CADE Flores embraced the role of the villain in NorthPort’s match against Barangay Ginebra when he was booed by the Gin Kings fans during Wednesday’s showdown.
The NorthPort sophomore got jeers from Ginebra fans every time he touched the ball after he blocked a shot by Japeth Aguilar in the second quarter.
Initially, Flores said he had no idea why he was booed by the crowd.
READ: NorthPort stands ground in thriller, ends losing streak vs Ginebra
“I’m asking my teammates. I have no idea,” said Flores.
“I’m a highly-energized player and I like to talk a lot of smack. So I don’t know. But I think it happened after the play where I blocked Japeth and I started saying something like ‘Get out of here’ and the crowd hated me after that.”
Flores said he didn’t mind the reaction, and actually loved the fact that it drew attention from the good-sized audience at the Philsports Arena in what was the biggest crowd the Batang Pier were involved in this conference.
“But I love it. The energy, it was like I giggled out of it. We haven’t had a crowd like that in a while, in like forever. That was actually great,” said Flores.
Flores’ energy led to him finishing with a conference-high nine points, also playing a vital role for NorthPort outside of its stars Kadeem Jack, Arvin Tolentino, and Joshua Munzon.
He also had three rebounds, one steal, and that lone block to Aguilar to contribute to NorthPort’s 119-116 win over Barangay Ginebra, staying on top of the standings with a 7-1 win-loss record.
READ: NorthPort hopes win vs Ginebra will banish 'farm team' perception
Flores is starting to regain his minutes with the Batang Pier after a three-game stretch where he only played a total of 10 minutes. Prior to the Ginebra game, Flores saw action for 11 minutes against Eastern and had four points and five rebounds, three of which on the offensive variety.
“Coach is giving me a little bit of leniency on the court,” said the former NCAA Rookie of the Year.
“He is giving me a tremendous boost in my confidence as well as the extra training, trying to be better," he added.
“I don't want to waste the opportunity to play on the court so whenever I’m subbed on, I'm going to play as hard as I can as you can tell from today."
When he was not on the court, Flores was engaged in the game cheering on his teammates from the bench in their landmark win, their first against Barangay Ginebra in 14 games.
Flores said they were pumped up by what NorthPort coach Bonnie Tan said about the Batang Pier’s history of not winning against Barangay Ginebra in five years.
“That’s crazy. It was energetic. Our bench was going crazy every time. It’s crazy. That was a good game for us, honestly. Coach has given us like boosting our energy, saying that we haven’t beaten them in like… 14 games, we haven’t won. He said that before the game. [We were like], we got you, coach, we are going to win,” said Flores.
“It was close. We lost an 18-point lead. But we won."
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