Imagine… the PBA without San Miguel teams

Imagine a Philippine Basketball Association without Barangay Ginebra San Miguel, without the San Mig Coffee Mixers, without the Petron Blaze Boosters. That would mean a league without some of its biggest franchises, in fact, three of the four oldest teams among the ten. It would also be a league without its "face" in James Yap, and arguably its soul in Mark Caguioa, plus a host of other famous names like Marc Pingris, Arwind Santos, Alex Cabagnot, and LA Tenorio, just to name a few. Still hard to fathom? Let us do the imagining for you. After Petron import Renaldo Balkman was banned from the PBA, SMC released a statement saying that they would "re-evaluate" their "continuing participation in the PBA." [Related: 'We just want to make our sports program accountable to the core values of San Miguel' - Eala] These are what would most likely happen, should SMC's "re-evaluation" result in a withdrawal from the PBA. #1 A three-team dispersal draft The departure of three teams would probably result in a very intriguing dispersal draft, a mechanism the league last employed in 2011 when Barako Bull filed for a temporary leave of absence, which stretched into a complete restructuring, when they got sold and became the Shopinas.com Clickers. While that draft was for temporary three-month stints, this one would be more permanent. And while no doubt squads would have to juggle the math to take into account salary cap numbers and the burden of additional payroll, the prizes are definitely tempting. Going by the Philippine Cup standings, GlobalPort could boost their frontline by tabbing 2012 number one overall pick June Mar Fajardo. Barako Bull Energy Cola might finally get a go-to scorer in James Yap or Mark Caguioa. The Air21 Express would get an upgrade in size via Jay Washington, and so on. However that assumes San Miguel and other potential investors stand pat, which leads us to our next two items: #2 The ABL's San Miguel Beermen get a huge boost In a world where SMC pulls out of the PBA, there'd still be the Asean Basketball League, where the San Miguel Beermen currently play. Their roster currently boasts of a few former PBA notables, with Asi Taulava and Eric Menk being the marquee names, but if the PBA is not for SMC, maybe the ABL can be their new home. At the very least, SMC might decide to carry over a few contracts and add those players to the Beermen. Can you imagine Yap or Caguioa going from torturing Philippine defenses, to torching Asean defenders? What about Arwind Santos reuniting with FEU guard RJ Rizada? Why not bring back June Mar Fajardo to the team where he first played pro ball for? And if the move is so successful, well why doesn't San Miguel put in a second Philippine team, with more PBA holdovers? One can certainly spend a lot of time coming up with mash-ups of the three SMC squads, and any result would definitely be competitive, even without talking about imports. #3 New team owners? Once upon a time, the PBA was set to welcome the entry of Phoenix Petroleum as a franchise owner, but what used to be the PBA's San Miguel Beermen changed names to become the Petron Blaze Boosters, and the league opted not to have two competing brands due to its advertising policy. Not only could Phoenix Petroleum rise from the ashes, like its proverbial namesake, the sudden availability of championship-contender level franchises might attract other groups looking to make their entry to the PBA. The Jollibee Champs? The SM Supermen? The Ayala Avidas? Going this route means you'd take at least a team's worth of players out of the dispersal draft, but it would give new franchise owners intact squads, certainly an intriguing prospect. #4 An MVP league? There's always been a little rivalry going on between the three SMC squads and the two franchises of Manuel V. Pangilinan. The Talk 'N Text Tropang Texters, in particular, is probably the winning-est PBA team in recent history, but they've figured in some fierce postseason series against Petron and BMEG/San Mig Coffee along the way. Those rivalries would obviously go out the window, first and foremost, but so too would SMC's three-bloc advantage when it came to voting on league matters. With those three teams out of the picture, things become a bit more fair at governors' meetings. And as such, why couldn't the MVP group fulfill its rumored desire to elevate the PBA-DL's NLEX Road Warriors to the big leagues, a move that requires 3/4ths of the available votes?   Doing so means the reigning D-League champions, who have won four out of four league trophies, with a fifth conference on-going, could bring in a line-up that features heavy-hitters like Greg Slaughter, Kevin Alas, Ian Sangalang, RR Garcia, Garvo Lanete and Nico Salva. While it's hard to say that they'd be instant contenders, that would be a spectacular core any franchise would want to start from, and could possibly result in three of the league's top teams all belonging under one umbrella, sort of like what's happening now with the SMC squads. #5 Closing a chapter in the history books As previously mentioned, Ginebra (1979), San Miguel Coffee / Purefoods (1988, from Tanduay Rhum), and Petron (1979) are three of the four oldest teams in the league (the other is Alaska, 1986), and teams that old and that successful obviously carry with them a ton of history. Here are a few other things that would be gone, following an SMC-withdrawal: no more Clasico, no more Alaska/San Mig Coffee dust-ups, no more "Never say die." It would be sad to see three hallowed franchises becoming something of the past, but let's not forget that what used to be the league's premier rivalry, Toyota-Crispa, was also a finite thing. In fact, the exit of Toyota-Crispa allowed for Barangay Ginebra to take flight in the succeeding years, and so it's safe to assume that one team or another, would be able to fill the void eventually. Should the San Miguel Corporation in fact decide that it would be in their best interest to leave the PBA, it would certainly be a shocking, almost cataclysmic end of an era. But given basketball's popularity in this country, the league will probably live on. It would look different, there would be new rivalries, and new stars would probably get time under the spotlight, but the memories would still be there, and local professional hoops would continue to live on. How's that for never say die? - RAF/HS, GMA News