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Originally posted by IPC
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"The PBA remains the sick league in Asia
Everyone knows it. Everyone says so. Everyone, except the PBA, which in 2023 continued to live off its past glory even as it could not even muster the crowd attendance that other local and even regional leagues are able to attract on a regular basis.
The PBA draws a sizable crowd during Manila Clasico games, but how much can the league really milk a Barangay Ginebra-Magnolia matchup? The only other times the PBA experienced sell-out crowds was when Ginebra played the Bay Area Dragons in the Commissioner’s Cup finals earlier this year.
That the PBA needs a guest team to gain fan interest already is telling.
The league has long been left behind by more progressive professional leagues in Asia like the Japan B. League and the Korean Basketball League. The list of Filipinos who have decided to take their talents to Japan and Korea reads like a veritable who’s who. The quality of players who have joined the exodus to these foreign leagues is enough to form a really strong Gilas Pilipinas national team. Not only do they get paid more, but they also get to play in higher level leagues whose integrity has not yet been tarnished.
Still, the PBA refuses to admit there is something wrong and holds on to the illusion that it is still the gold standard of professional basketball. Not even Gilas’ gold-medal title conquest in the Asian Games can negate the fact that the PBA has fallen behind primarily due to its lack of imagination and stubborn refusal to mend its old ways.
And so the league continues to be ruled by teams belonging to major blocs, while the rest of the field make do with the few marquee players who have not yet been snagged by richer teams. The PBA still turns a blind eye on lopsided trades and deals between sister teams which involve conduits, something an ordinary fan could see right through yet somehow miraculously are undetected by league officials. And the PBA remains the only league which imposes a height limit on imports. All laughable, yet the PBA still does not want to acknowledge how its actions, and inaction, have turned the league into one big fat joke."
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