PBA: Commissioner's Cup extended, Governors' Cup moved, to give way to national team training

(Updated 2:35pm) The PBA has opted to extend the Commissioner's Cup, and reschedule the Governors' Cup, in order to accommodate the training of the Philippine National Team for the upcoming FIBA Asia Championships, the league announced Tuesday.

Comm. Chito Salud: The pba team owners have agreed to make way for the fiba asia tournament by transferring the (cont) tl.gd/kufg97

— pbaconnect (@pbaconnect) February 5, 2013
 
 

In a statement posted via the league's official Twitter account, @pbaconnect, league commissioner Chito Salud said, "The PBA team owners have agreed to make way for the FIBA Asia tournament by transferring the third conference of the current 2013 season from the original May-July schedule to August-October.

[Related: PBA to look into shortening the Governors' Cup, synch schedule with practices of the national team]

"To counter the negative effects on the member-teams of the resulting protracted break between conferences, the second conference will be extended by adopting the format of the recently concluded Philippine Cup.

"This means that the second conference will be finished by the last week of May, instead of April 28. As a result of these adjustments, Gilas Pilipinas will have two months of unhampered truing as a team."

The statement added that the revisions would be formally approved by the PBA governors on February 7, during a special meeting.

Comm. Chito Salud: I had a very positive and productive talk with our team owners. Not only have they agreed to (cont) tl.gd/kufkog

— pbaconnect (@pbaconnect) February 5, 2013
 

In a separate tweet, Salud added, "As I have said, when good men reason together, the outcome is inevitably beneficial to everyone. In this case, our owners placed national interest above all considerations. I am so proud of the PBA."

Originally, the Governors' Cup would have ended by the last week of July, giving the national team too short a time to prepare for the August 1 to 11 FIBA tourney. Players would have likely been fatigued as well.

2 months. Final pool to be released thurs, after special PBA Board mtg.

— Chot Reyes (@coachot) February 5, 2013
 
 

National team head coach Chot Reyes confirmed the changes, tweeting out, "2 months. Final pool to be released Thursday after special PBA Board Meeting."

During the recently-concluded Philippine Cup, the 10 PBA teams were divided into two groups based on their 2012 draft order, without taking into account trades.

Group 1 had the Air21 Express, the Meralco Bolts, the Petron Blaze Boosters, Barangay Ginebra San Miguel, and the San Mig Coffee Mixers, while Group 2 boasted of the Alaska Aces, the Barako Bull Energy Cola, Globalport Batang Pier, which used to be the Powerade Tigers, the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters, and the Talk 'N Text Tropang Texters.

Each team then played their groupmates once, and the squads from the opposing group twice, for a total of 14 games per side.

@miakka that is yet to be discussed. still many scenarios... if we qualify for the world champ, sched/format etc may change yet again

— pbaconnect (@pbaconnect) February 5, 2013

The league added that it was still not yet clear what the ramifications the schedule change would have on the 2013-14 season, saying, "If we qualify for the world champ [championship], schedule/format etc may change yet again."

The Commissioner's Cup will begin Friday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum with the GlobalPort Batang Pier taking on the Petron Blaze Boosters in the undercard, followed by defending conference champs San Mig Coffee Mixers clashing against the retooled Barako Bull Energy Cola. - Adrian Dy, GMA News