By REYNALD MAGALLON
The Instagram accounts of Magnolia players got swarmed with death threats from a dummy account which claimed that he had lost a huge sum of money due after betting on the game which the Hotshots lost against the NLEX Road Warriors on Friday, June 6.
The comments were made on the accounts of Ian Sangalang, Paul Lee and William Navarro shortly after Magnolia’s 107-99 loss to NLEX in the battle of the top teams in the PBA Season 49 Philippine Cup.
The Hotshots management acted swiftly and made the securities aware of the threats. Security personnel then escorted the three players on the way out of the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
Sangalang was actually the second leading scorer for Magnolia with 21 points while Paul Lee added 16 built on three four-pointers. Navarro, who was only playing his second game for the Hotshots, had two points.
It wasn’t the first time however that a player received threats from the fans after a game as it also happened to RJ Abarrientos after another dummy account blamed him for Ginebra’s quarterfinals loss to Meralco last conference.
The dummy account, which said it lost P400,000 to a bet, threatened to do harm against the Ginebra guard and his wife.
The PBA sought help from the National Bureau of Investigations regarding the matter but the league nor the NBI did not bear the result of the investigation.
