LAS VEGAS - Meralco, like the gambling parlance heard a lot of time in the world's gambling capital, will go all in in representing the country and the PBA when the Bolts campaign yet again in the East Asia Super League.
Team management would like nothing less than a championship in their coming stint as they have tapped a 6-foot-10 center for a second import to complement the mouth-watering Justin Brownlee-Rondae Hollis-Jefferson partnership that will happen for the first time.
Ismael Romero, a member of the Puerto Rican national team, will be arriving on Sept. 22 to join the Bolts in preparing for the multi-nation event, even as negotiations to acquire another foreigner as an Asian import--a point guard--is about to be completed.
"We want to win the EASL for the country and for the PBA," said league representative Billy Pamintuan during a break in the PBA's annual planning session on Tuesday at MGM Grand. "We are leaving no stones unturned, make no mistake about it."
The Bolts will still have their talented core led by Chris Newsome, Chris Bachero and Cliff Hodge, and could come up with a really potent team when the imports and naturalized aces Brownlee and Ange Kouame join the team.
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Tournament rules allow the use of two naturalized players, two imports and an Asian import to reinforce the teams.
Meralco still feels the pain of a double-overtime loss to Jeremy Lin and Chinese Taipei in Taiwan, and the Bolts would want nothing less than going all the way this time.
A cool US$1 million will be awarded the champion of the tournament, but what excites Pamintuan and the rest of the team is the chance for the Bolts to play that tournament at home and show the Filipino fans what a Brownlee-Hollis-Jefferson tandem can do.
"It's going to be very exciting," Pamintuan went on. "And from the reports I have heard, Romero is so good."(SB)
