And so it’s done. The Philippine Basketball Association has banned Renaldo Balkman for life. He’s also due to pay a hefty fine of P250,000 after his shocking meltdown, which took place after possibly the worst performance in his very short-lived PBA career, putting a dismal six points during a losing game to the Alaska Aces – and his hands around team mate Arwind Santos’ neck.
Lookback
With the heat of the game getting the better of him, and an effective defense by the Aces dipping his scoring to a single digit despite averaging 28 points a game during his previous PBA outings, Balkman directed his irritation to the referees whom he argued about getting a non-call after attempting a shot in the low post, firmly believing he was fouled on the play, but with no whistle called.
The enraged Petron import then confronted all three game officials, even bumping the first referee he approached – an act that should have given him an automatic technical foul right then and there, but he luckily got away because the ref surprisingly shrugged the incident and just let it go.
Renaldo Balkman incident
He then proceeded to plead his case to the next referee, but one of Petron’s assistant coaches stopped him. Balkman simply tossed him aside to get out of his way. This action surprised Petron’s bench and even prompted Petron guard Ronald Tubid to approach Balkman in order to pacify him. But Balkman was still furious and still urging a debate with another game official when he forcibly pushed Tubid out of his way, shocking the Petron bench – and the rest of the whole arena.
This was when things got really messy.
After some of his team mates tried to restrain Tubid in case he decided to retaliate, Petron forward Arwind Santos tried to be the middle man to calm their raging import. After a few exchanges of words, Balkman shoved Santos with his hand and Santos answered back with a shove of his own. Balkman on the other hand retaliated by grabbing Santos’ neck and choking him. Santos tried to fight back by grabbing the neck of Balkman, too, and seconds after the two were separated.
The aftermath
All these happened during a live telecast of the PBA. All these were witnessed by a million of Filipinos who were quickly enraged by the Puerto Rican’s actions.
The social networks – Facebook and Twitter specifically – were immediately flooded by posts related to the Balkman incident. Viral videos sprouted like mushrooms in YouTube and other sites.
Boy, now we got a case.
Aaron Atayde and Kenneth Duremdes commenting on the incident
And not long after that, Balkman issued a series of tweets apologizing to his mother team, Petron Blazers, and the players who got affected by his meltdown: Ronald Tubid and Arwind Santos.
I wld like to apologize to the fans, Petron Blaze, my teammates, the PBA and especially @tubidronald71 and @arwind029
— Renaldo Balkman (@R_Balkman32) March 8, 2013
I got caught up in the moment of a very intense game.I respect @arwind029 as a person & player.I am proud to be part of@petronblaze fam.
— Renaldo Balkman (@R_Balkman32) March 8, 2013
This was unintentional towards @arwindsotnas,I ama team player who always has the best interest of the team at heart.
— Renaldo Balkman (@R_Balkman32) March 8, 2013
Balkman’s first interview after his meltdown
Our thoughts
Athletes – especially basketball players – are always under pressure not just physically, but even emotionally.
Balkman’s lifetime ban from the PBA can be considered as a warning to other imports. Commissioner Chito Salud arrived to the point of punishing the Puerto Rican with an iron fist in order to send out the message to all imports that they can’t simply come here to play and act all mightily, overlooking that they’re in the Philippines, and if they want to stay, they have to play by our rules – the league’s rules.
Another factor that affected the magnitude of the decision was that it went viral. People saw the video, talked about it, and now have varied opinions about it. And knowing our culture, anything that goes viral is a big deal, especially when it’s about a kababayan getting harmed.
Things have gotten messy in the comments section, Filipinos demanding to get even, castigating the person at fault to the highest degree of punishment as if we’re doing a witch hunt back in ol’ Salem. As for Balkman, he’s the unlucky witch (or warlock) who got the verdict and got burned to a stake.
But honestly, we think that a lifetime ban is too much.
We’re not saying that it’s okay for PBA imports to go berserk and grab a team mate’s throat or that you can disrespect a game official and shove your assistant coach out of your way when a call doesn’t go your side.
This is not how a basketball pro should react, but this kind of thing is not really new when it comes to sports – especially basketball.
