PBA DRAFT | GET THEM WHILE THEY ARE YOUNG

Benjie Paras and Stephen Holt.

What is the difference between the Tower of Power and the former NBA G-Leaguer?

Both players were top picks.

That said, Paras was already PBA-ready at age 21. When he finished his career at 35, the former UP slotman was a two-time MVP and was part of all of Shell's championship teams.

Meanwhile, Holt is the only top overall pick selected in his 30s, and while he gave Terrafirma the competitive edge they desperately needed, he was farmed out to Ginebra after just one season. Holt may have helped Ginebra win the 2026 PBA Commissioner's Cup, but he would turn 35 by the end of the year, and I doubt if he'll ever be the top guy he once was with the Dyip.

When a team lands the top pick, the expectation is that the player will catapult the franchise to a championship and perform like a superstar for at least a decade. Since the draft's inception, only three players have starred for and retired with the team that drafted them.

That said, Gabe Norwood's career is very different from those of Apet Jao and Alex Araneta, the only three players on this list to spend their entire PBA careers with the teams that drafted them.

Jao spent most of his PBA career as Allan Caidic's understudy. Injuries prevented Alex Araneta from ever fully realizing his potential, and he was out of Alaska before the team's 1996 Grand Slam season. Meanwhile, when Welcoat rebranded as Rain or Shine and selected Norwood as the top overall pick in 2008, the franchise went from being the league's whipping boys to legitimate contenders.

Still, no one comes close to what June Mar Fajardo has brought to San Miguel. In terms of awards, statistics, and longevity, no one has matched what he has accomplished with the team that drafted him. He should retire with the Beermen the moment he calls his career quits, but I doubt if recent top picks Justine Baltazar and Geo Chiu would enjoy the same luxury.

I mean, Chiu currently plays for Terrafirma.

The chances of him getting farmed out is almost certain.

So what makes a player a successful top pick, aside from awards, stats, and league tenure?

Well, 23 top picks were 24 years old or younger in the year they were drafted. Yes, some of the 25-year-olds on the list may have been 24 on draft day, but they turned 25 during that calendar year. This is significant because a typical PBA career begins five or six years later than what we usually see in the NBA or the EuroLeague.

Again, this is significant considering that Paras retired somewhat young, the same age at which June Mar Fajardo could win his tenth PBA MVP award.

However, just because a player is drafted young doesn't guarantee a superstar career. If a team hopes to build around a player for the long term, though, it certainly helps if he spends most of his 20s with the franchise.

The reason I bring this up is that, with the rise of international leagues, it's noticeable that most players who sign overseas contracts are plucked straight out of college.

Kai Sotto didn't even play college basketball before heading straight to the international professional circuit. He had just turned 24 this May, which means this would only be around the time we'd be seeing him on a bigger stage had he followed the traditional PBA route.

And what if Dwight Ramos hadn't gone to Japan and had instead stayed with Ateneo for at least two more years? He was already 23 when he joined the Toyama Grouses. I doubt he would have been the top overall pick in the PBA Draft, considering he would have gone up against the likes of Joshua Munzon, Jamie Malonzo, Calvin Oftana, and Mikey Williams in 2021, then Brandon Ganuelas-Rosser and Jeremiah Gray in 2022, both of whom logged significant time with Mighty Sports.

I know the PBA can't stop players from choosing Japan or Korea when those opportunities present themselves, but the league could at least put up a fight if those players were already in the PBA.

Take Robert Bolick, for example. He played just one game for the Fukushima Firebonds during the 2023-24 Japan B.League season before requesting his release. Sure, his reason was to be with his pregnant wife, but he also realized he could still earn enough money playing in the PBA.

The same can be said for Gian Mamuyac, who allegedly weighed whether to accept an overseas contract. The solution came when Rain or Shine traded him to Phoenix, where he reportedly received a contract extension with a significant pay raise.

College players are free to join international teams because they're still living on allowances. If they were drafted at a younger age and given a choice, they might stay in the Philippines if both sides could reach an agreement. Even if they eventually decide to play overseas, the PBA team would still retain their rights, allowing the franchise either to wait for the player's contract to expire or to trade those rights for valuable assets.

If the PBA simply revised its entry rules to allow players to enter the draft at 19 years old after at least one year of college basketball, we might see more young talent in the league enjoying longer careers. And even if they eventually head overseas, they would still have plenty of time to return to the PBA and play during their prime.

Just take Andy Gemao, for instance. The dude may have the NBA in his sights, but after his stint with Letran, he found himself in proverbial basketball limbo. At 20 years old, he's already old enough to play professionally, yet before his move to Penn State, he returned to high school in the United States, attended several basketball camps, and even had a stint with the UP Fighting Maroons. That's two years of uncertainty, and we still don't know whether he'll play in the PBA, return to the NCAA or UAAP, or pursue opportunities in international leagues after this chapter of his career.

I think this is what needs to be done. If the PBA wants to protect its interests, then it needs to give itself a fighting chance. We could have seen guys like Thirdy Ravena, Migs Oczon, and Quentin Millora-Brown consider entering the PBA Draft, but instead, they looked for ways to return to Japan and Korea, just as Kiefer Ravena, Ray Parks, and Jamie Malonzo did.

It's easy for players to be blinded by money, especially when they're in their late 20s and have to maximize their earning potential before that financial well dries up.

When I watched the Phoenix-Blackwater game, I heard Quinito Henson talk about Phoenix import BJ Johnson's various NBA contracts. He even mentioned the money Johnson earned, and I assume he got those figures from Basketball Reference. In the NBA, and even in the Japan and Korea leagues, contract details are publicly available, almost as if they help justify why players choose to sign or re-sign with a particular team or league.

That's why it baffles me that the PBA remains so secretive about player salaries. If we already know that the rich get richer while the poor get poorer, maybe it's time for the league to loosen its salary cap, similar to how payrolls work in Major League Baseball.

After all, with the kind of roster they have, who expects the Los Angeles Dodgers or the New York Yankees to have payrolls comparable to those of MLB's bottom teams?

If the PBA's reason for withholding salary information is security, then that argument doesn't really hold up. Criminals don't need official figures to target people they believe have money. And if a franchise is embarrassed because its star player wants a trade after the team can't meet his asking price, how is that the league's problem? The more the PBA hides these details, the more people assume there's something shady going on behind the scenes.

And it's not as if the PBA has never fought with money before. When the MBA threatened the league's existence, the PBA responded by offering more lucrative deals to lure players away. Given the exodus of the MBA's biggest stars to the PBA, I doubt that happened solely because of the promise of fulfilling a childhood dream.

The PBA will enter its 51st year, and it's time to change things up.

The first step is to bring the country's top college stars into its fold as early as possible and protect its interests from there.