Seeking to further promote the greatness of the Filipino basketball players, the PBA is giving more chances to the cagers, as the league is set to hold the first-ever PBA D-League Showdown later this conference.
Opening the eighth season with this ground-breaking news, PBA officer-in-charge Willie Marcial is hopeful that this will serve as another motivation for the players to perform at their best in this 2018 PBA D-League Aspirants’ Cup.
“Ginagawa naman natin ito para mas galingan ng mga players natin para rin maipakita nila yung tunay nilang talento,” he said Thursday during the opening ceremonies at Ynares Sports Arena in Pasig.
Marcial revealed that the plan is to hold a two-day summit for the players suiting up in the ongoing conference, to allow them to showcase their talents in front of coaches and scouts — not just from the PBA, but also from countries in the Southeast Asian region.
“Lahat ng mga players ay maglalaro dito at mapapanood hindi lang ng mga PBA coaches,” he said.
“Iimbitahin din namin ang mga coaches ng ibang bansa tulad ng Malaysia, Thailand, at Vietnam na kumukuha ng imports sa atin.”
Marcial acknowledged that as much as players seek to make the jump to the pro league, securing spots in the PBA teams has been hard to crack over the past few years, forcing the players to look elsewhere for opportunities.
That has made playing in overseas leagues an option for less fortunate ballers, keeping them earning and also hoping to impress scouts while keeping their PBA dreams alive.
Some of the players who suited up in the D-League and are currently playing outside of the country are Paul Zamar and Almond Vosotros in Thailand, AJ Mandani in Singapore, and Reil Cervantes in Indonesia.
With this project, Marcial is hopeful that this would keep the players in line while also delivering the best competition the D-League could dream of.
“Iwasan natin ang bisyo at galingan ninyo.”
