IMPORTS KICKED OUT
For the record, Petron Blaze’s Renaldo Balkman isn’t the first import be to be banned in the PBA. But he is the first in 15 years to be given the boot.
Recently penalized for his oncourt transgressions near the endgame of the Boosters’ 73-83 loss to Alaska in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup last Friday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum, Balkman, aside from being banished, has also been fined P250,000 by PBA Commissione Chito Salud.
An American-Puerto Rican, Balkman is the first import to be banned by the PBA since Sta. Lucia’s Jojo English and Clifford Lett for breach of contract in 1998.
Others previously banned were Alaska’s Derrek Hamilton, Swift’s Ronnie Thompkins, Shell’s Kelvin Upshaw and San Miguel Beer’s Andrew Moten.
Hamilton, Thompkins and Upshaw were banned because of failed drug tests.
Hamilton last played for the Aces in the middle of their grand slam year, or in the 1996 Commissioner’s Cup to be exact and was replaced by Sean Chambers.
Thompkins, who was also involved in hardcourt brawls with Shell’s Ricky Relosa and Ginebra’s Rey Cuenco, last played for Swift in the 1994 Commissioner’s Cup while Upshaw, who had previous stints also with Swift, last played for Shell in the 1992 Third Conference, where he also once exposed his behind to an opposing team’s fans in one game.
Moten, for his part, was banished from the league by the late PBA Commissioner Rudy Salud, father of the current Commissioner, in the 1991 Third Conference after disrespecting league officials and even the media after a game against Alaska.
Moten, who was explosive in his first two games for the Beermen, was shut down by Alaska’s physical defense, forcing him to abandon the game and changing to civvies at halftime. He still watched the game from the sidelines but reportedly staring at the elder Commissioner Salud the entire time. He even held a mini-conference where he lambasted league officials then turned on the media, further aggravating his offense.
There were other imports who decided to fly the coop early and left for good rather than wait to be banned by the league for various reasons. There was San Miguel Beer’s Jay Taylor also because of a failed drug test, Alaska’s Willie Bland for game-fixing allegations and Seven-Up’s Carl Bird, who once held the league’s all-time record of 75 points in a game, but was actually the first to desert his team in the middle of the conference in the league’s early years.
Richard Hollis and Dexter Shouse deserted Purefoods in the middle of the conference – the former aborting the TJ Hotdogs’ march to the Finals of the 1991 First Conference, and the latter also with Purefoods in the 1989 Reinforced Conference.
Shouse actually had already orphaned his former team in a previous PBA stint with Shell but it was rumored to be as a result of teammates ganging up on him in a fight inside their locker room after a game.
While Balkman has been apologetic these last few days especially on social media, he still is going to be part of the league’s Hall of Shame annals. (FM)
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