PBA Chairman Ricky Vargas disclosed that Ray Parks has yet to reach out to TNT since announcing over the weekend that he won’t play next season due to personal reasons, which has led to a messy situation between both camps.
“He has not gotten in touch with us. Or me, personally, he has not gotten in touch with me as well,” said the Tropang Giga governor Tuesday after the board’s planning session at the league’s office in Libis, Quezon City.
The flagship MVP Group franchise has been the talk of the town since Saturday afternoon. Parks took to social media to declare that he will not see action in the upcoming season, citing family reasons.
The team’s brass do not buy the reason for his decision, though, particularly team owner Manny V. Pangilinan. On that same night, he went on Facebook to question the 27-year-old’s reasoning.
The PLDT Chairman posted a photo of Parks while on the beach, which the long-time sports patron said was in La Union.
The following day, Vargas, in a report by veteran sports journalist Musong Castillo of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, made it known that he is going to raise to the board the issue of players like Parks taking a sabbatical.
He did exactly that in the board’s two-day planning session that concluded Tuesday. And according to Vargas, the league will now put up policies to address that particular issue, along with many others.
A study group has been put together, with PBA Vice Chairman and Terrafirma governor Bobby Rosales leading the way.
“We are looking at several policies. Let us not talk only about Ray-Ray. It talks about the current situation and we have put a study group together which will be headed by Vice Chairman Bobby with a couple of lawyers,” Vargas said.
“We’ll inform our Commissioner to take a look at these various cases. So one is – what is a leave of absence – number one. Number two, I have a contract and I want to play somewhere else and my contract expired. Number three, situations like, I’m fresh from college, I don’t want to be drafted and I just want to play for the national team.
“These are all the issues facing us squarely as the PBA has gotten more and more universal. Since there are a lot of good talents here, the world is looking at them also, especially in Asia. All these will have to be reviewed and addressed,” he continued.
Rosales, meanwhile, said that it would really need time for research to address what he called are a “myriad of issues.”
“There’s really a myriad of issues involved here, so it really requires deeper study so that we will be able to address different scenarios and really take a look at the big picture because it will affect all the stakeholders of basketball So we cannot rush into it
“We’ll have to do research, we’ll have to study, review and look at the different situations. So hopefully, we can come up with policies covering these issues. But you will have to indulge us because I think we really need time to really study this,” he said.
