MPBL stands for Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League.
While just an infant as it begins a journey into the sports maze, it is already making a dent among local sports fans, particularly local basketball fanatics.
It is an idea hatched by the good senator from Sarangani, Manny Pacquiao, whose love for sports transcends his boxing heroism.
While it may be a take-off from the defunct Metropolitan Basketball
Association which, for a time, rivalled the PBA in the early 90s, the MPBL today took off with fresh gears that could institutionalize it in due time.
Former PBA legend Kenneth Duremdes is the league’s first commissioner and judging by the attendance in home and away games, there is no reason to worry that the MPBL will go the way of the MBA.
The participating LGUs have become cognizant that sports play a vital role in bringing up a law-abiding and healthy citizenry. Hordes of local fans troop to the venue where the action is held who cheer for their home team (and conversely jeer the visiting opposition).
During the 90s there were but few decent multi-purpose gyms and basketball arenas where competitions can generally serve the watching public. Today, there are just about one in every city or capital town that is capable of hosting out-of-town PBA games, including semifinal or championship matches.
This is a plus factor for the MPBL.
Besides, the new generation of millennials are active members of the youth sector whose inexhaustible energy they channel to sports endeavors.
Meaning, the number of sports fans have increased because we now have a population of young people oozing with energy and outgoing vitality.
You can call it luck but the MPBL, with Pacquiao as its guiding spirit may yet prove to be the chief rival of the PBA in the long term.
For one, there are many LGUs who are on a wait and see attitude. When they realize that the MPBL is not a ningas kugon activity, more of them will apply and participate.
Second, promoting the LGU through the traditional media practices is very expensive. With the MPBL, the LGU and its local chief executive are mentioned every now and then, so the advertising and promotion are already free of charge.
Third, basketball players in the local level who aspire to join the pro ranks can make the MPBL a training ground where they can display their heretofre undiscovered talents.
Fourth, local economic activity is spurred as the MPBL creates a fanatical frenzy when local folks watch their local heroes play against the visiting teams.
Fifth, the timeliness of the MPBL kick-off calendar fills the void that the PBA cannot satiate. In other words, watching the PBA can become boring because you see the same old faces and the same old format, year in, year out.
With many Fil-Am talents replacing local hoopsters, the MPBL appears to be a nationalistic endeavor as those sidelined can enlist with and find work among the participating LGUs.
The MPBL, if I may, could approximate the growth of the NBA when the latter was struggling. In the early 60s, the NBA merged with the rival ABA and that was when it grew by leaps and bounds.
If the MPBL can withstand the test of time (weather and all), it will eventually become a rich spawning ground of future national athletes who will banner the country’s flag in the Asian Games, FIBA and the Olympics.
Cheers to the MPBL! (Email your feedback to fredlumba@yahoo.com.) Isaiah 40:8. “The grass withers and the flowers fall but he Word of our God stands forever.” GOD BLESS THE PHILIPPINES!
