Rhodes wants Beermen’s pride to show after ‘disappointing’ blowout

MANILA, Philippines—There’s no two ways around it, San Miguel’s 121-88 loss to NorthPort in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup was downright embarrassing.

For a club of San Miguel’s caliber, 26 overall championships and fresh from winning its fifth straight Philippine Cup, a 33-point loss was just unacceptable.

Big man Charles Rhodes, who also played for the club in 2017, said the defeat was an insult to them and that they should immediately bounce back to leave the loss behind.

“It was just very disappointing, it’s my first game back and we get blown out like that,” said Rhodes Wednesday at Smart Araneta Coliseum. “It’s probably my worst loss ever as a pro, it has to be. It was just embarrassing just to see everybody not playing hard.”

“I think this is a slap in everybody’s face that we got to better in practice and in the game and just to be into it more.”

In the five years that Leo Austria coached the team, the Beermen went 2-4 in their corresponding conference openers after winning the championship in the previous one.

The Beermen had an average losing margin of eight points in the first three losses following a title, but the 33-point loss to the Batang Pier blew that stat line out of the water.

Rhodes, who finished with 27 points and 12 rebounds, said even though they lost in one horrendous way that there’s no need for them to panic.

“It’s just our first game, I don’t make excuses but they [the Batang Pier] they already played like four games and we didn’t have our legs, so there’s no need to panic,” said Rhodes.

“We have to do better than what we did. We got to have more pride, we’re the San Miguel Beermen so we got to be better than this.”