PBA eyes July as a return for team practices

By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña

The PBA is optimistic that the Inter-Agency Task Force on Emerging Infectious Disease (IATF) will approve their letter of request, granting their players permission to practice in their team facilities by July.

The PBA board led by Commissioner Willie Marcial said that they are already on the process of sending the letter to the IATF and added that all protocols and guidelines regarding their players, personnel, and staff’s safety are included once basketball operations will be given a green light.

Since the league’s suspension last March, the PBA board did not allow any basketball activity including individual and team practices within their facilities as part of their safety measures amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

With Metro Manila showing signs of slowing down in the number of virus-positive patients, the sliding down from enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) to general community quarantine (GCQ) is a positive sign for the return of sporting events.

Under GCQ, sports are limited to indoor and outdoor non-contact sports and gym facilities are still closed but once GCQ will slide down to modified general community quarantine (MGCQ), sporting events might return but with a capacity of 50 percent of the usual audience however, contact sports are still not allowed.

Commissioner Marcial emphasized that their letter won’t be a rush for the league’s resumption, but rather it would be the first few steps wherein they want their players to get back to the gym for conditioning but at the same time follow safety protocols.

“Kung apat sila, walang dalawahan, walang scrimmages, walang game. Conditioning lang talaga. Biruin mo apat kayo sa isang court. Kaya ‘yung social distancing, magagawa natin,” said Marcial.