JOJO Lastimosa described him as ‘hyper.’
But truth be told, Serbian consultant Slavoljub Lale Gorunivoc has been a huge help working on developing the players and designing defensive schemes for TNT in the PBA Governors' Cup.
“In fairness, he works hard in practice. He works with the players. He holds skills works with them,” said Lastimosa after the Tropang Giga notched a third straight win by routing Terrafirma, 131-109, on Saturday at the Mall of Asia Arena.
READ: TNT bursts Terrafirma bubble
"May sets siyang binibigay sa amin tapos yung 1-3-1 defense namin tinuturo niya sa amin kasi pamilyar siya sa European kind of defense. So malaking bagay siya sa amin," added the interim TNT coach.
Lastimosa has nothing but respect for the basketball knowledge of the 52-year-old Serbian, who previously handled the Kaohsiung Steelers in the Taiwan P.League+.
It’s just that Lastimosa and the rest of his coaching staff had to calm him down on the bench from time to time because of his hyperactive nature.
He was even once called for a technical foul in TNT’s game against Magnolia due to incessant complaining.
“Sobrang hyper yan si Lale. Grabe,” said Lastimosa in between laughs. “Minsan nga tsinu-tune out ko na nga siya, e. Sobrang hyper, pinapawisan lagi, may tuwalya siya palagi (na dala).”
Gorunivoc also imparts a lot of basketball information which Lastimosa said the TNT coaching staff are already familiar with.
“Marami rin siyang alam. But sometimes lang, eventually he will realize that sometimes he has to temper yung sarili niya because minsan ang dami niyang sinasabi na alam na rin namin,” according to the 58-year-old coach.
“So pinapabayaan lang namin. But eventually he will realize it,” added Lastimosa. “But he’s a good guy.”
TNT improved to a 5-1 record following its 22-point blowout of the Dyip.
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