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Chooks-to-Go Pilipinas 3×3 President’s Cup Commissioner Eric Altamirano issued a stern warning to Chris Lalata of Bacolod for the incident that involved him and Juan Gómez de Liano de Nueva Écija in the first leg of the tournament last Wednesday.
In the group stage of the first leg, Rice Vanguards and Master Sardines featured in a heated battle that saw De Liano, the 20-year-old University of the Philippines superstar, land on Lalata’s right foot after landing a layup with 5: 15 left in the game.
The southpaw immediately fell to the ground, clutching his ankle and had to be helped to the bench by tournament officials. Finally, he was ruled out for the rest of the first leg and will also miss the second leg on Friday, October 23, 2020.
Altamirano met with De Liano and Lalata on Thursday to clear things up.
From the beginning, it was evident that Lalata felt bad about what happened.
“It was never my intention to hurt my opponent. I really apologize for what happened,” Lalata said during the meeting.
De Liano did not doubt that Lalata had intentions to hurt him, but he also questioned why the latter had to box him when he had already made the tray.
“I know Chris. He’s a good guy. We were teammates in the D-League. I just want to understand why he needed to box when the play was over,” de Liano said.
For his part, Altamirano agreed that Lalata appeared to be intruding on De Liano’s landing site.
“I understand that there was no intention but there is no doubt that you (Lalata) violated Juan’s (de Liano) landing site.
Altamirano then reminded Lalata that this would be her final warning and that a repeat of this incident will result in disciplinary sanctions. (JNP)
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