Boatwright coming over to address import woes
San Miguel Beer, disappointed with the sudden change in attitude of Justin Patton, has made the initial efforts to bring back Bennie Boatwright as the Beermen try and salvage an iffy campaign in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup.
The Beermen lost to the Magnolia Hotshots, 120-111, with an all-Filipino lineup as Patton didn’t show up, as he did in the past three days of practice which left a disappointed management hanging.
“It was very unprofessional,” team manager Gee Abanilla said after emerging from the dugout as San Miguel dropped to 3-4, tied with Magnolia.
Abanilla quickly reached out to Boatwright, who recently completed his stint in the Korean Basketball League. As of press time, San Miguel is arranging logistics even as Boatwright is set to complete his clearance with Daegu Kogas Pegasus.
“Because of what happened, I was forced to get in contact with Bennie,” added Abanilla. “He still has some exit interviews, but I told him to come over. We already have a mutual understanding so I’ll try to fly him over as soon as possible.”
San Miguel has until Sunday when it faces NLEx at Ynares Center in Antipolo to fix things and reintegrate Boatwright, who powered the Beermen to the 2023-24 Commissioner’s Cup crown and is a candidate for naturalization to be eligible to play for Gilas Pilipinas.
Patton had been solid, if not stellar, for most of his three games with San Miguel and had been relatively a good guy, before the team was suddenly befuddled by the reversal.
The former NBA player, listed at 7-foot-1, came over as a replacement for Marcus Lee, who struggled during his three-game stint with the Beermen.
San Miguel won over Macau and Barangay Ginebra before losing to Rain or Shine during Patton’s stint.
“After the Rain or Shine game, he said that he has to rest his foot and then he said he has a bad stomach,” Abanilla added. “Now, we told him that he has to come to practice and be a professional and he said that he just needs some rest and then he’ll play and he’ll make sure that he’s a hundred percent.
“Then at around two o’clock in the afternoon, his driver knocked at the door [of his hotel]. They even saw each other and the driver told [Patton] that he’ll just gonna wait for him. Then [Patton] went up to his room and locked the door.
“Totally unprofessional and he left us hanging. Total 180-degree turnaround. He’s a nice person, but we don’t know what happened to him,” said Abanilla.
