MIKEY Williams did not honor his word to play for Strong Group Athletics (SGA) in the 33rd Dubai International Basketball Championships, the team said after its first full practice without the ace guard.
According to team manager Jacob Lao, the Fil-American stalwart committed his services for SGA but was a no-show in training camp that featured NBA veterans like Dwight Howard, Andray Blatche and Andre Robinson.
The development led to the team鈥檚 decision to move on from him with only a week to go before the Dubai tourney on Jan. 19 to 28.
鈥淭his is the first time we have had a player who doesn鈥檛 honor his word,鈥 said Mr. Lao, son of team owner (Mr.) Frank (Lao).
鈥淣ow, I understand the management of the team he played for before.鈥
Mr. Williams, whose PBA contract was terminated by his mother club Talk 鈥楴 Text last year after their negotiations fell through, was supposed to be the starting point guard of the SGA according to head coach Charles Tiu.
But to no avail.
鈥淲e really don鈥檛 know what happened. Everything was in place and we agreed to almost everything he wanted,鈥 cleared Mr. Lao, noting their terms on the worth of Mr. Williams鈥 contract and his preferred arrival.
鈥淎t first, he agreed to the price. Then he asked for a specific time frame for his arrival. However, he just didn鈥檛 show up at our practice when everybody was expecting him to, including former NBA stars and starters.鈥
Aside from the reinforcements led by Mr. Howard, all local players of SGA bannered by UAAP MVP Kevin Quiambao and MPBL MVP Justine Baltazar are already at the height of training camp in Makati. 鈥 John Bryan Ulanday
