JTH Hosts on Delay of PBA Start: "It's a Very Tough Situation"

In 2020, the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) needed to wait until October just to resume a season that had been stalled since March. One year after the country was first placed under community quarantine due to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic, it looks like the PBA is headed towards another delay of the start of the league's 46th season. 

As it turns out, the PBA is now pushing back the start of the new season to April 25.

Question: Should the league even start given that the government is recording 5,000+ new cases of COVID-19 nowadays?

As Jinno Rufino said on Tuesday's episode of Jump Thru Hoops, "It's a very tough situation,"

Rufino explained, "I understand that we need to proceed and you know, you can't stop life from happening. We need to keep going. But, is it the smartest to do it now? I don't know," 

"The PBA has such a big role in society. Just greater than just basketball," he added.

For his co-host Aaron Atayde, he flipped the switch to the other side of the story with regards to seeing the PBA returning as a sign that things are back to normal. "When we see that there's a (sense of) normalcy, we let our guard down. if we try to get back that sense of normalcy, and when we did, we were hitting 5,000 cases of COVID again. I think we still need to remember that if the PBA goes back, everyone is going to be like 'If the PBA is back then I'll go out,'"

Atayde continued, " That's what scary. I understand that it's a business.  I have friends who are players, who are on production, who are directors, cameramen, everyone that is involved from on the court to off the court, from behind the scenes to behind the tables. And I consider them my family. It breaks my heart to know that it might not be in the best interest to head back to the game because if we head back to the game, people are going to get sick again,"   

Both hosts agreed that should the number of daily COVID-19 cases go down in the next two to three weeks, they are fine with the PBA starting on April 25. If not, as Rufino said, "If we don't see the numbers go down, I think they (the PBA) should consider it,"

As of Tuesday, 5,395 new COVID-19 cases have been recorded in the country. 

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