The 2014 PBA Draft is not a bad draft.
It was abysmal!
GlobalPort Batang Pier selected Stanley Pringle as the first overall pick of the 2014 PBA Draft. Not only did he win his batch’s Top Rookie honor… he also claimed a Mythical Second Team spot that season.
But what about seldom-used first rounders like Matt Ganuelas-Rosser, Jake Pascual, Rodney Brondial, and David Semerad? Is there a chance for Ronald Pascual to bounce back from whatever slump he’s in? And speaking of seldom-used first rounders, have we seen the last of Kia “playing coach” Manny Pacquiao?
I am not going to delve on the success rates of the players. Apart from Stanley Pringle, the only other name to have a semblance of a successful career is Jericho Cruz, a two-time All-Star and the 2016 PBA Most Improved Player, the former Adamson Soaring Falcon is a draft steal coming in at ninth. Kevin Alas is slowly reverting back to stellar form with Chris Banchero, Juami Tiongson, and Anthony Semerad on the verge of breaking out.
The 2014 PBA Draft made this list because of this reason…
2014 PBA Draft
Most companies have Christmas parties. And if you’re lucky, your company could give away big time prizes. People are addicted to freebies and in order to keep Christmas raffles free from controversies, the raffle drums are made transparent so people can identify any form of cheating.
Sounds right, right?
Anyway, Chito Salud could have manufactured or even borrowed a see-through tambyolo instead of the glorified shoebox he used when the league held a special draft lottery to award the first pick.
The events that unravelled felt like a low budget version of the 1985 NBA Draft.
Talk about funny PBA episodes.
When Willie Revillame had that scandal, at least his props looked nice.
Anyway, Yeng Guiao and the rest of the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters had every reason to question the draft lottery procedure. Sure Stanley Pringle is already 27 years old but he has had stints in Belgium, Poland, and Indonesia as import. If a person plays like an import, this means he has the skills and possibly the leadership qualities to back his game up. If Rain or Shine got the top pick, they could care less on whether to re-sign Paul Lee. When Rain or Shine traded Alas to NLEX (who in turn was sent to Talk N Text), they got the Road Warriors’ 2015 first round pick which turned out to be Maverick Ahanmisi.
And Ahanmisi is kinda like Pringle… a younger, rough in the edges version of the GlobalPort standout.
Conspiracy theorists would point out that the former PBA commissioner had some sort of identifier on which ball to pick. This is allegedly why GlobalPort got the top pick instead of Rain or Shine (from Meralco). Salud would insist that the draft lottery “shoebox” was not a vehicle for cheating but they should have known better than to poorly organize an important event.
I almost forgot.
Here’s the fun part of the 2014 PBA Draft.
It’s Blackwater and Kia ping-ponging draft picks to near infinity!
Because these two are expansion squads and the league suddenly had a crystal ball which made them sense these teams’ atrocious first round picks, Kia and Blackwater were the only teams allowed to select picks from the third round and onwards. I guess this is good for Kia because they need to fill roster spots but for a team like Blackwater that potentially could have had Jericho Cruz, Kevin Ferrer, Mark Cruz, Don Trollano, and Raul Soyud as direct hires, the third round is kind of a hit or miss.
While players like Brian Heruela, Kenneth Ighalo, Paolo Taha, Juneric Baloria, Raul Soyud, and Jeremy Bartolo were able to play in the PBA, the blasted third round made life difficult for the rest of the applicants. If you think about it, only Heruela, Ighalo, and Bartolo (barely) were able to join the teams that drafted them as the rest were either unsigned or traded. Meralco had no picks in the draft and they could have used the draft to bolster their frontline. Ditto for NLEX who would send first round pick Matt Ganuelas-Rosser to Talk N Text to acquire future pieces (they were able to snag Baloria though).
And mind you, I never crapped on Kia’s selection of Pacquiao. I thought it was a good deal considering that they are that goddamn eager to claim fan support and it’s not like at pick eleven, a June Mar Fajardo-prototype is still available.
But darn it, Pacquiao did little to elevate his game.
Did you agree with my number five?
Check in to find out number four!
PROJECT SYDRIFIED WP 