FRANKIE Lim is set for a homecoming of sorts with the MVP Group.
The former PBA player and college champion coach will be introduced as the next head coach of NLEX, according to team insiders.
ABS-CBN News was the first to break the story.
Lim, 62, takes over the coaching reins left by former mentor Yeng Guiao.
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Text messages left to the Road Warriors have not been responded to as of posting time, but SPIN.ph learned the entire team has a scheduled dinner with top NLEX bosses on Thursday before their PBA Commissioner’s Cup debut on Friday against Rain or Shine.
This marks the return of Lim to the MVP Group, where he once served as Mobiline assistant coach, and later on, as team manager.
He was also coach of the San Beda Red Lions, a team backed by Manny V. Pangilinan which Lim steered to four NCAA championships from 2007 to 2011.
Lim likewise once stood as team manager of the Smart Gilas Pilipinas team.
But given the close proximity of the Road Warriors’ first game and the official appointment of Lim as head coach, interim mentor Adonis Tierra will likely call the shots for the team against Rain or Shine.
The former Purefoods, Tanduay and Alaska player left the MVP Group in 2012 in an offshoot to his involvement in the infamous brawl with the San Sebastian volleyball team and the San Beda Red Lions.
From there, Lim became assistant coach of Barangay Ginebra and then assumed the head coaching job during the 2015 Governors Cup as he replaced Ato Agustin.
It was a brief stint at the top for Lim though, as he failed to steer the Kings past the quarterfinals despite a loaded roster that include former NBA player Orlando Johnson as import.
Lim was also fined P50,000 and suspended for one game for physically contacting Calvin Abueva, then still with Alaska, during a quarterfinals match between the Kings and Aces.
Current Ginebra coach Tim Cone eventually replaced Lim prior to the start of the 2015-16 season.
In 2018, he returned to college coaching via the University of Perpetual Help Altas, steering the school to the Final Four in his maiden season, but bombed out the following year.
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lim left the school after Perpetual decided to deactivate its athletic program.
Only recently, he was rumored to be in the list of possible replacements for Boyet Fernandez as head coach of San Beda along with Aldin Ayo and Yuri Escueta.
Apparently, some Red Lions boosters still haven't gotten over his role in the San Sebastian-San Beda brawl almost a decade ago, the coaching job eventually going to Escueta.
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