Bernie Fabiosa, Francis Arnaiz and Abe King were handed hefty punishments and for their role in a brawl that marred the second Crispa-Toyota meeting in the 1982 PBA Open Conference.
Life ban poised on three cagers
Tempo
Published Friday Oct. 8, 1982
Three players from Toyota and Crispa were meted stiff penalties as the Philippine Basketball Association cracked the whip on the hotheads following last Saturday’s violent incident at the Araneta Coliseum.
Aside from the suspensions and fines slapped on them, PBA Commissioner Leo Prieto issued an ultimatum to Abe King and Francis Arnaiz of Toyota and Bernard Fabiosa of Crispa.
The three were to behave or face a lifetime ban.
Prieto told Tempo that they had been involved in similar flareups in the past, thus the ultimatum on their hardcourt behavior.
Arnaiz, King, Fabiosa and Rudy Distrito showed up at the PBA offices in Makati yesterday to give their side in the hearing called by Prieto. The four figured in a brief fight that marred the second meeting in the PBA Open Conference of the country’s fiercely-warring clubs.
In the closed-door confrontation which lasted from 11 a.m. to 12 noon, Arnaiz and Fabiosa accused each other of having started the fight. However, the hearing committee established that Fabiosa provoked Arnaiz by spitting in his face and then shoving him from behind.
King, the 6-foot-3 strongman of the Super Corollas, received the heaviest penalty. He was slapped a four-game suspension and a P1,500 fine. Fabiosa was fined P1,000 and suspended for two games, while Arnaiz was suspended for two playing days and fined P500.
Because he was a first offender, Distrito was let off with a one-game suspension and P500 fine.
Prieto said that King, Fabiosa and Arnaiz had been involved in violent incidents in the past, thus the stiff penalties.
King’s four-game suspension, which was double the ordinary penalty for such offense, stemmed from his involvement in the fight-marred Korea-Toyota game during the last Asian Invitationals, also at the Big Dome.
Arnaiz and Fabiosa, on the other hand, were reported locked in a running feud which started last June when they had a near-violent altercation following another spitting incident.
“They promised to forget the past after we warned them that we’d ban them for life if they misbehave again,” Prieto confided. “When they left our office they were friends again.”
In local basketball history, only once was a life ban imposed against players. But this ban was lifted after a year later.
This was a decade ago when Robert Jaworski and Alberto “Big Boy” Reynoso were banned for life for assaulting the referees in a MICAA game (the PBA was not yet born then) while they were playing for the defunct Meralco team.
Jaworski and Reynoso angrily protesting the referees’ calls, mauled Eriberto Cruz and Jose Obias at the height of a championship match with Crispa, resulting in their banishment for life.
Two years later, however, the life bans on Jaworski and Reynoso were lifted after they pledged to reform.
Prieto said that Fabiosa was penalized for spitting at and shoving Arnaiz, while the Toyota guard was canned for punching Fabiosa.
The probe was conducted by a four-man panel composed of PBA president Domingo Itchon, legal counsel Rodrigo Salud, executive secretary Jun Bernardino and his assistant, Edison Retizos.
Will abide, but…
Toyota coach Edgardo Ocampo, who arrived after Prieto had made a decision, said his team would abide by the ruling.
Ocampo, however, lamented what he called the relatively light penalty slapped on Rudy Distrito.
“He should have been meted a heavier penalty because he came from the bench to join the fray,” Ocampo said. “But we will abide by the decision.”
Crispa team manager Danny Floro, on the other hand, hinted he might question the ruling — particularly on Fabiosa — after he learned of the results of the investigation.
Floro, however, said he would make his sentiments known only after the suspensions and penalties are made public.
One Crispa insider said the Crispa camp was contemplating on going to court to challenge the “uneven penalties” which were meted out after the probe.
“It’s all right if they had cleared the referees who officiated that particular game,” Floro said. “But what we want them to do is for them to investigate, go deeper into the character of the referees.”
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