Terrence Romeo was slapped with a hefty P25,000 fine for his controversial comments on the officiating in TNT’s 128-114 victory over GlobalPort last Sunday.
The PBA deemed the super scorer’s statements as detrimental to the league as a frustrated Romeo went sarcastic and said one of the referees had officiated in a “in a another planet” before.
Romeo felt slighted after he was called for a ball-handling violation thrice in a span of 26 seconds late in the fourth quarter, first for ball-carrying and the last, a traveling violation with the game already out of reach.
READ: Romeo on dribbling violations: Ref officiated from another planet before
The calls perplexed the former FEU guard and had no second thoughts calling out the officials which made the whistle.
“Siguro may nakikita yung referee na talagang nakikita niya siguro yung sa galing ibang planeta eh. Hindi ko alam kung ano, so siguro next time, mag-aadjust ako, kasi ewan ko kung saang planeta siya nag-referee before. Eh wala akong magagawa. Pero di bale, adjust na lang ako. Sana makapasyal ako sa planeta nila next time,” he said.
(I don’t know what the referee was looking at, but perhaps the referee was used to watching someone from another planet. But I guess I would just have to make adjustments next time because I don’t know what planet the referee officiated in before. I can’t do anything about it. I’ll just make adjustments and hopefully, I’ll be able to visit their planet next time.)
Romeo finished with 11 points on a 4-of-13 shooting in his TNT debut since being traded from GlobalPort in the offseason.
He met with PBA commissioner Willie Marcial on Friday before the fine was handed down.