Fun and games help Beermen surround newcomer Romeo with family atmosphere

Photo by Tristan Tamayo/INQUIRER.net

San Miguel Beer took a lot of heat after injecting Terrence Romeo to a stacked roster. Critics said the star guard, who has had brushes with fans, teammates and even his own coach, was only going to disrupt the Beermen’s championship defense.

The results so far? Chemistry has never been better.

That’s all thanks to a mini-game engineered by one of San Miguel’s veterans, Alex Cabagnot, one that has squeezed the best out of Romeo, Von Pessumal and Paul Zamar and has injected fun in to their postgame rounds. Just check their Instagram accounts.

“We’re just trying to expedite the process of making him comfortable as possible for him to be able to show his wares,” said Cabagnot.

“You know, this is just the cloth of this team,” he added. “The PBA is a business … We try to make it a family environment. We’re even the first team to do Zumba. We do a lot of stuff together as a team.”

Zamar, who like Romeo joined San Miguel at the start of the season, said their little extra-curricular contest helps: “If you’re enjoying, come game time, it shows.”

“Even if it’s not basketball, if you’re together after you do anything, it brings you closer,” said Pessumal, who helped set up the game and refine it to an actual contest that dangles a tiny replica of a WWE championship belt.

The four players line up with in a spot designated by the reigning winner. Players start out with 10 points and alternately take shots, with a point deducted for every miss. The last man with still a point wins a round and the shooter who compiles the most victories emerges as the day’s champion.

“A shooter’s paradise, huh?” Marcio Lassiter, San Miguel’ deadliest marksman said.

“Actually, I haven’t been this happy since my rookie year,” Romeo told the Inquirer in Filipino. “The last time I felt like this was during my freshman year at GlobalPort (now NorthPort). We weren’t winning that much but I was really enjoying the game.”

Romeo, who had an unproductive stint with TNT, is a star so complex that no other team reportedly wanted to have him. His time at the KaTropa camp was highlighted with a bitter exit, allegedly the handiwork of seven players.

But all that is in the past. After all, Romeo is still looking to reinvent himself.

“I’m working on my defense. My scoring won’t taper off. That’s what endeared me to the game in the first place,” he said. “There are ordinary basketball players. I don’t want to be ordinary.”