Coach Alas calls out Nabong for being ‘disrespectful’

Photo by Tristan Tamayo/ INQUIRER.net

Phoenix head coach Louie Alas called out Globalport’s Kelly Nabong after the two got into a verbal altercation during their teams’ matchup in the PBA Philippine Cup where the center lost his cool and spewed expletives not fit for printing.

Nabong got ejected with 2:39 left in the second quarter after shouting profanities at one of the officials and at Alas.

“I saw that he [Nabong] already shouted profanities at one of the referees and I told the official that he should be in control,” said Alas in Filipino Friday at Smart Araneta Coliseum. “Then Nabong said a bad word at me so I told him that he picked the wrong guy.”

“Then he kept saying all these profanities, which should never tolerated.”

Nabong had a similar episode when he was still playing with Meralco wherein he had an altercation against then assistant coach Jimmy Alapag.

This incident caused the Bolts to drop their center who Globalport then picked up in free agency.

Alas, who was aware of Nabong’s past, said the center never learned from his punishment from Meralco.

“He was very disrespectful, he shouldn’t even be on the other team,” said Alas whose Fuel Masters got the victory over Nabong’s Batang Pier 104-100. “He should be able to control his emotions. We’ve always said that you should learn from your mistakes.”

“He shouldn’t be like that. We didn’t grow up just to be like that.”