Jun Bernardino

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Emilio "Jun" Bernardino, Jr. is the 5th commissioner of the Philippine Basketball Association. He was elected as commissioner of the league in 1993 and retired in 2002. He is currently serving as the commissioner of the Shakey's V-League and of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (Philippines).

1 Early life
2 Career
- 2.1 Philippine Basketball Association
- 2.2 Outside of the PBA
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] Early life

Bernardino was a member of the Ateneo de Manila University high school team but never pursued it during his collegiate days. Bernardino graduated with a degree in Sports Management at the University of the Philippines.

[edit] Career

[edit] Philippine Basketball Association

[edit] Early Days

Bernardino rose through the ranks of the Philippine Basketball Association during the 70's and 80's. At first, he was with the coverage team of Vintage Sports and later became the Executive Director of the league.

In 1994, he became the fifth commissioner of the PBA replacing Rey Marquez. Bernardino presided the league during the title reigns of the Sunkist Orange Juicers, Alaska Milkmen and resurgence of the Ginebra San Miguel franchise from 1994-1998.

[edit] Fil-Ams and Fil-Sham Controversy

However, with the rise of the newly-formed Metropolitan Basketball Association in 1998, a regional-based professional league, Bernardino implemented a direct fil-am rule for each team for the 1999 season. This led to easy signing of players such as Asi Taulava, Danny Seigle and Eric Menk. But, this led to the league entering into controversies of alleged fake Filipino-American players.

In 2000, rules were implemented on not allowing alleged fil-shams to play until their cases are resolved. Two incidents happened during the season. The first one surrounded on-court controversy, as Tanduay fielded an already questioned fil-am Earl Sonny Alvarado in Games Two and Three of the All-Filipino Cup semifinal series against the Purefoods TJ Hotdogs, despite the league's warning. Without Alvarado in Game 1, the Rhum Masters won and defeated Purefoods in Games 2 and 3 to sweep the series. However, with Alvarado found fake and was deported, Bernardino nullify Tanduay's two victories with Alvarado, resulting in a RTO order, later dropped, by team management.

Later that year, he suspended players indefinitely those who have not prove their filipino citizenship that began in the 2000 Commissioners Cup. Those suspended were Danny Seigle, Chris Jackson, Rudy Hatfield and Menk, among others. However, Menk would suffer the worst as he spend more than a year to prove his case until the latter stages of the 2001 season.

[edit] Latter years

In Bernardino's latter years, two expansion franchises, Tanduay and Red Bull entered the league in 1999 and 2000, respectively, bringing the league number from eight to 10. San Miguel Beer rose into power as the league's new dynasty, winning five titles in two seasons.

In 2001, Bernardino health suffer terribly and was forced to temporarily handed the reigns to deputy commissioner Sonny Barrios to recuperate. In 2002, he announced that he was stepping aside as commissioner after the end of the season. His successor was Viva TV sports anchor and lawyer, Noli Eala.

[edit] Outside of the PBA

Currently, Bernardino, along with Ricky Palou and other former PBA executives, formed Sports Vision Management and was responsible for the formation of the school-themed Shakey's V-League that began in 2004.

In 2006, he was the commissioner of the 82nd NCAA season, the first time in four years he was commissioner of a basketball tournament.