MANILA: Is the quotient system good for the PBA and its fans?

Is there no sure-fire way to make all the PBA teams play at the highest level every night, a format that would assure that the fans get their money’s worth and that the teams that deserve playoff slots get what is due them?

Is the PBA not in any way mandated by its fans — and by its conscience — to have its teams play at their hardest every game, that no one should hold their punches, that no one is given a free ride?

We ask these questions after what happened in the Alaska-Globalport match last Tuesday, when the Aces blatantly did not play to their full strength in the second half and practically gave the Batang Pier the win.

We also ask these questions after Barako Bull suddenly suffered from poor form and lost consecutive games to teams trying to make the playoffs, doing so in huge margins to surely bomb out of the tiebreaker.

Alaska coach Alex Compton did not play import Romeo Travis a single minute in the final two quarters and in overtime, rested his local stalwarts one after the other from late in the third period on and went on to play his reserves in the fourth and in extension.

The Aces still went on to take the game into overtime against a team that had a 6-foot-11 American and a streak shooting Palestinian as imports, losing only after scoring just two points in the first four minutes of the extra period.

Alaska came into that game assured of the No. 1 slot and would gain absolutely nothing no matter what the outcome was.

It had a reason to rest its stars, because they really could get injured during the course of the no-bearing contest and lose those players in the playoffs where the stakes are at their biggest.

But the result of that game that night gave Globalport No. 4 seeding and the last twice-to-beat privilege in the first round of the playoffs that start on Friday night at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao.

That result also denied Star the chance to grab No. 4 spot since Globalport went out of reach after notching its seventh win to close out its elimination round schedule.

This corner is no Star fan nor is it an Alaska hater, but in the essence of sportsmanship — professional sportsmanship for that matter — I question the way Alaska conducted itself in that game.

There were ways to give Travis and the local nucleus some rest to get ready for the playoffs and ways to give their reserves the time on the floor for the experience to — again — make them ready for the playoffs.

Certainly, benching them for an extended time wasn’t the way to do it and benching them in the endgame was the biggest insult to the fans that night.

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Tim Cone, the Star coach who spent his first 23 years in the PBA coaching Alaska, immediately came to the defense of his former team after being forced to settle for No. 5 because of the Globalport win.

The defending champion Hotshots would now need to beat the Batang Pier two straight times to advance to the Final Four, a tough task considering how loaded Globalport is.

But Cone said that “Alaska owes no one any favors” and that “I truly believe that they have no obligation to win a game for anybody other than themselves.”

Cone spoke that way because he is also guilty of doing the same in the past.

“We’ve been there before, too,” Cone continued. “We didn’t worry about it (helping any other team). We rested our guys. To me, it’s no big deal. They (Alaska coaches) did what they had to do.”

I beg to differ, sir.

All of the PBA teams owe it to all the fans to make their respective squads win night in and out.

No way should anyone hold back, no matter what, during the course of any tournament that fans pay for tickets and consume the products being advertised in the league.

But that’s just me. The PBA may be looking at it in a different way.

If so, it’s a very dangerous road to trek, so dangerous that the league might fall off the cliff somewhere along the way.

And there might be no way to climb out of it.

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I blame the quotient system because teams can work for better quotient during the early parts of the elimination round and then pick the teams they could lose to without sacrificing final position in the standings.

Had the quotient system not been in effect, Alaska would have been made to play hard that day, because the Aces could be in danger of being knocked off No. 1 bySan Miguel Beer should they end up tied after the round and a game is played to determine the top seed.

Barako Bull also, despite the suspicious way that it suddenly had a huge dip in form in the stretch, would have gotten a chance to play for higher seeding since the Energy ended up tied with Star for No. 5. The Energy might find it in themselves to play a tad better the next time around, when they play for better positioning in the round.

Barako Bull, after winning five of its first six games to pace the tournament, won just one of its last five matches, dropping the last three by huge margins to teams that the Energy trade players with for most of the last five or six off-seasons.

The Energy lost its final game by a whopping 28 points to the Hotshots, who went on to tie them in the standings after nipping Blackwater in their last game.

Twenty-eight points, that’s unbelievable considering that Barako Bull has all the talent it needs to go deep in this league.

But again, that’s just me.

In the meantime, the PBA should find ways to make sure that this doesn’t happen again, because it is fast becoming to be a practice.

It might become a disease in the end, and if it does, finding a cure for it would be very, very hard.