Salud to grace Foundation Week

Luminaries from the birth year of the Philippine Basketball
Association will continue to cast their glitter as the league’s 35th
Foundation Week celebration comes to a climactic end Sunday at the
Araneta Coliseum.

Former PBA commissioner Rodrigo ‘Rudy’ Salud, the brilliant
lawyer-sportsman who served as legal counsel to founding PBA
commissioner Leo Prieto in 1975 after nine ballclubs banded to form
Asia’s first professional basketball league, will grace the affair
along with members of the Toyota and U-Tex teams.

The man who sat at the helm of the PBA during its golden years from
1988 to 1991 is expected to be joined by Commissioner Sonny Barrios
and other league officials in welcoming invited pioneers led by Robert
Jaworski, Ramon Fernandez, Francis Arnaiz, and Ompong from Toyota, and
Danny Basilan, Egay Gomez, and Roy Deles from U-Tex, two of the four
teams which played a double-header on opening day on April 9.

The PBA awaits confirmation of some of the players’ presence,
including Fernandez, but legendary Crispa Redmanizer hotshot Fortunato
Co, who played in the PBA's maiden season, has sent word of his
arrival.

Also invited is William ‘Bogs’ Adornado, the league’s first MVP awardee.

Barrios, along with former commissioner Jun Bernardino and legal
counsel Butch Cleofe, both of whom have passed away, has said often
that Salud has been their “mentor” in the PBA and “big brother” on a
personal level.

“Early on in my career, he impressed upon me the need for the
commissioner to make decisions with competence, objectivity, and a
high sense of fairness based on the PBA constitution and by-laws and
playing rules,” said Barrios, named the seventh commissioner two years
ago.

“You can't go wrong, Sonny, if you approach issues that way,” Barrios
recalled being told by Salud, who immortalized the line “the interest
of the PBA fan is paramount.”

The one responsible for crafting not only the charter of the PBA but
also that of the World Boxing Council, Salud also pointed out, Barrios
said, that “I should be prepared, when necessary, to have the resolve
to be firm on decisions as Commissioner, especially on controversial
issues, as not all decisions by the Commissioner are popular.”

“He is a pillar of the PBA,” Barrios added. “The PBA is indeed
fortunate to have Comm. Rudy Salud as an integral part of its
foundation and formative years.”