PBA Trades to be Handled by a 5-Man Team

The new PBA commissioner will no longer decide if a trade is to be approved or not. (Photo by the PBA Media Bureau)

Approving or disapproving trades no longer in the hands of the commissioner.

Over the past few seasons, the PBA has seen numerous trades that were either controversial and/or one-sided and yet, the league approved these deals despite questions being voiced out by member teams. That was most visible when then PBA Commissioner Chito Narvas approved the deal that sent the Kia Picanto's rights to pick the top pick to the  San Miguel Beermen in exchange for role players. This season's top pick happened to be the Filipino-German and Gilas Pilipinas big man, Christain Standhardinger. That deal was approved despite nagging calls for Narvasa to veto it owing to the belief that it could take away the very reason why the draft was being held on an annual basis. 

You all witnessed what happened next. Chito Narvasa is gone for good and OIC Willie Marcial is taking over temporarily until such time when the league has appointed its next commissioner. To begin with, Mr. Marcial has tons of things to sort out but one of the things he first did upon his first few days as the OIC is to assemble a 5-man special team that will have one specific mission: go through all the future trades to see if these trades should be approved or not.

What this could mean?

To simply things out, approving trades will no longer be included in the burdens of the PBA commissioner, saving him/her from the accusations of being biased. Although Mr. Marcial refused to name the members of the team pending the approval of the board, he did say that the 5-men team will have to reach a consensus and if they failed to do, the house will be divided.

In addition to this, there's a proposal for the league to identify an elite player from each team. In this proposal, any PBA player who is identified as an elite player can only be traded to an elite player- eliminating the possibilities of lopsided deals like the famed Kia-San Miguel deal. 

Conclusion

The proposal of a 5-man team who will handle the approval of trades could bring back the trust of the fans towards the PBA because the banging of the gavel is no longer in the hands of the commissioner, alone. It's now up to the league to assemble a team of 5 trust-worthy and independent men who will look at no team when making decisions.