PBA to Shorten Season Due to COVID-19 Pandemic

One way or another, the 45th season of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) will resume this year. It's no longer the question of when but a question of how long.

With the ongoing 2019 Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic still hitting humanity with everything it got, and with the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine extended until the end of the month, PBA fans will need to wait longer as the May resumption of PBA action is likely not going to happen.  The public may even see a shorter season once the league opens anew.

As it happens, the PBA is now leaning towards reverting to the old two-conference format it once had in the old days. That, if the current pandemic will end soon. If not, there's also the possibility of the PBA holding one conference for the 45th season and that's the Philippine Cup.  

According to PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial, the PBA board which met online for over an hour yesterday is leaning towards shortening the season to two conferences. But Marcial also pointed out that if the current situation doesn't improve as soon as possible, the PBA is likely to have one conference for the season and that's actually better than having no PBA action this year. The league is also looking at the option to hold a longer all-Filipino conference if that's the direction that the pandemic will force the league to go. 

But even before this pandemic has forced basketball to stop, one PBA team owner has been long pushing for the league to revert to a two-conference format. That owner is Dioceido Sy of the Blackwater Elite. 

According to Sy, the action to revert to a two-conference season rather than a three-conference season will allow the PBA and by extension, the national team program, to stay in course with the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) format. Why?

In the current format of the league, FIBA events where Gilas Pilipinas is playing have made the PBA tweak its schedule to allow the national team to train more and it was visible last season when the 44th season ended just last January.  That practice will be scrapped once the PBA goes on to shorten the season to just two conferences. 

Regardless of whether it's going to be a two-conference run or a longer all-Filipino conference, PBA fans will still get to see the league this year then again, that depends on how soon this pandemic will end.    

Photo is from the PBA