The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) would wait for word from the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) before coming up with sanctions on its players who participated in the free-for-all brawl against members of the Australian national men’s basketball team.

PBA commissioner Willie Marcial said they want to dig deep and get into the bottom of the incident before penalizing erring players who were part of the melee that erupted during the third window of the FIBA World Cup Asian Qualifier last Monday at the Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan.

A total of nine players in Terrence Romeo, Carl Bryan Cruz, Jayson Castro, Japeth Aguilar, Calvin Abueva, Roger Pogoy, Troy Rosario, Matthew Wright and naturalized player Andray Blatche were thrown out of the playing court for their involvement in the brawl that gained international attention.

Also seen throwing punches were assistant coach Jong Uichico and former PBA player Peter Aguilar as well as Allein Maliksi and Jio Jalalon, who was caught on camera planting a powerful right hook on the jaw of Nathan Sobey while security personnel were escorting him to safety.

Marcial said he will summon all these personalities as well as ranking officials of Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas, led by president Al Panlilio, to explain their side of the story.

But it is not yet sure whether they will penalize those involve right away as they want to see how the world-governing body in basketball will handle the situation.

“FIBA already launched an investigation so we have to wait for their verdict before we make any decision,” said Marcial, adding that PBA board of governors chairman Ricky Vargas will also be in attendance in the closed-door meeting set Thursday afternoon at the PBA office in Quezon City.

“We invited them to a closed-door meeting so we can determine what really happened. Then, we will wait for the penalties that will be handed by FIBA before we can formally come up with our own verdict.”

It’s quite difficult to speculate the sanction that would be imposed by FIBA.

Based on FIBA’s Recommended Penalties for Misconduct of Players, a player who will be ejected from the game for intentionally or flagrantly contacting an opponent only merits a two-game suspension for first offense.

The case of Gilas and Boomers, however, is very different as it involves not just intentional contact, but acts of violence such as grappling, kicking and punching. The elder Aguilar was even seen hurling a metal chair at Sobey, who was clearly defenseless by the time of the attack.

Source said the penalty may be as severe as one to two years of suspension on erring players while the federation will be barred from hosting any major international tournament sanctioned by FIBA.

It could also be as light as a two to three-game suspension with a hefty penalty, similar to what FIBA imposed on Serbian center Nenad Krstic, who got embroiled in a brawl with the Greek national team in 2010.

The FIBA disciplinary panel already notified SBP to submit all supporting documents like videos, testimonies and other pieces of evidence about the incident. The federation was given a week to comply.

SBP was also furnished a copy of the incident report from the referees, table officials and members of the technical committee.

FIBA is expected to come out with a decision in a tribunal at the end of the qualifying window.

“The tribunal will take a look at both side and come up with their own assessment. I’m glad they gave us this opportunity because we will present the whole context – not just (what happened) in the 4:01 mark of the third quarter,” he said.

“But just like in business, you have to expect for the worst-case scenario and prepare for it.”