Why?

The 7-footer is embarrassing the league. And Bernardino and the PBA are not the kind to tolerate embarrassment especially from a player.

So the PBA has extended not only a carrot but also a stick to the fiercely independent Feihl who many thought was spineless given the way he has played in the PBA.

First, they asked him to reconsider his position by telling him that Ginebra or Gordon's Gin, was willing to give in to some of his demands, including perhaps the salary that he wanted.

Then when he said he won't play for Ginebra for all the money in the world, and that he would move to another league if no other team would take him, the PBA threatened him with sanctions based on a rule book that no PBA player probably had read or cared to read.

When the PBA opens this Sunday, it is very likely that Feihl had sat down with the PBA or Ginebra management or some team and all will be well. He could be playing for Ginebra (that would be sad) or another team. An accord is likely to be reached between now and play time. And a sign that such is in the offing is a press release issued by Bernardino's office yesterday that said Feihl will be represented by a new manager and no longer by the feisty and implacable Nonie ``Asking for the Moon'' Mediarito.

An upbeat Bernardino looked at the change as a "welcome development," having dismissed Mediarito as an obsessed manager whose "take-it-or-leave-it" management style, if left unchecked, could wreck the league.

"EJ needs the PBA and the PBA needs EJ. With this new development, we hope all parties will reach a win-win situation," Bernardino assessed.

That might be the case and if it is, the PBA, when it opens tomorrow for its 23rd season, should pause to give the young cager a salutation.

The PBA should cite him for his bravery (for standing up to the charismatic and hard-driving Robert Jaworski), for his independence of mind (although some would insist he has none of the latter) and most of all, for standing up to his principles when everyone thought he wanted only money.

The PBA should cite him as an example to today's breed of players, many of whom have no compunction to demand salaries that hardly matched up to their abilities.

Although Feihl asked for a salary increase, money was not the bedrock of the new contract he was negotiating. What he wanted was a basketball life, a starting position and, most of all, respect.

When no team dared to produce an offer sheet because such would harm the old boys' network in the PBA and create what could be a crack in its monolithic structure, Feihl bid goodbye and announced he would rather go back to the "amateur" league-the PBL-rather than play for Ginebra as he was practically being forced to.

I know of no equivalent act of courage or and an act more principled than Feihl's on this case.

Here's a guy who was being offered to come back and play with his old team for a salary amounting to no less than P200,000 a month. But because he said he doesn't want to play with his old team again (having to play with Ginebra being the only option at the moment), he decided to play in the PBL. And mind you, at a salary that probably will be equivalent to that of the Ginebra ball boy.

If that's not principle at its highest order, I don't know what else to call it.

Feihl may not measure up to other big guys in the skills department, but they surely have a lot to learn from this man when it comes to life's more important traits: moral courage and standing up to one's principles.

He surely deserves an MVP for these. -DING MARCELO