Kia sacks ace guard on twitter
LOS ANGELES – The Kia Picanto ball club is ready to sever its ties with chief playmaker LA Revilla.
In fact, team governor Bobby Rosales said the player has been told not to practice with the team anymore.
“We’re disappointed,” said Rosales on the controversial tweet of Revilla with regards the team’s decision to trade the season’s No. 1 overall pick to San Miguel Beer.
“Kung magpapalusot man lang sana ginandahan niyo na ang rason. Hindi talaga eh. Bagsak kayo sigurado kung may lie detector,” said Revilla on his Twitter account at the height of the trade talks.
Rosales said Revilla is still under contract with Kia for two more years but he’s free to look for a new taker.
“We’re really disappointed. We gave him a break and he’s the face of Kia, then….,” said Rosales.
In acquiring the Kia draft rights, San Miguel netted 6-foot8 Fil-German player Christian Standhardinger in the recent PBA Rookie Draft.
Kia, meanwhile, gained the rights on veterans JayR Reyes, Ronald Tubid, Rashawn McCarthy and a future draft right.
“The team has been doing well in practice, according to coach Joe,” said Rosales as what was reported by their new team manager Joe Lipa.
Meanwhile, topnotch imports Justin Brownlee, Charles Rhodes, Ricardo Ratliffe and Allen Durham are likely to bring their act to the PBA yet again in the coming season as the league board decided to readopt its 2016-17 schemes for the 43rd PBA season set to begin Dec. 17.
The board paved the way for the possible return of other PBA regulars Henry Walker and Eugene Phelps as they kept at 6-foot10 the height ceiling for the Governors Cup imports and at 6-foot-5 the height limit for the Commissioner’s Cup reinforcements.
The local pro league is also implementing the same exciting formats used last season where San Miguel Beer emerged as the Philippine Cup and Commissioner’s Cup champ while Barangay Ginebra came through with a successful title defense in the Governors Cup.
This measure was resolved in the last PBA regular board meeting in Manila.
Still uncertain is whether the PBA Governors will be able to push through with its set planning session at the Sofitel Hotel in Los Angeles here on Tuesday.
With many resolutions yet to be resolved, some governors are now bracing for the possible postponement of the coming season.
“We’re bracing for the worst, and that’s the moving of the opening,” said one governor, unhappy that the board remained divided on the status of commissioner Chito Narvasa.
Ready for reimplementation is their tested three-conference calendar with its exciting tournament formats.
All three tourneys feature a single-roundrobin elimination phase, with the best eight teams advancing to the playoffs. Thus each team will be playing a minimum of 33 games in the season.
In the all-Filipino and in the Commissioner’s Cup, the Top Two gain a twice-to-beat advantage versus the bottom two in the quarters. The four middle teams, meanwhile, figure in a pair of best-of-three quarterfinals showdowns.