Barrios’ decision draws mixed reactions from Cone, Uichico

Former national team coaches Tim Cone of Alaska Milk and Jong Uichico of Barangay Ginebra expressed mixed reactions on Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) commissioner Sonny Barrios’ decision to make Smart Gilas’ games as no-bearing in the ongoing KFC-PBA Philippine Cup.

Barrios, last week, made a swift and decisive move of changing the status of Smart Gilas’ games. The Gilas RP 5 is playing as a guest squad in the season-opening all-Filipino conference with under the previous ruling their games will have bearings for all 10 participating teams and will reflect on the win-loss record. Barrios decision to make their games no-bearing nullified the convincing wins of the three teams that defeated the RP developmental squad where Serbian coach Rajko Toroman’s team lost by an average of 23.7 points against Burger King, Talk ‘N Text and Ginebra. Uichico, however, said that though he favors making Smart-Gilas’ games as no-bearing, it was untimely. “I am in favor of having Smart-Gilas’ games counted as no bearing because like I’ve said before, teams can help these young players without the “we-must-win attitude"," Uichico told GMANews.TV. “But I am not in favor of changing the rules in the middle of the game, especially now na nanalo na kami over Smart-Gilas and our win should be counted on the team standings. But what can we do? Ang sa akin lang, dapat before the start of the tournament, nag-decide na sila agad whether it should be counted or not. It hurts as more because we won over Smart-Gilas and it should be counted," Uichico added after scouting the Burger King- Sta. Lucia match last Friday at the Araneta Coliseum. Cone, in his Twitter account, said from the start he is not in favor of having Smart-Gilas’ games played with bearing. “I am not in favor of national teams playing PBA schedules because there’s not much to gain on either side. We’ve experienced that before in 1998 when I was handling the Centennial team. We won only one game. It was a bad experience for us and didn’t help us any," said the multi-titled and long-time Alaska mentor. “Now that Smart-Gilas’ games have become non-bearing for all the teams, we can now focus on making them better," he added. Barrios decided to make Gilas’ games no-bearing after meeting with the PBA board of governors. “I was given authority by the board to decide based on two options – to make Smart-Gilas games counted as no bearing or have their games with bearing but without CJ Giles on their roster," said Barrios. “I chose the first option as choosing the second one means we’re meddling on the affairs of Smart-Gilas on running their team." – GMANews.TV