By Jesus A. Garcia Jr.

 

UNKNOWN to many but known to diehard basketball enthusiasts (like me), this beloved province of ours has produced a professional basketball player from Urdaneta City and a potential superstar cager, as many say. But unfortunately, instead of playing in the PBA like what all his province mates did, he preferred to play professionally abroad – the Korean Basketball League {KBL), obviously for better pay. “Money talks,’ as the axiom says.

His name is Rhenz Mamuyac Abando from Barangay Bactad East, Urdaneta City, a city mate of current PBA players Marlon Magat and Dave Ildefonso. I first saw how the six-foot-two guard-forward Abando played basketball during his two-year stint in the annual “Governor Espino’s Cup Pangasinan Inter-Town/City Basketball Tournament before the COVID-19 pandemic.  He represented Urdaneta City twice under the tutorship of Christensen Cervas and the best Urdaneta City could do was to land third in 2017 with Abando at the helm. (The Urdaneta quintet eventually won the annual tournament organized then by former Gov. Amado “Pogi” Espino in 2019 under the mentorship of Rizaldy Garcia). Obviously  looking for a better future in basketball, he moved to Manila and studied at Letran College where he was given free scholarship to join the school’s Letran Knights basketball team.

Because of his sterling performance with the Knights, his alma matter won this year’s the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Season 97 crown by beating Mapua. That propelled him to be cited as the tournament’s Most Valuable Player (MVP), Best Rookie of the Year (RoY) and automatically selected as member of the Mythical Five.

The high-flyer cager Abando ended his collegiate basketball stints after his engagements with the Philippine College of Science and Technology-Pangasinan in 2017, University of Santo Tomas in 2019 and lastly, the two-time champion Letran 2022.  He earned a more than P13 million pay per annum from Anyang Korean Ginseng Corporation last July 28 in the Korean Basketball League {KBL). Naturally, he didn’t think twice to the lucrative offer like what his country mates SJ Belangel, RJ Abarriebtos, Will Navarro and Justin Gutang, to name some, did.

Reports say, Abando is currently the highest paid player among imports in the KBL. The five (so far), could not wait for an offer from the Filipino professional league PBA perhaps because of the many stalwarts eager to play in the PBA.

Sadly, Korean debut of Abando, was a disappointment. He scored only a two-point dunk shot, one rebound, one assist, one steal and a block after playing 15 minutes, and his team KGC lost badly to Changwon LG Sakers, 89-69. But his second stint was impressive – scored 19 points, 3 rebounds, one assist, one steal and one block in 17 minutes of play to pull his KGC team to a lopsided victory against Korea Armed Forces Athletic Corporations, 90-73.

Reports also say that Abando was also selected as one of the members of “Gilas Pilipinas” to represent our country in the coming Southeast Asia and Asian Games.  Like the other Pangasinenses in the professional league, Abando is one we can also be proud of.

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QUOTE OF THE WEEK: “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” JOHN 3: 36

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