ASI Taulava has actually gone full circle with Yeng Guiao in his stint with the NLEX Road Warriors in the PBA.
Before he joined the PBA as a direct-hire of Mobiline in 1999, Taulava launched his career in the Philippines by playing for Blu Detergent in the Philippine Basketball League (PBL) VisMin Cup, a pocket tournament outside its usual regular conferences.
“It’s crazy when we go back to 97, 98 when I was an amateur. And guess who was the PBL commissioner at that time?” Taulava told 2OT.
It was Guiao, who in between his coaching stints in the PBA served as the PBL’s top honcho from 1997 to 1999.
Fast forward to 2020 and Taulava will retire with NLEX under Guiao, who became the coach of the Road Warriors in 2016 with Taulava already in the team.

Taulava said he has a lot of reasons to be grateful to Guiao, not only for giving him the opportunity to play aged 47 but also for helping kick-start his career.
“I’ve been around with coach Yeng so long, like over 20 years. He was the commissioner at that time. He had a lot to do with it. His innovation, the way he projected, and what he want for the PBL to be played in the provinces and not just sitting at the Makati Coliseum. Everytime we had tournaments, he will move it out to the provinces,” said Taulava.
Under Guiao’s tutelage, the PBL gained more popularity as he gave the league a permanent home at the Makati Coliseum and broadcast tie-up with Vintage Sports later in his stint as commissioner.
Taulava said because of Guiao’s efforts in the PBL, the league created a lot of buzz not just for him but for other players ahead of their entry in the PBA draft.
“That’s where we started picking up our following. Next thing you know, the PBA and the media started picking up on it and we got a lot more attention. It helped us,” said Taulava.
“Coach Yeng did a great job marketing us in the amateurs and they gave us the opportunity to become the persons that we are today,” said Taulava.
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