MANILA – The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) plans to add a coach's challenge for its upcoming season, and the league will test it in its preseason event.
As announced on Thursday, the coach's challenge is one of the rules that the PBA will implement during the PBA on Tour which begins on May 21.
Under the proposed rule, each head coach will be given one challenge per half as long as he has at least one full timeout left.
If the referees correct their initial call after the challenge, the head coach gets to keep his timeout; otherwise, a full timeout will be burned.
Any unused first-half challenge cannot be carried over to the second half.
The proposal was presented to invited coaches during a meeting on Wednesday, and it was met with approval alongside other rules that could be implemented in Season 48.
"Gusto ito lahat ng coaches (The coaches like all of them)," PBA deputy commissioner Eric Castro said.
The coach's challenge will be first used on May 21, when NLEX and Blackwater collide in the first game of the PBA on Tour at the Caloocan Sports Complex.
Also to be tested during the preseason event are updated rules on "transition take fouls" and on technical and flagrant fouls.
As a means to make the games faster, the PBA also looks to bring back an old rule in which the clock will continue to run even after a basket is made during the final minute of the first three quarters as well as a modification in the goaltending review rule in which the team that gets immediate control of the ball after a goaltending call has been overturned will have possession after the review.
"As much as the teams will have the opportunity to try new combinations and game schemes, the league will take the opportunity to experiment with new rules and rule interpretations with the objective of improving the PBA game and making it even more exciting," PBA commissioner Willie Marcial said.
After the preseason games, the new rules will be up for final approval by the PBA Board of Governors, and they will be fully implemented come the regular season, which is tentatively scheduled to start in October. (PNA)
