PBA commissioner Willie Marcial bared that he is already in talks with a possible foreign guest team that will see action in Season 49 of the Commissioner’s Cup.

The league chieftain shared that he already got the go signal from the Board of Governors following their meeting on Tuesday, June 4, to explore the possibility of bringing another foreign team, two years since Bay Area last made waves in the PBA.

“May kausap na rin kami baka may guest team tayo sa second conference,” said Marcial.

“Tingnan natin, pero wala pa. Pinag-uusapan pa namin ang scheduling, logistics and players so wala pang konkreto na usapan pero tinitingnan natin kung magkakaroon tayo ng guest team,” he added.

Should plans push through, Marcial revealed that the board would also be open to allow teams to tap two imports in the conference on top of letting them get an import taller than the previous height limit of 6-foot-10.

During the time of the Bay Area in the Commissioner’s Cup, the team had two imports in their lineup in Myles Powell and Andrew Nicholson although they had to play one at a time as part of the arrangement in their participation.

The Dragons were supposed to run it back and were supposed to join this year’s Commissioner’s Cup before the team suddenly pulled the plug on their operations before the start of the conference.

The two-import format should also bode well for PBA teams which can finally get more accustomed to playing with more reinforcements especially that Marcial also announced the league’s participation in the East Asia Super League next year. 

In the last edition of the EASL, PBA representatives Meralco and TNT struggled to keep up with their counterparts from the Japan B.League and Korean Basketball League – both of which are allowing their teams to play two imports in their tournaments