WITH the 40th Season of the Philippine Basketball Association to run only up until July 26 at the latest, and with the league facing a very long off-season, rumors have started cropping up regarding the fortunes of some personalities.

There were big achievers in the season about to end, and there definitely were some terrible underachievers who are the subjects of some truly nasty talk in the past couple of days.

There are two big groups of team owners in the PBA: the San Miguel Corp. conglomerate of Ramon S. Ang and the PLDT group of telecommunications mogul Manny V. Pangilinan.

All the others have one team and are claiming to be independent of the two, though it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know which are the only ones who can back their claims.

Ang’s San Miguel Beermen won the Philippine Cup, while Pangilinan’s Talk ‘N Text Tropang Texters ruled the Commissioner’s Cup.

Both have three teams each and their other squads simply did not live up to the challenge of the season, with Ang’s Star Hotshots proving to be the biggest disappointments of the lot after failing to make a title series this year.

Last season, Star, under coach Tim Cone, won all three jewels staked to complete just the fifth Grand Slam in league history. Star lost all of its titles and failed to make it past the Final Four, bowing to Alaska via a sweep just last week.

Barangay Ginebra is the third of Ang’s teams, the most popular one in the land which is gradually losing some followers for the simple reason that the team hasn’t won a tournament in more than five years.

The Gin Kings, who changed coaches three times this season, didn’t finish higher than fifth in all three conferences despite being armed to the teeth.

To say that Ginebra underachieved is a terrible understatement.

NLEX and Meralco, the two other Pangilinan teams, also did not perform that well the entire season, with the Texters the ones left to carry the fight for the PLDT franchises.

Though we all know that the SMB and PLDT groups cannot win all the championships every time, we can be sure that the owners who cough up the huge dough to maintain these sides certainly don’t want to see their teams bowing out early each tournament.

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Here’s one persistent rumor going about in the last couple of days.

This one is saying that one of the coaches of one of those teams we mentioned will be stripped of overall control he has on his team considering how he and his wards bombed out this season.

Before, this coach was reportedly given blanket authority by the team owner to dispose, acquire and retain the players that he wanted for the season.

He was practically untouchable.

But the past days have been very unkind for this man, as talk has it that, though he will not be replaced, he will abide by whatever management gives him.

He may want a particular player now, but he won’t have a say on what management decides to do with that player.

You see, these two big groups are using some of the other teams as conduits to build and rebuild their teams, making trades with some teams which are supposedly independent to fill up the rosters of one of their teams by taking some players who are in excess, so to speak, from one of theirs.

So now, this coach, who likes to work long term with his players, stands to lose some of his mainstays for one of the big owners to rebuild some of his other teams if he so wishes.

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Here is another.

Word has been going around that at least one coach from each group will be on the way out once this season ends, or if he is lucky enough, will have a job until before the next PBA Season opens on Oct. 18.

One of the coaches also got to do what he wanted with his team but didn’t produce the result needed to save his job, while the other had a full season and full management backing but didn’t perform as expected.

One of those coaches will be replaced by someone who had come from the PBA before and is now calling the shots for a high-profile school in one of the country’s premier collegiate leagues.

This coach, the one coming from the collegiate ranks, hasn’t won a PBA championship yet and earned a new lease on his coaching career when this school took him in.

He is expected to make his entry into one of the two groups’ teams before the collegiate season opens, since PBA rules prohibit head coaches from calling the shots for any other team in another league.

The other team that is set to make a coaching change is no stranger to situations like this one, only this time, the replacement could most likely come from another PBA squad which performed surprisingly well in one of the three conferences.

It will be a promotion of sorts for the coach of that outside squad, and if it happens, will be a homecoming of sorts for the man.

Such is life in the PBA, one cannot really know what can happen in the days to come.