The space allotted for the Commissioner remains empty inside the newly renovated PBA office in Libis. The person who took over the role decided to stay in his old office on the other side of the building.
"I didn't want to move anymore," said Willie Marcial who became the tenth PBA Commissioner five days ago. This answer was similar to what Marcial gave one of the PBA Governors who asked him to be the league's Officer-in-Charge after a tumultuous season that ended with a rift in the Board of Governors and distrust between the league and its fans.
Marcial knows how difficult it is to lead the PBA as he has worked for Commissioners before. He started with Noli Eala, and went on to serve Sonny Barrios, Chito Salud, and Chito Narvasa, but his stint in the PBA stretches much longer than that.
Back in 1983, Marcial first joined the PBA as a statistician. He got the gig because he was a fan of the league and knew a guy who worked there.
"All I did back then was list offensive rebounds and defensive rebounds. That was it," Marcial recalled. "But later on I learned how to list everything so I started doing more until I was approached by Vintage to be a panel scorer for the TV broadcast in 1985."
That was when the name Willie Marcial first became known to PBA fans with the legendary Joe Cantada mentioning it as a punchline.
"Every time Joe made a mistake, he would blame me," he recalled. "He'd call me the official shoe of the PBA or the official gigolo of the PBA and when he made a mistake because he did not read my notes correctly, he'd call me the guy with the worst penmanship in history."
Marcial then transitioned into a floor director for the TV broadcast before being offered to be trained as a director.
"Mr. Ricky Velez of Vintage wanted me to be a TV director but I didn't want to do it because I felt like I was being caged inside the production truck," he explained. "I liked being on the floor, getting to talk to players and coaches and members of the media, so I declined."
Stats Editor would be the next job title for Marcial. When people saw statistics being flashed onscreen, it was Marcial who put them there. He was good at it but interacting with other people in the PBA proved to be his central skill. Marcial may not have known it then, but his penchant for mingling with all sorts of people on the job would open many doors for him in the future.
Seeing Marcial's affinity with the members of the media, Commissioner Eala offered him the job as Media Bureau Chief and Special Assistant.
"In the past, we had friendly basketball competition with the media called the Raffy Japa Cup," Marcial explained. "After the games which were usually in Cuneta, I'd go out with the writers and we'd drink and share stories until 3 or 4 am and I guess that's why I became close to them."
This relationship with the media came in handy for Marcial when the PBA was shaken to its core with a disagreement between two groups of Governors. Sensing that statements released to the media were fanning the flames of the rift, the Board of Governors decided to resolve matters internally first and not to air out their dirty laundry. It was Marcial's responsibility then to talk to the PBA writers to explain the situation.
Throughout the ordeal, Marcial tried his best to be a calming presence amidst the chaos. Being one of the senior members of the PBA Office, Marcial knew he needed to be there for his fellow employees who were wondering if they'd be out of a job soon.
"It was a tough time for all of us," he said. "We were abroad then and I couldn't sleep because I kept on imagining the worst that could happen. I was trying to joke about the situation, telling our staff that our Christmas party might also be our farewell party, but I knew that the situation was very serious. A lot of people will lose their jobs and their ability to support their family if the PBA stops. Players, ball boys, officials, people in our office, or in TV production, the number of people who will have to look for employment elsewhere is by the hundreds, maybe even more than a thousand."
"Prepare for the worst" was Marcial's message to his fellow PBA employees. It even came to a point where they bought a blood pressure monitor in the office because some of them were having bouts with high blood pressure due to the ordeal.
All Marcial knew was that the rift was bad and that there was no solution in sight.
"I saw what was happening," Marcial said about the Board's disagreement. "I was in the middle of it all and I really thought we would not have a season as the two groups have their own principles so I knew it would be difficult to bridge the gap."
Marcial might not have seen the solution, but a PBA Governor saw a solution in Marcial.
"One Governor told me that I should be the OIC. I asked him: 'Why should I take that job? That's a difficult job.' He told me to sacrifice. I asked him: 'Why me?' He said 'Open your heart about this job because if you don't accept it, we might not push through with our opening'."
Marcial was coming off a meeting on a busy Tuesday afternoon. Don't ask him how many meetings he's had that day because he'd tell you the answer is too many. He wore a plaid long-sleeved shirt with the sleeves folded. There was no need for him to wear a coat as it was not a PBA game day but he also could not wear his usual Lacoste polo shirts because these are too casual for a Commissioner.
"This was never my ambition," he said. "I never wanted to be in this spot. But we all love the PBA and we have to make sacrifices for it so I took it even if I really did not want."
From the outside looking in, it's tough to understand why one would decline to be the leader of a sporting juggernaut such as the PBA. Only a select number of individuals rise the ladder to get to that point.
Marcial's motives, however, are simple. More than putting his 15-year employment in the PBA at risk, his initial hesitation was because he knows that disagreements with the Governors are inevitable and that the friendships he nurtured all these years might be in peril.
"I think that Governor saw that I was in good terms with the entire board. So maybe he saw me as a person that both groups could support."
Even when he was named OIC, being elevated to the role of Commissioner was still far from Marcial's mind. In fact, he even tried to suggest ways for the PBA Board to find their next Commissioner.
"I told them that we needed to give the new Commissioner a term of three or five years. I also told them we should get either a lawyer or a marketing professional," he stated. "The PBA will run even with an outsider as Commissioner because we have outstanding employees who know how to run the league. You just have to give them direction."
However, Marcial didn't want to be a mere placeholder. If they were going to put him in charge, then he'd do his best to make the league better, no matter how short his stint might be. Marcial instituted some changes and rolled out programs that he has long wanted to pursue. PBA Homecourt became a reality with players and legends visiting random basketball courts in Manila to bring the league closer to the people. He also added a stipulation where fines for infractions would be waived in exchange for community service.
The calls have also been different this season as referees have allowed more physicality, a move that Marcial brands as a pivot back to the Philippine brand of basketball. The referees have relied less on reviews, making the games faster and better for the viewers.
These improvements did not go unnoticed. The fans have expressed more interest upon seeing the old PBA atmosphere that they grew accustomed to a few years ago. The Board of Governors also saw that they were wasting their time looking for a new Commissioner when a capable one was with them all along.