Globalport import Taggart finally gets chance to play in PH
Shawn Taggart finally got the chance to bring his act to the Philippines.
Admitting his long desire to play in the country, the 30-year-old finally got what he wanted when he was called by GlobalPort to salvage its campaign in the 2016 PBA Commissioner’s Cup.
“I’ve been trying to play in the Philippines for a while now and they finally gave me a chance. Let’s show the people that I could play at a high level and hopefully, I could drive a team to win games,” said Taggart, who is a teammate of Rob Dozier back in their college days in Memphis.
And on Saturday, barely a day in the country, the 6-foot-9 reinforcement was thrust into the spotlight when the Batang Pier crossed paths with his fellow Tiger’s team: Alaska.
Taggart managed to stand his ground, finishing with 36 points and 16 rebounds, but couldn’t help the ailing GlobalPort crew from falling down the cellar with a 103-101 defeat.
“We came up short tonight, so it doesn’t matter how I did,” he said. “At the end of the day, we had a chance to win, but we didn’t get the stops that we needed.”
Not helping him was his eight turnovers, which all boiled down to 26 for the whole team.
“I had a lot of turnovers, and I felt that if we could cut down on our turnovers and gang-rebound, we would’ve came out and win the game.”
Despite GlobalPort playing without its lethal backcourt of Terrence Romeo and Stanley Pringle, Taggart is already impressed with the fighting spirit his new team is showing.
“The guys fought to the last second and that’s all I could ask for,” he said. “I know that we’ll fight and try to win so as long as we fight and play hard, I’ll have no problem. Win, lose, or draw, as long as we fight, there’s nothing to complain about.”
And he’s beaming with pride knowing that a little bit of seasoning could go a long way, and that starts when the Batang Pier return to practice and prepare for Star on Sunday.
“I feel like we’re going to be good. Our two key guys are out, but I feel like we’re going to glue before Friday’s game and we’re going to get better,” said Taggart. “I’m very confident that when we put in the work in practice and everybody comes in and put their hearts out, I feel we could come and shock some people and win some games.”
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