Photo by Tristan Tamayo/ INQUIRER.net
Letran’s Bong Quinto would rather move forward than dwell on the controversy that surrounded him and teammate JP Calvo before the start of the NCAA Season 93 men’s basketball tournament.
“For me, whatever happened is already over. My focus right now is to bring back the trust our coaches and our teammates had in us,” Quinto said in Filipino.
The stocky swingman was apologetic and admitted the issue affected the Knights’ psyche coming into the season.
“Everything went so fast. I put too much thought on the opportunity that was being dangled on me that I no longer thought about the team, the coaches, and the school. I just thought about myself,” the 20-year-old said without delving too much on the details.
Sources close to the situation corroborated that the two were offered to transfer from Letran to La Salle, a move that would’ve reunited both with former mentor Aldin Ayo.
Quinto, though, said the talk they had with the Letran management, led by Fr. Vic Calvo and coach Jeff Napa, allowed him to assess the situation better and led to staying put.
“This week has been so tough for my life that my career depended on it. I leaned everything to Fr. Vic and to coach Jeff because despite everything that we’ve done, they accepted us. We did them wrong and they still accepted us,” he said.
“We know we have to show that we’re deserving to be back o the team. We almost turned our backs on them, we almost left the school. So we know that we have to show the school what we really are,” he said.
Letran takes on Mapua in its season-opener on Tuesday.