SAN Miguel Corp. director for sports Noli Eala on Monday immediately doused speculations of a trade that would send Barangay Ginebra's Mike Cortez to Air21 Express, saying the Kings may be struggling at the moment "pero hindi pa naman kapit sa patalim."
Eala took to Twitter as he reacted to reports that Cortez is headed to Air21 to reunite with college coach Franz Pumaren under a proposed three-team trade that may also involve Ginebra's sister team Petron.
"When there's smoke ... there's a rumor mill that's overheating. Time to douse it with water," the SMC official tweeted on his account @NoliEala.
Air21 official Lito Alvarez is apparently the one pushing for the trade, which, according to the reports, may see Petron guard Denok Miranda go to Ginebra and Express big men Yousef Taha or James Sena, or both, joining the Boosters to beef up the Petron frontline the absence of injured big men June Mar Fajardo and Danny Ildefonso.
Sought for comment by Spin.ph, Eala was cool to the trade proposal.
"Ginebra and Petron may be in a bit of a bind right now, but di naman kapit sa patalim," said the former PBA commissioner.
"I won't deny, however, that we are studying all our options with our coaches. So any decision on our teams won't be knee-jerk," he added.
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