Direct hiring is not new to the PBA and we all know what happened.
and it's an onion on the part of the league because the storyline at that time is strictly within the backyard of the league
and not beyond of it, if only they include in the narrative about Philippine National Team and the advent of Basketball without borders and globalization at that time
maybe issues like that should already been resolve...
lack of foresight, being insulares minded, allergic to innovations really takes it's toll on those old timers.
now fast forward, the PBA are now gradually opening up it's jurassic gates,
they are now pro-active in the National team, inviting foreign club team for the past two seasons to play like Bay Area and Eastern,
actively participating in the EASL tourney among others.
so as a fan and observer, it seems that the trajectory of the league are now gradually towards globalization
because that's really the paradigm nowadays and sadly, the Grandpa are not totally(?) warm to embrace it
that is why the league was way beyond the paradigm compared to it's Asian counterpart like the B. League among others.
for it's 50th Season they should really adapt some changes and innovations to cope up with the international standard
the so-called "New World Order of Global Basketball".
they should really cast out that so-called "Grandpa Attitude" if they really want the league to be relevant to the international basketball community.