Newest Alab Pilipinas player Jeremiah Gray. Photo by Bong Lozada
MANILA, Philippines—Jeremiah Gray has had an interesting basketball journey so far and this wild ride has brought him to San Miguel Alab Pilipinas in the ASEAN Basketball League.
A once would-be Ateneo recruit, Gray went back to the United States and became an offensive force for NCAA Division II school Dominican University of California, averaging 17.9 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 1.5 assists in his junior and senior years.
Gray, who broke the school’s single-season scoring record with 509 points, eventually found his way to Mighty Sports and less than a year later to Alab Pilipinas in the 10th season of the ABL.
Aware of Alab’s talent vacuum with the absence of three-time Local MVP Bobby Ray Parks, who is now with Blackwater in the PBA, Gray said he’d bring his usual energy but promised that he would be his own man.
“Knowing Ray was a good player, he was a three-time Local MVP, it means that a lot of people are looking for me to replace him,” said Gray during the league’s press launch Thursday at Conrad Manila.
“But like I’ve always said, I’m just trying to make a name for myself and play my own game and be Jeremiah Gray.”
Gray, though, has one goal in mind that Parks had already achieved, and that’s to become the Local MVP.
“Of course, that’s my goal,” said Gray about the MVP query. “But whatever I could do to help my team, then that comes first.”
Gray is joining an Alab team that has yet to fill in its roster spots but he will be playing with Jason Brickman, whom he had played with in his Mighty for 2019 William Jones Cup.
“Of course with Jason things will get easier but we still have to come in and practice every day to get that chemistry just right,” said Gray. “It takes five players to win and it takes a whole team to win a championship.”
Guiding the yet to be completed team is head coach Jimmy Alapag, who has already won the ABL title in 2018 and has gained valuable experience as an assistant coach with San Miguel and the Sacramento Kings in the NBA Summer League.
Gray said he’s “excited to play” for Alapag and learn from one of the greatest point guards in PBA history.
“I know he has a lot of experience with basketball, he’s one of the best, if not the best, point guard from the Philippines,” said Gray. “I’m excited to learn from him and he’s a very experienced person.”