San Miguel Beermen Basketball Games Updates

San Miguel Beermen Gets Jay Washington, Trades 3rd Draft Pick to Talk and Text

The surprise of the draft came when San Miguel Beermen traded its draft rights for the third overall pick to the Talk and Text Phone Pals in exchange for Anthony Jay Washington.

With this move, San Miguel Beermen passed on the opportunity to acquire either Jason Castro, Solomon Mercado, or Rob Reyes at #3. San Miguel drafted Bonbon Custodio, a possible draft steal at #8.

Such move does not sit well to some SMB fans and warrants some explanations from team insider "Than" of the PBA forum. Details of this explanations will be on the next post.

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NO. 1 PICK NORWOOD TO BOOST RAIN OR SHINE STOCK Talk N Text nets 4 promising talents for richest Draft haul

Source: Philippine Basketball Association
September 1, 2008

The Rain or Shine (formerly Welcoat) management and basketball coaching staff are hopeful the Dragons will show marked improvement following their acquisition of prized Fil-Am Gabe Norwood with TY Tang coming as bonus even as Talk n Text appeared to haul in the biggest total catch in the 2008 PBA Annual Draft.

“Improvement is a must,” said Rain or Shine co-owner Raymond Yu with the two basketball players already with the Dragons on their table during the Draft exercise held at the Market! Market! in Taguig.

“Yung positions na mahina kami napunan na. So we’re hopeful we’ve already got a competitive lineup,” said Terry Que, the other owner of the Asian Coatings Corp. basketball franchise.

"With the entry of Norwood and TY Tang, madali na namin mae-execute ang running game. Malaking change ang nangyari sa pagpasok nila," said basketball coach Caloy Garcia.

The Dragons, as expected, made Norwood the first pick overall and got a steal in taking Tang at No. 12.

“It’d been a long year and a half of waiting. I’m happy I finally made it,” said Norwood after realizing his dream of making it to the PBA.

The lone amateur player in the RP team to the 2007 Tokushima FIBA-Asia basketball championship became the seventh Fil-Am basketball player picked No. 1 overall in the Annual Draft, following the footsteps of Andy Seigle in 1997, Sonny Alvarado in 1999, Mike Cortez in 2003, Jay Washington in 2005, Kelly Williams in 2006 and Joe Devance in 2007.

“I’m bringing in my basketball work ethic and hopefully I can help the basketball team get wins,” said the 23-year-old former George Mason U stalwart, who is expected to get the maximum allowable rookie pay of P8.7 million spread over three years.

Talk n Text is also looking forward to a better basketball season after getting four promising players from draft, including one through a trade transaction consummated on the draft floor.

The Phone Pals acquired Jared Dillinger, Jason Castro, Rob Reyes and Pong Escobal, hinting at a major overhaul of the TNT basketball roster.

San Miguel yielded its rights for the No. 3 pick to get Washington from Talk n Text which, in turn, used the pick to get Castro. Talk n Text enlisted from No. 2 to 4 Dillinger, Castro and Reyes.

Solomon Mercado went to Alaska at No. 5 before Mark Borboran was picked at No. 6 by Air21, Beau Belga by Purefoods at No. 7, Bonbon Custodio by Magnolia at No. 8, Larry Rodriguez by Red Bull at No. 9 and Kelvin Gregorio by Sta. Lucia at No. 10.

Only nine basketball players were chosen in the second round with Escobal going to Talk n Text, Tang to Rain or Shine, Cholo Villanueva to Air21, Chito Jaime and Christian Cabatu to Sta. Lucia, Kelvin de la Pena to Alaska, Jonathan Fernandez to Purefoods and Jeff Chan and Mark Cuevas to Red Bull.

Talk n Text coach Chot Reyes said they were forced by situation to trade Washington since basketball league rules permit no more than five Fil-foreign basketball players per team.

The exit of Washington allowed the Pals to pick Dillinger and Reyes. The other Fil-foreign basketball players in the Talk n Text lineup are Jimmy Alapag, Ali Peek and Harvey Carey.

“Now, we’ve got a new team. First we’re younger, second more versatile and third and most important, we’ve got a number of veterans. It means we’re competitive at the present while also looking good in the future,” said Reyes.

“We’ve got four new players. They’ll all be signed up and all will play…. That’s the plan,” Reyes added. (NC)