A lifetime ban awaits the next Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) player found guilty of assaulting a fan under circumstances that led to the one-season suspension of Burger King player Wynne Arboleda.
PBA commissioner Sonny Barrios yesterday said that even as he doubts another player “would dare do” what Arboleda did, he is prepared to hand down “a much more severe penalty” if a similar attack takes place.
The rugged-playing Whoppers point guard kicked and turned into a punching bag a Smart-Gilas fan last week, prompting a league-wide condemnation which ended with Barrios’ landmark decision to suspend Arboleda without pay for the rest of the week-long-old 35th season.
“In tomorrow’s (Wednesday's) game, if somebody punches a fan and tells me, ‘first time ko lang, Commissioner, dapat one year lang suspension ko,’ ang sasabihin ko sa kanya, ‘hindi, for life ka na,’” Barrios said.
“Matigas nang masyado ang bungo mo noon. It will be tantamount to being insensitive to what the PBA preaches – that the fans’ interest is primordial. His penalty will be much more severe than what Arboleda got.”
Reactions to his verdict, Barrios said, had been mixed.
“Some say it was too much, while others say it wasn’t severe enough,” he said. “They’re crying for more blood.”
The heaviest penalty meted out in the history of the league, Barrios said, was arrived at “not at a cavalier or whimsical way” but after a thorough deliberation with his staff, members of the technical committee, two legal counsels, and a sports psychologist “to help Arboleda process the incident in his heart and mind.”
Five months after Marlou Aquino of Sta. Lucia Realty and 16 weeks after Danny Ildefonso and Marc Pingris of San Miguel Beer nearly got entangled with courtside fans, Barrios said PBA players should have been more “careful in dealing” with unruly spectators.
“Iba yung attempt lang, iba yung accomplished na,” Barrios said in putting the three separate cases in perspective. “It’s like pulling a gun, brandishing it around, ranting and waving. It’s still just waving a metal object. Iba naman if the trigger is pulled. Malaking lundag na yon from just waving it.”
Barrios clarified that although PBA chairman and Burger King governor Lito Alvarez has declared his support for the decision, the option remains for Arboleda to make an appeal.
“That is his right and we don’t want to deny him that,” Barrios said. “The decision was made because we want to impress upon everybody the gravity of the incident, that is has no place in the PBA or in sport.”
A second punching incident involving Arboleda, who stands to lose close to P3 million in income as a result of the suspension, will result in a lifetime ban.
“As I told Wynne when we talked, kaya siya one season lang e dahil first time offender siya, Kung second time na niyang ginawa yon, lifetime na agad siya.”
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