EASTERN coach Mensur Bajramovic tempered expectations that his team could be similar to the Bay Area Dragons, a team that took the league by storm in their participation in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup last year.
Eastern comes in as the second guest team in three seasons to compete in the Commissioner’s Cup after the high standard that was set by the Dragons during the 2022-23 season where they reached as far as Game Seven of the finals and lost to Barangay Ginebra.
While he is flattered with the expectations, Bajramovic said Eastern is still a work in progress as the team hasn’t played together as much as the Dragons before.
“We are happy to join the PBA. But actually, I saw some comments like we are Bay Area 2.0. We are not actually,” Bajramovic said.
“We are really a pure Hong Kong team with some additional power. For us, it means a lot. We have to adjust. This is our first experience for me and for the other players."
READ: Eastern marks PBA debut with convincing win over Phoenix
The biggest difference already for the two teams is the number of challenges they will have to overcome.
Unlike the Bay Area Dragons where they exclusively competed in the PBA during the Commissioner’s Cup, Eastern is playing in two other leagues in the East Asia Super League and its domestic league.
In fact, Eastern will fly back to Hong Kong right after its game against Converge on Friday to play a game in its domestic league.
“After the first two games, same night we fly back to Hong Kong to play a local game against a team that was finalist last season. Then, we come back same night again here. Then, we will have a lot of games here,” said Bajramovic.
Hayden Blankley, who played for that Bay Area team, said there is definitely a huge difference in terms of the talent, and sees the Eastern squad as similar to the PBA teams.
“It’s a very different team. As you guys know, the Bay Area team was blessed with some Mainland Chinese players that were all probably six and above, some seven-footers. This team, not so much," Blankley said.
“Whilst we still have a little bit of size advantage at some positions, it’s pretty comparable to the Philippines, so now it’s a lot more competitive on that end. The Filipino teams can definitely challenge us any night and not have to worry about us being just bigger or anything like that.
“And the experience level too, like the Bay Area team had a lot of CBA veterans, and I guess you could say that might be considered a higher level, and our team is mainly just Hong Kong locals who are used to playing within the Hong Kong league. So there’s that difference. Props to the guys, though,” said Blankley.
One thing is certain though is that Eastern will try to play a competitive match every game against the PBA teams.
“I think everyone’s ready for this kind of challenge. Some of (them, it’s) their first time playing outside. Besides the (EASL) game we’ve played so far in Japan, this is some of the guys’ first experience outside of Hong Kong and playing in different competitions. So props to them for being willing to learn and ready to adjust and stuff,” said Blankley.
With its first game in the bag, Eastern will now take on Converge on Friday where Bajramovic hopes to see improvements in their game.
“I hope we will be better each game. We had a good opponent in Phoenix, they fought well especially the big guy and Perkins made a lot of problems in the beginning. But we found a way,” said Bajramovic.
Get more of the latest sports news & updates on SPIN.ph
NOTICE ON UNAUTHORIZED AND UNLAWFUL USE, PUBLICATION, AND/OR DISSEMINATION OF SPIN.PH CONTENT: Please be notified that any unauthorized and unlawful use, publication, and/or dissemination of Spin.ph’s content and/or materials is a direct violation of its legal and exclusive rights to the same, and shall be subject to appropriate legal action/s.
