MANILA, 11 October 2007 — Robert Jaworski’s Philippine Basketball Association comeback will have to wait for at least one more tournament.
The charismatic Jaworski finally broke his silence while virtually asking for more time to consider Air21’s offer for a coaching comeback, saying that he would need to spend time to tend to his business interests in the United States .
This was confirmed by Air21 team manager Lito Alvarez, who spoke to the one-time MVP late last week before Jaworski boarded a plane back to the US .
“Basically, what we talked about is that the (coaching) job is his if he wants it,” Alvarez told Arab News. “He also told me to have coach Bo continue handling the team (in the Philippine Cup) because he (Perasol) is a good coach,”
Air21 was the first team that offered Jaworski a job since his unceremonious exit as Ginebra San Miguel coach late in the last decade. Jaworski, who at six feet will go down as arguably the finest all-around guard the PBA has ever seen, has had the offer on his lap for more than a year now, with Air21 officials left in the dark.
Until last week when Alvarez finally had a chance to talk to him.
“Coach Sonny told me that he will just take care of some business matters in the United States , and that we will talk formally once he returns,” added Alvarez. “In the meantime, he also told me that coach Bo (Perasol) is an able guy.”
The Express square off with Magnolia when the Philippine Cup takes the lid off of the PBA’s 33rd Season on Sunday at the Araneta Coliseum.
Air21, incidentally, is seriously considering a trade offer made by Talk ‘N Text recently. The Phone Pals are loaded with a lot of quality centers in their lineup and are in need of forwards, which the Express have a lot of.
Alvarez said that the Phone Pals are asking for two forwards coming from among Arwind Santos, Ranidel De Ocampo and slam-dunking KG Canaleta for them to give a center which Alvarez declined to name.
Talk ‘N Text has 6-foot-10 man-mountain Asi Taulava, 6-foot-9 Yancy de Ocampo and 6-foot-6 Don Allado in its roster, quite a good collection of frontliners who need to share time on the floor rather than dominate on it. Right now, the Express’ only true center is 6-foot-5 Homer Se, a man known more for his rough play rather than effective rebounding and scoring.
“I like the team that we have right now,” Alvarez said. “We can be the quickest team in the league. We’ll see what happens.”
Meanwhile, Santos is being asked by the Office of the Commissioner to settle his marital problems out of the court as soon as possible and not make his case an ugly one.
Slapped with two lawsuits from Karyn Maye Umayon, Santos could face possible sanctions from the league which dismissed its last commissioner because of morality issues. Umayon filed child support and bigamy issues on Santos, whom she accused of marrying another woman just eight days after marrying her in 2004. Santos could not be reached for comment.
Santos has a two-year-old daughter by Umayon, who claimed that Santos had reneged in giving financial support to their daughter. In her lawsuit, Umayon is asking at least P50,000 in child support from the player.
The Air21 forward, who was picked second overall last year and finished in the same position behind Kelly Williams in the Rookie of the Year race, is making something like P225,000 a month in basic pay this year.
But Officer-In-Charge Sonny Barrios said that Santos ‘ case is not yet the same as that of Noli Eala’s, who was disbarred by the Supreme Court of grounds of immorality.
Eala consequently lost his job as PBA top man as the league is sensitive to the character it exudes.
