Terrence Romeo ready for fresh start with San Miguel Beer
MANILA, Philippines – The blockbuster trade that sent Terrence Romeo to San Miguel Beer has been approved since December 19 of last year. Yet it was still jarring to see the PBA's resident scoring dynamo at the Acropolis Gym on Thursday, when he joined the Beermen in practice for the very first time.
He still had no official SMB gear: Romeo attended practice wearing a grey-andblack ensemble, his long hair tied in a messy ponytail. He was formally introduced to the team by San Miguel governor Robert Non, and was given a warm welcome.
"Ganoon naman ang mga players namin eh," SMB coach Leo Austria later said. "They are very professional. And every time there's a new player, even the import, alam nila kung paano makisama."
Austria did not bother easing Romeo into the team slowly. They plunged right into action; after all, there are only 10 days before the opening of the new PBA season, and they are integrating not just Romeo but also Paul Zamar into their system.
Romeo was given a crash course into San Miguel's defensive schemes and offensive sets and he put his learnings to the test in a quick scrimmage to end Thursday's practice.
Afterward, he told reporters that he enjoyed his first day as a Beerman.
"Ayun, masaya. Sobrang winelcome nila ako," said Romeo. "Lahat mababait. 'Yun nga, sobrang winelcome nila ako."
It was just his first day, so he is still not entirely comfortable with the system, and with how he fits into a stacked San Miguel team that is gunning for a fifth consecutive championship in the All-Filipino
But after scoring his first stoppage victory in years against Lucas Matthysse in July, it became clear to him that he wants to score more devastating wins.
Pacquiao is scheduled to defend his world welterweight title against Adrien Broner on January 19, and he has a clear vision of what he wants to do.
Manny Pacquiao wants to make sure his tussle with Adrien Broner on January 19 DEMAR DeRozan finished with 21 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists for his record career triple-double as the San Antonio Spurs rolled to a 125-107 win over the visiting Toronto Raptors on Thursday to win their third straight game and fourth in their past five.
The contest marked the return to San Antonio by forward Kawhi Leonard and guard Danny Green, who were moved to the Raptors in the offseason after Leonard demanded a trade from the Spurs.
In return, San Antonio received DeRozan and center Jakob Poeltl. DeRozan was disappointed at being traded from Toronto, and he let his former teammates and the Raptors' management see his displeasure in his first game against them, racking up 19 points and 10 rebounds in the first half.
The Spurs' LaMarcus Aldridge poured in a gamehigh 23 points, with Bryn Forbes adding 20 points, Derrick White recording 19, Rudy Gay scoring 13 points and won’t go the distance. Wendell Alinea, MP Promotions
“I am not making a prediction, but my goal is to knock out Broner,” Pacquiao said in a report posted on BoxingScene.com.
“I forgot how much fun winning a fight by knockout was until I stopped Lucas Matthysse last summer to win the WBA welterweight title. It felt great to win that way and the fans loved it, too, so why not Patty Mills hitting for 12 in San Antonio's win, its 10th straight against the Raptors at home.
Leonard was loudly jeered and booed when he was try for it again?”
Prior to knocking out Matthysse in July, Pacquiao went through a dry spell as far as stoppage victories are concerned, failing to KO any of his opponents in the past 9 years.
It wasn’t easy for Pacquiao, who has built a reputation being a fearsome knockout artist.
Pacquiao wants to fortify that reputation by going after Broner’s head.
“I have nothing personal introduced and every time he touched the ball. He finished with a team-high 21 points on 8 of 13 shooting.
Delon Wright scored 15 points for the Raptors, while against Adrien Broner,” Pacquiao said. “This fight is strictly business. He is fun. He makes me laugh. He knows how to sell himself and to sell a fight.”
It might be a tall order for the fighting senator, since the 29-year-old Broner has never lost by knockout.
Although Marcos Maidana dropped Broner twice in 2013, the American boxer was able to survive and settle for a unanimous decision loss. ABS-CBN News Serge Ibaka and Norman Powell added 14 each, Fred VanVleet and Greg Monroe tallied 12 points apiece, and Pascal Siakam chipped in 10
Conference.
"Nag-aadjust pa ko kasi 'yun nga, bago eh," he admitted. "Bago pa 'yung mga plays sakin so pinag-aaralan ko pa."
"Pero siyempre… gusto ko mapadali 'yung basketball din para sa kanila," Romeo also said. "At the same time, gusto kong maging effective 'pag kasama ko sila. So siguro kung paano kami magje-gel… Ako mismo 'yung dapat lumapit sa kanila kasi solid na sila eh."
It's the second time in less than a year that Romeo has found himself needing to adjust to a new team. In April 2018, he was sent from GlobalPort to TNT, but that relationship soured in less than a season, and in December the KaTropa shipped him to San Miguel.
Romeo knows his move to San Miguel – a team that has won six titles in the past five years – is a new chapter in his career, a fresh start that he needs after a turbulent end to his stint in TNT.
"Panibagong journey na naman," he said. "So kailangan siguro, mas pagbutihan ko."
