THOUGHTS | THE MPBL "NO HARM, NO FOUL" PROBLEM

Following his indefinite suspension and ₱100,000 fine, Arwind Santos asked, “Bakit ‘yung nagsimula ng gulo, wala man lang kahit ano?”

Well, Mark Anthony “Tonton” Bringas did get a deep cut on his eyelid that may or may not affect his basketball career, so…

Uhurm.

Anyway, much like in the case of Michole Sorela, it’s the optics of what Arwind Santos did to Bringas that earned him the punishment.

When Bringas punched Santos, he was just acting as an enforcer. Santos, on the other hand, acted in retaliation—and most of the time, retaliation comes with malicious intent.

Unfortunately for The Spiderman, that’s just the way it is in basketball. Sometimes, the only time a referee notices the contact is when the victimized player takes revenge.

But is this really Arwind Santos’ fault?

Well, in a way, yes.

There’s a saying that “two wrongs don’t make a right,” but you can also argue that “karma is inevitable.”

If this happened in the PBA, you’d see coaches jumping from the sidelines, and the referees would be suspended for letting the situation escalate to that level.

Over the years, Santos has cultivated haters because of his on-court antics. He got spat on when he was still in college because of his taunting, and he even got a hefty fine for calling Terrence Jones a racial slur. Hell, Manny Salgado got banned from the UAAP because he couldn’t stand Arwind’s presence. Arwind Santos is both one of the greatest players in Philippine basketball and one of the most controversial figures.

That said, Bringas did initiate the contact, and unfortunately, the MPBL has taken the whole “no harm, no foul” thing to a whole new level.

Over the years, we’ve seen the MPBL in hot water. At this point, I really think the government should regulate online betting because, aside from addiction, it puts our leagues in a bad light. Yes, trolls will always troll, but in the MPBL livestreams, we’ve seen people mentioning their failed bets and being absolute haters.

Trolling will always be there, but it also places the MPBL—and other leagues—in a negative light. I think this is why the PBA was hesitant about their livestreams.

Why am I bringing this up? Well, if an online bettor’s mind has the “game is fixed” mentality turned up to the extreme, then MPBL players seem to have this “physicality is power” mentality dialed up to the max.

For all the questionable decisions the PBA makes, we see them as the corny uncles with absurd ideas. Meanwhile, the MPBL feels like a league run by guys with issues.

The MPBL is like the PBA's lawless scene back in the ‘70s and ‘80s, when it was okay to beat down opponents after games, and fans would throw coins and trash onto the court. The only difference between then and now is that today’s fans know better—and we see that kind of behavior as unprofessional.

That insane mix of pro-ball pride and ligang labas mentality, played in front of a rabid fanbase, definitely fuels that bloodlust.

This is why, when the Gilas Pilipinas players went apeshit on Australia, we saw it as embarrassing. But if you look closely, the MPBL has dialed-down versions of that situation on a frequent basis. Sure, this is what makes the MPBL more fun to watch—but it also makes them look less professional.

I can’t emphasize this enough: the MBA back then also had heated altercations, but because the league was run by people who knew better, emotions never escalated this much.

And now you add the fact that Santos is one of the PBA’s 50 Greatest Players, while Bringas had a seven-game stint with the Meralco Bolts more than a decade ago—it becomes a battle of “Who do you think you are?” versus “You’re going to make me famous.”

Santos is a trash talker, but he never really got into physical altercations in the PBA, aside from pushing and taunting. He’s right to point out that when Renaldo Balkman choked him, all he did was forcibly remove Balkman’s hands from his neck.

And it’s not just Santos. Another member of the PBA’s 50 Greatest Players, Marc Pingris, also plays with physicality—but can you really blame him? When he was in the PBA, he may have charged at a fan (thank you, Danny Ildefonso,) but he managed to get out of that situation without incurring the penalties similar to Wynne Arboleda. He played physically against imports but rarely got ejected. Yes, he got into a fistfight with Kelly Nabong a decade ago, but Nabong had already unleashed hell on several other players before Pingris finally reacted.

Again, this highlights the difference between the physicality of ligang labas and the altercations in professional basketball.

As unfortunate as Arwind Santos’ indefinite suspension is, maybe it’s time for him to reconsider joining these kinds of tournaments. Maybe he can just ask SMC for a business venture—or maybe he has enough money to start one himself. He can still play in one-off exhibition matches, or if he misses the game that much, maybe he can use his connections to land a coaching job.

The unfortunate reality for players like Santos, Pingris, and even Alex Cabagnot (although guards rarely get frisky) is that yes, they’re proving they can still play at their age, and yes, the MPBL sees them as automatic crowd draws—but they’re also targets for players with bad intentions.

As for the MPBL, they have a long preseason ahead if they truly want change. From branding themselves as a league where former PBA stars can find a second wind, they’re now in danger of pushing those same players away because of the treatment they might get.

For these veterans, retiring unceremoniously might be worse than being forgotten in free agency.

Are we ready to see someone like Jayson Castro hitting a player—or worse, getting hit—when his PBA career ends? What about multi-time PBA Sportsmanship Award winners like June Mar Fajardo, JVee Casio, or Kevin Alas?

Right now, many people see the MPBL as a league with issues. If they want to be taken seriously, they need to address these flaws soon.