PBA: Commissioner Salud apologizes for ‘crude’ draft lottery

PBA Commissioner Chito Salud on Friday apologized for the ‘crude’ presentation of the 2014 PBA Draft, which had drawn heavy criticism from Rain or Shine Elasto Painters head coach Yeng Guiao, Thursday.

Comm. Salud on Draft Lottery: I have seen the video of the draft lottery i recently conducted. I can now (cont) http://t.co/1msd2Ev0Pj

— pbaconnect (@pbaconnect) July 4, 2014

Guiao complained after his team, which owned the rights to the Meralco Bolts’ pick, evened their Finals series against the San Mig Coffee Mixers. After losing the lottery on Tuesday, RoS was forced to settle for the second overall selection.

Salud, in a statement, said, “I have seen the video of the Draft Lottery I recently conducted. I can now also see and understand why people have expressed concerns, some even doubts. This is an entirely avoidable issue and I apologize to our fans, our teams and coaches for the distraction it has caused.

“Improvements could have easily been instituted had I given this more attention. It simply never occurred to me that the whole process looked crude as Coach Guiao called it. It may have appeared unrefined, but it was an honest draw. Improvements will be implemented anchored on fullest transparency.”

On Tuesday, at the MOA Arena, Salud placed large three balls into a box, two of which were marked GlobalPort and one Meralco.

There was no Meralco representative at the draw, and Salud seemingly didn’t let go of the last ball, a GlobalPort ball, after placing it inside the box. - AMD, GMA News