Romeo was reluctant to discuss the details of how his stint with TNT ended. The KaTropa placed the highscoring guard on the trading block midway through December, hinting that Romeo had not been showing up at their practices. His former teammates in TNT reportedly wanted him out of the squad as well.
"Kung sasabihin ko 'yung totoong dahilan, hahaba lang 'yung usapan eh," said Romeo. "So magmu-move on na lang ako."
"Kung ganon nila 'yun pinalabas, wala na kong magagawa. Ngayon move on na ko. Kumbaga, pagbubutihan ko na lang sa bago kong team," he added.
Yet he also dropped some cryptic statements that hinted at his feelings toward his former squad.
"Ako, nasa mundo kami ng sitwasyon na minsan hindi namin hawak eh. So 'yung mga bagay-bagay na mangyayari, hindi natin hawak," said Romeo. "Minsan pwedeng ibang tao 'yung magdesisyon sa 'yo. Minsan pwedeng teammate mo 'yung sumira sa 'yo, may mga ganun."
"Basta maraming case na pwedeng maging dahilan eh. So ang mahirap lang na part, 'yung nakikita lang ng tao is kung ano lang 'yung nababasa nila. Hindi nila nakikita 'yung totoong nangyayari," he added.
Romeo insists he holds no ill will towards the TNT franchise, or team owner Manny V. Pangilinan. He further insists that he has no grudge against his former teammates. "Okay naman lahat," he says.
Rather than look back on his disappointing campaign in TNT, Romeo would much rather focus on what he can do in San Miguel. He is well aware that the Beermen had tremendous success before he came into the team, and their starting five is acknowledged as the best in the league.
And even with Romeo now in the fold, there is still no doubt that SMB's success remains rooted in reigning MVP June Mar Fajardo.
"Wala talaga akong maipagmamalaki sa kahit kanino sa team na 'to," Romeo admits.
"Ang sa akin lang, gagawin ko 'yung best ko para matulungan sila," he adds. "So kung ano man 'yung alam kong tama, and I’m sure makikita naman nila eh. Kung nakikita nila na tama 'yung ginagawa ko then siguro, magiging maganda."
"Pero kung nakikita nila na hindi tama, syempre maga-adjust naman sila eh. So 'yun, ang gusto ko lang talaga makatulong sa team."
Yet even as he expressed his excitement for his new team, Romeo still made one last cryptic statement.
"Para sa akin, masaya ako dahil nasa team ako ngayon na alam kong parang hindi hilahan pababa eh. Dito sa team na to, hindi hilahan pababa eh," said Romeo.
"Marami kasi akong naging encounter na 'yun nga, may mga players na sabihin na lang natin na hindi masaya kapag... siguro kapag nag-eexcel ako," he revealed. "Eh since bata pa naman ako, ganoon na, ganoon na 'yung nangyayari."
He does not expect to have that kind of experience in San Miguel, a team that features a handful of All-Stars and Mythical Team members, but still play with superb cohesion and chemistry.
The one thing he does expect to experience in San Miguel is success.
"Gusto ko matuto sa kanila kung paano mag-champion," Romeo said of his new team. ABS-CBN News TWO days of violent protests in south India sparked by two women entering one of Hinduism’s holiest temples have seen more than 750 people arrested, police said, as they braced for more trouble Friday.
The Sabarimala temple in Kerala state has been at the centre of a prolonged showdown between Hindu devotees and women activists over access to the shrine. As well as those arrested during the clashes over 600 have been taken into preventive detention, police spokesman V.P. Pramod Kumar told AFP.
“The police are extra vigilant. There are tensions but it’s peaceful,” he said, adding that police had imposed bans on the movement of people in the towns of Palakkad and Kasargod, two hotspots of violence on Thursday.
Anger erupted on Wednesday after two women in their 40s wrong-footed devotees to sneak into the Sabarimala temple in Kerala state via a side entrance before dawn to worship.
This was the first time that woman of menstruating age -- deemed as those aged 10 to 50 -- had set foot in the gold-plated hilltop temple since the Supreme Court overturned a ban in September.
Thousands of Hindu devotees, many of them female, had previously succeeded in preventing women from accessing the site in the weeks following the landmark ruling, with some hardliners throwing stones at police and assaulting female journalists.
The court’s verdict sparked anger among Hindu traditionalists, including within Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Clashes on Wednesday and Thursday between devotees, activists of Kerala’s ruling leftist alliance and riot police firing tear gas and water cannon, left one man dead and at least 15 people injured, including four BJP supporters who were stabbed.
Much of the sporadic violence took place as Hindu hardliners sought to force shopkeepers to comply with a dawn-til-dusk “hartal” shutdown called by the Sabarimala temple hierarchy, media reports said.
The Supreme Court is to start hearing a legal challenge on its temple ruling -- the latest in a series of verdicts to upset traditionalists and reflect a more liberal outlook in Indian society -- from January 22.
Women are barred from a handful of Hindu temples in India. The entry of women of menstruating age to Sabarimala was taboo for generations and formalised by the Kerala High Court in 1991.
The entry of the two women into the temple came a day after tens of thousands of women, in an initiative backed by the state government, formed a huge human chain called the “Women’s Wall” across Kerala to back the demand access.