IMPORT Bol Bol gets his initial test with TNT as the Tropang 5G holds a four-day training camp at the Inspire Sports Academy beginning on Wednesday in preparation for their defense of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup championship.
Team manager Jojo Lastimosa said the closed-door training hopes to help the 7-foot-3 former NBA player get back in shape, get comfortable in the team’s system, and get to know more about his new teammates and coaches.
One of the PBA’s 50 Greatest Players again admitted the son of the late NBA star Manute Bol is not yet in playing shape, hoping the camp would serve as the launch pad for him to regain top form.
COLUMN: Can Bol Bol save the PBA?
“I still have to see him in kind of at least full strength because he’s not in shape yet,” said Lastimosa on Wednesday at the MVP Olympics All-Star game at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
“So I want to see him how he does in the camp, how he understands the system and all that.”
Bol attended his first TNT practice on Monday where he got to meet the entire team at the Moro Lorenzo gym.
He was actually at ringside of the MVP Olympics All Star game watching beside team owner Manny V. Pangilinan and PBA chairman Ricky Vargas as Lastimosa coached the Blue Team to a thrilling 60-59 win over White (coached by Luigi Trillo).
Behind his NBA pedigree of playing for the Denver Nuggets, Orlando Magic, and Phoenix Suns, the presence of the 26-year-old Bol has made TNT the odds-on favorite to retain title it won last year behind another ex-NBA player in Rondae Hollis-Jefferson.
Lastimosa though is tempering expectations this early.
“It remains to be seen,” said the TNT team manager and former coach. “But I’m hopeful because he’s got experience and we know he got skills.”
The Tropang 5G will break camp by Saturday.
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