Yeng Guiao of Rain or Shine and Aldin Ayo of Converge had given their approval to the Coaches’ Challenge Rule — an innovation adopted by the Philippine Basketball Association starting the ongoing preseason tournament.
Guiao said the Challenge Rule is very beneficial as it could guide game officials in making the right calls, especially in crucial situations.
Guiao, in fact, was the first coach to come up with an unsuccessful challenge during their game in the PBA On Tour.
“I want to be unique. All the previous challenges were successful, so just for a change, I made a challenge, so that they can see which ones are successful and which are not,” Guiao quipped.
“This is part of the experiment. By implementing it, you can feel that your challenge has a good chance or none at all. I took the challenge call but felt that reversing the call to our favor has a very slim chance, but I still took the challenge. At the same time, it will give your players an opportunity to take a breather, for about a minute or so.”
Ayo agrees with Guiao, saying that the Coaches’ Challenge enables them to lessen the errors in the officiating.
“It’s good for the league that we’re now adopting a rule from another league,” Ayo said.
“For sure, the reason it was created was to help the teams. I think this is one of the great changes in the league.”
The Coaches’ Challenge is an innovation started by the National Basketball Association in 2018 where referees will give an opportunity to review a call made and contested by coaches.
In the NBA, the referees, themselves, will explain on television why the call is either successful or unsuccessful.
A Coaches’ Challenge can only be done once per half and an unsuccessful challenge will mean deduction of timeout.
A successful challenge, meanwhile, will lead to a reversal of the previous call made.
