When Glen Rice, Jr. was taken in as a PBA import by Talk and Text during the 2017 Governor’s Cup, we couldn’t help but compare him to his dad, a prolific scorer who can light it from the outside, although most PBA fans also expected lesser from the son due to his performance as a Washington Wizard in the NBA.
As it turned out, Rice Jr. is not as good as his father but was a decent import for the Ka Tropas, leading them to an 8-6 win loss record, ultimately bowing to Ginebra in the Semis.
But as good as he was, he also shown his inability to ignore the physical part of a basketball game, not allowing referees to make calls in spite of their tendencies to commit errors as humans, and concentrate on winning the game at hand.
His constant complaining to the refs and confrontations with opposing players is a weakness that the opposition could find hard not to take advantage of.
As it turned out, Kevin Ferrer, branded as the “best player”, even though sarcastically, by TNT Coach Nash Racela in his role of getting the goat of the import and having him thrown out in the quarterfinals game against Ginebra, did just that.
More than the game incident, Rice may not be back anymore in the PBA scene because of his attitude. Spin.ph reported the import may have burned his bridges with TNT, [and probably any shot suiting up for other teams] by feuding with TNT officials and flying off to the US without even dropping a word
Rice now joins the many imports in PBA history who has the talent to lead his team to greater heights but couldn’t simply because he has more agendas that winning games.
Who could forget these “should have been easily multiple PBA champions, only if” imports:
Renaldo Balkman, who received a lifetime ban for chocking teammate Arwind Santos;
Ronnie Thompkins, who once ran after Shell’s Ricky Relosa up to Shell’s bench as a result of a shoving incident and eventually bowing out of the league because of failure to pass a drug test;
Dexter Shouse, who deserted his team during the middle of the conference, not only once but twice;
Derek Hamilton, who was leading the then Alaska Milkmen to the best record during the 1996 Commissioner’s Cup, their grandslam season, before being booted out due to failed drug test. [His replacement, the much smaller Sean Chambers, eventually carried the team to a crucial victory to set the grandslam run in place]
Carl Bird, who once held the league’s all-time highest points scored in a game with his 75 points, the first import to desert his team in the middle of the conference in the league’s early years.
These are just some of them. I’m sure I have missed more.
By: ARMANDO M. BOLISLIS
