Resume or Cancel: PBA to Decide by August

One thing is certain now: the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) won't be back by June or July this year regardless of whether or not the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) that the national government has placed in high-risk areas, will be downgraded by May 15. And even if the ECQ period will be downgraded to general community quarantine (GCQ), mass gatherings aren't allowed and that includes holding of sports events such as basketball games.

And according to PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial, the idea of the PBA holding games behind-closed-doors isn't something that he's looking at even though fans won't be allowed at the venue, it will still put teams and league officials at risk of getting infected by the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) as Marcial also pointed out that when the PBA is holding double-headers, it will mean that the league will put not lower than 300 personnel at risk. And since there's no vaccine yet against the said virus, holding behind-closed-doors games might be out of the question as well as far as the PBA commissioner is concerned.

With regards to the question of when the PBA will resume the 45th season, it's going to be a long waiting game for everyone as Commissioner Willie Marcial said that the league will wait until August of this year to decide whether the season will resume and play a stretched all-Filipino conference or, the entire 45th season will be canceled. The commissioner said that the decision that would be made by August will depend on the situation and, if and when the government will allow sports events to proceed. Marcial also noted that it's now impossible for the PBA to revert to its old two-conference format with the government extending the ECQ period placed in high-risk areas such as Metro Manila until May 15. 

As sad as it may sound for basketball fans, we might as well accept the reality that sports won't return in the local scene as long as the vaccine is not yet ready. For one, the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) has already canceled all upcoming PSC-sanctioned events for the remainder of the year while the University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP)  said that it is not cunting out the possibility of pushing back the men's basketball tournament of Season 83. We can only hope that the medical experts can develop the vaccine against COVID-19 at the soonest time possible or the wait for basketball will be much longer. 

Photo is from Daily Guardian