Taming the Beast – Manila Bulletin

The Beast, as Phoenix Fuel Masters forward Calvin Abueva is known in the PBA, is by all accounts now a transformed creature: without fangs, nails, and horns.

Abueva has reportedly completed all of the jobs that the PBA had entrusted to him since he was put on an indefinite suspension like a yoke, attended seminars on anger management and good behavior, and spent long hours in community service.

He apologized for his misdeeds and vowed never to deviate from straight and narrow, met with Commissioner Willie Marcial and officials from the Board of Games and Amusement, and underwent his COVID-19 and drug tests before and after join the Clark Freeport PBA. bubble at Quest Hotel in Pampanga.

If the GAB returned his license to him and the PBA decided to reinstate him, Abueva would take the court practically in a muzzle, to dissuade him from uttering something obscene in the future, and forced, to prevent him from hanging another clothesline.

Of course, there would be no rival fans for him to rage. The pandemic took care of that.

But they would surely watch him closely, his every move examined, all his faults analyzed to determine his intention.

In fact, it would probably be a poster for the Sportsmanship Award at the end of the compact 45 season rather than a candidate for Defensive Player of the Year: Dennis Rodman with the tattoos and even dyed hair, but less of the enthusiasm. attitude.

It would be clean, but would it still be bad? And of any use to Fuel Masters like Mr. Nice Guy?

Abueva’s new coach thinks so.

“Calvin will always be Calvin, whatever happens,” Topex Robinson tells the Manila Bulletin.

“And I’m excited to see his growth after everything that has happened to him.”

Robinson, who was asked to intervene after former coach Louie Alas was fired last September, would be crucial in cultivating that growth.

He’s already started, accompanying Abueva to the GAB office and traveling with him to Clark, with proof of the trip on Instagram with the caption “Northbound” over his photo.

Abueva won’t be alone when he returns, Robinson says.

“What we can do as a team is support him and remind him of who he is and what he stands for,” he says.

“We want to let him know that we are here for him. I think our basic human need is to belong, to have that sense of belonging ”.

Would giving that sense of kinship imply making sure Abueva doesn’t get into trouble?

“Calvin knows I’m not here to fix it, but to be with him,” says Robinson. “I hope that makes sense.”

It does. And for his sake, the new Beast is expected to get it too.