Paul Lee. PBA IMAGE by Nuki Sabio
MANILA, Philippines — Renegade point guard Paul Lee finally met with Rain or Shine coach Yeng Guiao Tuesday and hinted that all’s well for both parties.
“We started the talks and coach Yeng told me that he wants to retain me,” Lee said in Filipino over the phone.
“And I told him that I also want to stay. At least, it’s now OK between us. “The only thing left is for my agent and [Rain or Shine] management to talk and put an end to this,” he added. “There’s no timetable [for contract signing], but I do hope that it would be soon because Gilas [Pilipinas] leaves next week.”
Lee, the former Rookie of the Year, will be playing with the Gilas Pilipinas national team when it tries to end the country’s long Asian Games basketball gold-medal drought in South Korea in two weeks.
The Filipinos won the first four Asiad basketball golds, the last in 1962 in Jakarta with a team built around Caloy “The Big Difference” Loyzaga, but have been winless ever since.
Rumors of a split between player and management started when Lee’s agent, Lawrence Chongson, said last month that Lee wanted out of Rain or Shine.
Lee was said to be asking for a trade despite being offered the maximum salary of P15.12 million for a three-year extension.
After coming home from Seville, Spain, and helping Gilas win a first World Cup game in four decades, Lee didn’t speak with Rain or Shine officials as expected.
“I think this will all be settled,” said Lee, who had mulled skipping the Asiad if he doesn’t get a PBA contract soon.
Meanwhile, league commissioner Chito Salud Tuesday reminded player-agents to look after the welfare of their players and to not mislead them in contract negotiations.
Salud also reiterated his office’s stand that it will protect the rights of the players’ mother ball clubs more than anything.
“The league will protect the rights, not just of the players, but most especially the mother ball clubs,” Salud said during Tuesday’s launch of the Blackwater Elite team at a restaurant in Malate.
“That is why we have rules—the right of first refusal. “We will not allow any ball club to be held hostage by any player and I do not care which player we are talking about. Let’s follow the rules,” Salud added. “Agents, do not mislead your players, because in the long run, it is the players who will suffer.”
During the launch, Blackwater coach Leo Isaac guaranteed that his Elite will be giving the PBA field a run for its money when the 40th Season opens on Oct. 19 at either the Philippine Arena or Smart Araneta Coliseum.