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February 7, 2025 | 12:00am
The expectation is at least three sessions of lengthy deliberations and debate will be conducted before the Selection Committee decides on 10 additional players to complete the cast of the PBA’s 50 greatest in line with the celebration of the league’s Golden Anniversary. The first meeting was held at the PBA office yesterday with commissioner Willie Marcial expressing confidence that his carefully hand-picked choices to comprise the Selection Committee will do justice to the task.
Former PBA commissioner Sonny Barrios was unanimously voted as Committee chairman and presided in the initial meeting where the criteria of selection were determined. Nominees must have made a major impact on the league and contributed towards the positive development of basketball in the country. Active players may be nominated unlike in the PBA Hall of Fame where inductees must have been retired for at least five years.
The next meeting was scheduled on Feb. 27. The consensus was for the members to study the achievements and statistics of players from 1975 to 1996 as a first step of the process before moving onwards. Barrios said the selection will be data-based. “Numbers don’t lie,” he said. “We’ll be objective more than subjective. We’ll review the stats and determine which players had the most impact.”
On Monday, the PBA will unveil the official 50th anniversary logo at a press conference in the Cignal Customer Experience Center on Sheridan Street, Mandaluyong. Legends Atoy Co and Allan Caidic, members of the Selection Committee, will attend the unveiling.
Aside from Barrios, Co and Caidic, the other members of the Selection Committee are Ramon Fernandez, coach Dante Silverio, Ding Marcelo, Al Mendoza, Philippine Star sports editor Nelson Beltran, Andy Jao and Quinito Henson. The final list of 50 will be revealed at the honoring ceremony on April 9 in a site still to be set. The next season will open on Oct. 5, officially the start of the Golden Anniversary celebration. PBA players, past and present, will be feted during the opening. The estimate is at least 400 past players will show up, some coming from abroad. A plan to enshrine a new batch of PBA Hall of Famers is under study during the 50th season. The last batch was inducted in 2013.
Barrios recalled that the list of 40 greatest was finalized in 2015. “There were many learnings from that selection and we want to make sure our process this year will be exhaustive,” he said. In yesterday’s session, PBA deputy commissioner Eric Castro presented recommended criteria which were tackled by the Committee in laying the groundwork for the task of selection ahead.
