Photo by Tristan Tamayo/ INQUIRER.net
Blame it on the quotient.
Coach Norman Black justified Chris Newsome’s actions late in Meralco’s 106-90 victory over NLEX in the 2018 PBA Commissioner’s Cup on Friday.
With the game already decided, the third-year swingman still went for the kill and drained a right wing jumper with 1.6 seconds remaining to bring the Bolts’ final lead up to 16.
The shot irked Road Warriors mentor Yeng Guiao, who didn’t hide his displeasure and hurled expletives at Newsome as the game came to a close.
For Black, there was no reason for Guiao to feel slighted as he said that he’s just “playing by the rules.”
“I don’t really know what they want us to do about that. I mean, the rules are we play with a quotient and if I remember correctly, one team got eliminated last conference when they didn’t have a higher quotient, they didn’t get a chance to play a knockout game,” he said, relating the unfortunate case of Blackwater in the 2018 Philippine Cup.
Even Newsome knew that and wouldn’t want Meralco to have any complications if indeed it ends up in a tie late in the eliminations.
“I’m just playing basketball and I’m just following orders from my head coach. That’s all I can say about about that one,” he said.
Black made it clear that Meralco meant no disrespect with Newsome’s shot and was just trying to position itself at the best possible outcome it can without breaking the rules.
“We’ll just play by the rules. If the rules says that you have to win via quotient at the event of a tie, then we’ll try to score as much as we can. If they take that rule out, we’ll respect the game and not try to score at the end game,” he said.
Black added: “Me as a coach, I’m not naive. I know that normally, if the game is over, the game is over. You don’t want to put it in the coach’s face or the other team’s face, but until the PBA changes the rules or something else, and until they continue this rule which is the quotient rule, then we’ll follow the rules.”