‘Please don’t harm Manny’

Trainer Freddie Roach has pleaded with opponents to kindly keep Manny Pacquiao out of harm’s way when he debuts with his Kia Motors team in the PBA season opening on Sunday.

It’s final and executory: Roach is allowing Pacquiao to see action for KIA Motors, but only for the opening game against Blackwater Elite.

“But please don’t harm Manny, ” Roach was quoted yesterday as pleading by veteran sportswriter Eddie Alinea of philboxing.com.

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Well, if it were not basketball, Roach would’ve been sliced raw by critics for begging for the impossible, harming each other being the main job of protagonists in Pacquiao’s main calling.

Roach honestly feels it won’t be asking too much to give Pacquiao an unusual preference on Sunday.

Manny Pacquiao. AFP FILE PHOTO

“I know how tough, even rough, basketball games here are. All I beg his would-be rivals is to please take care of Manny,” Roach said.

How?

“You can block his shots, steal the ball away, but take care not to hurt him if you treasure him as your boxing icon,” Roach explained.

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Roach had previously commented that Pacquiao was not exactly cut out for basketball.

After he arrived in the country middle of last week, Roach said he would not give Pacquiao permission to play because of the PBA opening’s proximity to his prized pupil’s defense of his WBO welterweight crown against the tall Chris Algieri in Macau on Nov. 23.

The trainer eventually relented saying, “I just can’t stop him completely because he loves basketball so much.”

Of course, Roach was evidently swayed into giving Pacquiao a one-game pass (to play) after the eight-division world title winner displayed terrific form in his first session with the American mentor in General Santos City.

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Anyway, while Roach has been very accommodating, he could not predict or comment on what quality of game Pacquiao will be able to display at the Philippine Arena in Bocaue, Bulacan, come Sunday.

No, Roach was not saying Pacquiao diehards should prepare to be disappointed.

But a sneak review by an objective foreign observer could provide some idea on what to expect from Pacquiao, the basketball player, on Sunday.

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Nick Schwartz, reporting for USA Today, noted that the KIA Motors playing coach “did not look comfortable handling the ball” as he had a single point and two turnovers in a 10-minute stint for KIA in a preseason game in Biñan, Laguna, the other week.

Will Pacquiao turn instantly sharp and super in his formal PBA debut?

Even KIA Motors people can’t commit while explaining that, after all, Pacquiao’s main chore “is to lead and inspire his team.”

And help sell countless KIA Sorentos?