I met Pato Gregorio 4 years ago in Cebu while he was president of the Waterfront Hotel in Lahug. We were working on putting together an "All Star Week" in Cebu as he was very much into pushing sports tourism as something to spur travel in the country. The Cebu Allstars was a huge success and a lot of fun and it was partly because of his vision.
Now that he has resigned as the executive director of the BAP-SBP (I'm not sure why "BAP" is still part of the name cuz it's really redundant). I do wish him well. He has a lot of ideas with a lot of doubters and critics. He does have some basketball pedigree as his two brothers are coaches in the PBA (Ryan) and PBL (Allan) who are also good friends. I can only speak from experience but Pato did as well a job as could be done considering all the opposition he got from the many who wanted the new basketball organization to fail. His ideas needed the support and backing of all sectors which he never got. Women's basketball, college basketball, referee and coaches training are just a few of the things that have really improved with the new organization.
The true colors of BAP have once again surfaced. Villafuerte? Pichay? Jingoy? Lina? They go through leaders like our former first lady goes through shoes. It would have been nice if any of the shoes actually fit. All politicians who never invested their lives in helping basketball.
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