Sorento eyes Iran’s Haddadi

The PBA’s Kia Sorento hopes to get a reinforcement for the second conference who could reverse its fortune.

“We hope we can get Hamed Haddadi,” said Kia assistant coach Glenn Capacio during the postgame interview at Smart Araneta Coliseum’s press room after the Sorento’s game against the NLEX Road Warriors last Sunday.

It was Kia’s last game in the Philippine Cup, having been eliminated with only a win to show in 11 games.

Haddadi is the 7-foot-2 cager from Iran who led his national team to the 2013 Fiba Asia Men’s Championship held  here in Manila. He played a total of six  seasons in the NBA, five with the Memphis Grizzlies and one with Phoenix Suns.

He is now reportedly playing for the Qingdao Double Star, a Chinese commercial basketball team.

“We have e-mailed Haddadi’s agent expressing our intent. The agent said we can talk to the cager directly,” Capacio said, saying he is happy with the Sorento’s performance and is optimistic that the team will get better and better with time.

Kia is entitled to a reinforcement of unlimited height, having finished among the bottom four teams after the elimination round. The other three teams with “unlimited height” privilege are Blackwater, NLEX and Barako Bull.

Assuming Kia’s fortunes are not reversed in the second conference and they end up in the bottom four of the team standings, PBA operations head Rickie Santos said Haddadi can play in the third  conference for Kia because the team will be entitled to an import of unlimited height yet again.

In the second conference, Santos said the top eight teams after the eliminations are allowed imports no taller than 6-9  while in the third and last conference, the height limit for imports for the top eight teams is 6-5. Like in the second conference, the bottom four teams after the eliminations are allowed reinforcements of unlimited height.

In the third conference, Santos said a team is allowed to recruit one Asian import with a height limit of 6-3.

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San Beda, the five consecutive NCAA champion, will be rewarded by its patron Manny V. Pangilinan with a trip to Boracay this December, but it doesn’t look like former Red Lions coach Boyet Fernandez  is eager to join the trip.

Fernandez would rather be in Manila with his NLEX team slugging it out with Alaska, ranked No. 3 in the PBA Philippine Cup team standings after the elimination round.

“I can’t be with the Red Lions in Boracay if NLEX makes it all the way to the knockout phase [quarterfinals] against Alaska,” said Fernandez.

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The two Pangilinan-supported collegiate teams have both accomplished a rare “five-peat”—San Beda in the NCAA and Ateneo in the UAAP.

The Blue Eagles did it under one coach—Norman  Black—while the Lions were handled by three different coaches in a span of five seasons—Frankie Lim, Ronnie Magsanoc and Fernandez, who relinquished his San Beda post to Jamike Jarin when the NLEX Road Warriors in the PBA D-League, which he coaches, was elevated to the PBA this season.