Wynne Arboleda incident

You've probably heard of this incident it the PBA last week where Burger King player Wynne Arobelda beat up a Smart Gilas fan.

Watch.


From what I gather, the fan (Alain Katigbac) threw a few criticisms towards Arboleda because of his foul against the Smart Gilas player which can be considered flagrant.

Alain Katigbac has filed charges against Wynne Arboleda and Mark Yee who stepped in between Katigbac and Arboleda during the incident and made a threatening posture.

In some forums, a lot of people are criticizing Alain Katigbac for being a coward saying that if he is man enough to curse at Katigbac, he should be man enough to take a fight. Typical Filipino macho man response.

In the case filed by Katigbac, he said he just joined the other fans in booing Arboleda because of Arboleda's dirty plays.

In the Inquirer article:

The complainant admitted he joined other fans in booing Arboleda’s hard fouls on JV Casio of the opposing team.

Katigbac recalled that after the foul, the cager was ordered to sit on the bench for three minutes, adding that he even cheered for Burger King during the second quarter of the game.

He said Arboleda returned to the game, but again committed fouls against the opposing team, prompting the fans, including himself, to jeer at the player.

Katigbac said he noted that Arboleda hurled invectives at the referee for calling the foul.

“I was deeply shocked and disturbed at Arboleda’s boorish and disrespectful behavior towards an official of the game who was merely doing his duty,” the complainant said.

Suddenly, Arboleda walked towards him, jumped over the partition, then kicked him in the abdomen and punched his head several times, the complainant added.

Katigbac also alleged that Yee hit him with his knees while saying, “Cheer ka kasi ng cheer eh!”

But whatever the case, Arboleda and Yee are wrong. The fans may curse you, they may talk trash to you. But that is part of the job of being a professional athlete. You don't get paid millions to hit fans, they are the ones paying your salary.

True, Arboleda is just human and the fan may be out of line. But he can always tell the officials or security to get the fan out for being disruptive.

Have you ever seen major league football fans? They're probably worst than what Katigbac did. But you don't see the players beating up the fans. Well, maybe one or two, but that doesn't mean they're right.

No wonder PBA is suffering from low attendance. These type of dirty plays and incident is probably turning people off. But then again, maybe the PBA needs to bring back the days of Anejo and Ginebra style of dirty play to get back loyal fans.