A similar incident happened at the NBA when former All-Star Latrell Sprewell choked his then-coach PJ Carlessimo way back during their stint at the Golden State Warriors during practice. Sprewell’s actions cost him a suspension of 68 games with no pay.
But it’s still far out from what happened at the Pistons-Pacers brawl dubbed the “Malice in the Palace” last November 19, 2004. That saw Ben Wallace choking then-Pacer Ron Artest (now known as Metta World Peace) after fouling him hard. All hell broke loose after. Artest was suspended for the remainder of the season (73 regular season games) after the brawl.
Even in our local league, the PBA has witnessed countless of fights concerning their coaches, local players, imports, and heck, even PBA fans themselves. Who can forget James Yap’s infamous kick-and-run with former Talk and Text import Terrence Leather? And Wynnie Arboleda’s not-so-good fan encounter? And if we could only have a chit-chat with living legend and the original Barangay Ginebra King Robert Jaworski, boy, we wonder the precious stories he could tell.
James Yap kick-and-run
Wynnie Arboleda punches a fan
All these players paid their dues (and corresponding fines) after their incidents and they all vowed to learn from it and move on. They got to dribble the basketball once again, shoot and score in front of their fans. They just got suspended. Not banned. Not for life.
Reynaldo Balkman’s PBA lifetime ban is ridiculous if we will only weigh it on a basketball standpoint alone. He sure did cause a lot of ruckus during his meltdown, but we still believe that his stupid actions during that fraction of time, though inexcusable and still attests to a serious punishment, is still not of merit to grant a player a PBA lifetime ban. That’s just way too much.
Again, we’re not saying that he should just walk it out clean. Suspend him for a season, even a year or two. Make him pay a fine that will cost him almost his whole PBA salary, but to forbid him from participating in the PBA league and not giving him a chance to redeem himself, especially if his mother team and the players who were involved have moved on and are urging the PBA to do the same for an emotional player who badly wants to win. Give him a second chance, they say, but the PBA had made their decision and Reynaldo is now sent home packing.
But you know who else should be banned for life at the PBA after that incident? The three referees who were officiating the game. Especially the first one who came in contact with Balkman.
It’s in the basketball books that any player who commits any aggressive physical contact with a game official should be automatically given a technical foul, and may even be ejected if the official sees his action fit to do so.
Balkman came in contact with the first PBA referee when he aggressively waved his arms at him after pleading and arguing a non-call. That’s the first miss. Right there and then, Balkman should have been ejected from the game and maybe his melt down and unintelligent actions could have been prevented.
Game officials should be the one controlling the players on the court “before” things could go out of hand. Failing to do so is a major lapse of judgment and a clear indication that they failed to do an important part of their job.
After a few seconds, Balkman headed toward the second referee to again make plea, but one of Petron’s assistant coaches attempted to prevent him from doing so fearing that he might get called for a technical call from the ref this time around. But he gets pushed by the person he was trying to protect. The second referee saw it, but still no whistle was blown.
People watching, may it be live in the arena or on their TV sets knew that something was wrong, and that those two actions by Balkman should have earned him an ejection, but it seemed like our game officials were either extra patient that day or just decided to turn a blind eye and let it all play out, almost making Balkman do whatever he wanted on the court.
When the Petron import reached the third referee on the other side of the court, Petron players rushed to his side to try and calm him down and prevent him from getting a technical from the third referee. Tubid tried to get in between and we all know what happened. And we’re pretty sure that all those officials saw what happened, too, yet they were too lazy to blow their whistles. Or maybe Petron star Alex Cabagnot’s tactics to shun their attention really worked effectively.
And the result? An altercation between two team mates, choking each other’s throat — an incident that could have been prevented if Balkman was given the technical and then ejected right from the start.
So if the PBA is going to give Renaldo Balkman more than the maximum punishment, these game officials should also share the piece of the hate cake.
But that’s only our opinion, in a pure basketball standpoint. Let’s move on and hope the league has learned a lot from this. A number of future fights are still bound to happen on the PBA court for sure. We’re just hoping the officials now know what to do and won’t have a lapse of judgment when such an incident starts to foam.
As for that Jaworski’s chit-chat, we’re still wishing for it.
