the league will not start its third conference until after that.

That would mean that the Philippine Team would have a little over two months to prepare, a little over two months to regain the strength in their legs despite doing twice-a-day practices to be able to get coach Tab Baldwin’s system.

Whichever way one looks at it, Gilas will be getting players who have spent themselves trying to win the first two conferences for their respective mother teams.

And though there will be no doubt in our minds that they will be laying it all on the line for flag and country after that, the question would be: Will they still have the legs for it when the tournament comes?

This corner believes that, since the PBA had already altered its calendar for the year, the league should have extended the Philippine Cup for as long as it could have and slated the second and third conferences after the wildcard event.

It could have easily done away with the everyday games for the semifinalists — where, let us be reminded — most of those in the national pool are playing.

Certainly, it wouldn’t hurt the national team if these players are given to the squad in the pink of health. The hunger factor of wanting to play — because they have been out of action for quite a while — will be the only thing that the players will feel.

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Just to cite as an example, June Mar Fajardo again played 40 minutes for San Miguel Beer Thursday night in a 97-105 loss to Rain or Shine that put their best-of-seven Final Four series at 1-all at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.

San Miguel tried — for the second straight game — to ride the shoulders of the 6-foot-10 Fajardo in trying to come back from a 25-point third quarter deficit this time but couldn’t find the same magic the Beermen came up with in the series opener where they erased a 20-point deficit at the start of the fourth period.

There was no denying that Fajardo was a spent commodity in the stretch, even if he made 14 points in the fourth quarter in leading San Miguel with 38 and 17 rebounds.

Undeniably the best free throw-shooting big man in the league today, Fajardo missed five straight charities and went 11-for-21 in Game 2, a sure sign that he was fatigued as coach Leo Austria went to him the entire night.

“June Mar is almost unstoppable, that’s why we need to keep him working,” Rain or Shine coach Yeng Guiao said. “We want to make life difficult for him. He was tired. He was missing free throws in the endgame.”

Fajardo is just one player in the Gilas pool and will surely be the main man again for San Miguel in the second conference.

There’s no doubt in my mind that he will work just as hard when the new tournament opens, and if the Beermen again go deep in the playoffs, Fajardo could be damaged goods when training for the wild card event starts.

Just what happened to him last season when he couldn’t suit up for the National Five.