By REYNALD MAGALLON
Barangay Ginebra head coach Tim Cone admitted that it was hard to let go of Maverick Ahanmisi although the team needs to move on and work fast after granting a trade request for the apparent lack of playing time.
The multi-titled mentor said he truly understood where Ahanmisi is coming from and the Kings have no business in ‘hostaging’ players who don’t want to anymore play for the team.
“We don’t want hostages on our basketball team. We want volunteers and we are not holding anybody back if they want to move,” said Cone as Ginebra heeded to Ahanmisi’s request to get traded.
Ginebra, according to Cone, inquired at other teams to ship Ahanmisi and eventually settled with Terrafirma where the Kings sent the veteran playmaker along with Aljon Mariano for the Dyip’s 51st Season first round pick.
“It was a situation where a veteran player like Maverick. He is in the prime of his career and he wasn’t satisfied backing up Scottie and RJ so he requested a trade,” added Cone who also commended Ahanmisi for being professional all throughout the process.
“The best thing about Mav was he was so professional through the whole process so he’s an elite player, he has been everywhere he’s gone with Rain or Shine e or Converge or us he’s been an elite player and he will continue to be,” he added.
Ahanmisi, to be fair, remained at the sidelines in Ginebra’s 92-77 win over TNT to support his former team that traded him just hours ago.
As for Mariano, who seemed to have been dragged into the trade package, Cone said it was an opportunity for him to resuscitate his career after playing backup to Troy Rosario and Stephen Holt.
“Aljon has been incredibly loyal for so many years with us. It was hard to see him go but he wasn’t going to get the playing time here. This will give him the opportunity to get out and kind of resuscitate his career,” said Cone.
As much as the veteran mentor hated to see his players go, it was the nature of the business and Ginebra needed to move forward without them.
“We hated to see them both go but one wanted to go and one didn’t but that was just the business of the PBA,” he added.
