Chito Narvasa begins PBA regime
New PBA commissioner Chito Narvasa had one word to say after conducting his first-ever PBA Rookie Draft.
“Mainit! (It’s hot!),” quipped Narvasa as gasped for air in his barong tagalog after a tiring eight rounds the 2015 Gatorade PBA Rookie Draft on Sunday.
But in all seriousness, the former PBA coach was happy to finally get his feet wet as the league’s ninth commissioner.
“It’s nice to be back with friends, so when they came up to the stage, I told them to help me,” he said.
Narvasa also explained the rationale of his request not to entertain draft day trades.
“I’m not familiar with the players, the amateurs that will be drafted. I’m not also that familiar with the lineups. I want to create a standardized process on how it’s going to be done. Once it goes through that process, I don’t think we’ll have a problem anymore.”
“I want transparency. I can’t base it on what I hear and what people tell me. I have to make sure there’s a basis for any kind of trade,” he said.
Admittedly a newbie on his job, Narvasa reiterated that the groundwork for his administration is centered on improving the PBA’s style of play.
“The first thing in our philosophy is very simple. We want to improve officiating and there’s a gameplan. We want to stick with the PBA rulebook, but I will discuss it with all the coaches so there will be a physical and visual understanding on what we’re going to call. We can also show how they could address it, we would provide solutions to them,” he said.
Together with his deputy commissioner Rickie Santos, Narvasa is planning to meet all the 12 teams individually about the changes in the league’s officiating. He added that the Commissioner’s Office has already talked to the team governors about in the league’s annual planning session.
“Basically, during our planning, we’ve already discussed it with the governors. It’s hard to explain, but once we start playing, there’s gonna be a big difference. What we want to do is to let the players play and for the coaches to show their brilliance, and the referees will stick to calling the right calls,” he said.
Narvasa also said that in his regime there would be a constant communication with the parties involved in the game—from the players, coaches, management, and from the PBA itself.
“It’s gonna be consultative in nature until we come out with the right formula. We have to see which works.”
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