Should Kirk Long be allowed to play in the PBA?

There’s an ongoing poll on the Philippine Basketball Association’s website that asks whether or not the league should allow Ateneo de Manila University’s Kirk Long into the next PBA draft. At present, the count stands in favor of the NO’s with 116,014 against the YES’ 115,761.

Team Pilipinas’ blog even posts an article by Joaquin Henson, who quotes Long’s college coach Norman Black, that mentions the American’s strengths as a player and even how long he’s been staying (and playing) in Manila. Granted, the PBA disallows players with no Filipino bloodline to enter the league, but those who are pushing for Long argue that the PBA needs to soften up specially for foreigners who have been residing in the country for more than a decade.

While this idea may protect the league from foreign recruits like Sam Ekwe and Sudan Daniels who only play in college, this will undoubtedly weaken the local basketball scene. Foreigners who have no skill but have been blessed with natural gifts such as speed and athleticism would undoubtedly be considered over solid players. That’s not a knock on basketball programs all around, but if you’re coaching a title team and have only one roster spot and were being made to choose between a 6”9, freakishly athletic Nigerian/African-American/American/European who would dribble the ball off his foot seven out of ten times and a 6”3 Homegrown center with the moves of Dennis Espino—who’d you pick? Don’t lie now.

Also, the PBA would risk further distancing itself from its fans. Outside of Metro Manila, the PBA has been dying a slow death not only because the commentaries are in English, but also because fans from the provinces don’t connect as much as with Fil-foreigners. Perhaps that’s why the Visayan-heavy line-up of Derby Ace Llamados have the same/a bigger fanbase than Barangay Ginebra (Ginebra owns Metro Manila, DAL owns the south).

If the PBA would ever consider foreigners to play in the league, then here’s a nice suggestion that would benefit us all:

A 10 year residency wherein the foreigners are required to play for a certain school, have legit grades that haven’t been doctored or is a by-product of going to a sham of an institution AND suit up for the Philippine National Team either as part of the main roster OR the tune-up squad for AT LEAST FIVE YEARS.

That way, we are all assured that foreign players don’t use the country as a simple springboard to jump overseas, and that the players themselves also enjoy a sense of familiarity with local fans. It would also help develop a sense of Pinoy pride—something that is absent with most of today’s PBA Fil-foreign players.

I for one, wouldn't mind if Long, Ekwe and Daniels were sent to reinforce Smart Gilas. Long would be an upgrade over either Casio and Tiu, Ekwe at the 4 and Daniels as a 3.

Or they could just skip the whole thing, marry a Filipina and be naturalized.