GUAM national men’s team player Mark Johnson, as well as members of the country's U17 squad were the special guests of Jericho Cruz during San Miguel’s PBA Philippine Cup game against Converge.
READ: Dirty finger? Jericho Cruz says it's a 'handshake' with Mo Tautuaa
Johnson and the young players were at ringside of the Ninoy Aquino Stadium, as they watched Cruz and the Beermen in action during Wednesday’s game which unfortunately SMB lost, 100-97.
It was the 34-year-old Cruz himself who invited Johnson and the Guam youth team to come over.
“Jericho told me he would take the boys to watch his game. It was a good experience,” said Johnson after Cruz introduced his teammate to SPIN.ph.
It as the second time the 6-foot-6 Johnson managed to watch a game in Asia’s first-ever play-for-pay league, although his first experience watching live came when he was still a kid.
“This is the first time I watched as an adult. But yeah, the first time since me and Jericho became teammates, so I was able to watch him play live,” he said.
“He played a good game,” said Johnson with a huge laugh.
Cruz finished with eight points, two rebounds, two assists, and two steals in San Miguel’s third loss in 10 outings.
He also found himself in a heated moment with FiberXers guard Alec Stockton and later, was caught flashing a dirty finger, which he claimed was actually a personal handshake he shares with teammate Mo Tautuaa, who was standing in front of him when he did the middle finger sign.
Guam youngsters get first taste of PBA action
For its part, it was the Guam U17 national team members' first time catching a PBA game in person.
“A lot of them, it's their first time as well, so it was good to get the boys out to watch the game because a lot of them haven’t seen a PBA game and they all had a great time,” said Johnson.
The Guam youth team is currently in the Philippines to play a series of tune-up games, as it prepares for the FIBA U17 Oceania Championship in December.
“These guys get to play a bunch of games against other Philippine teams,” said Johnson. “It’s like an international basketball tournament hosted by Kirk Long. They play against Faith Academy, United from Taiwan, and others. So it’s like an international friendship game.”
Long is the former Ateneo guard who won four UAAP men’s basketball championships with the Blue Eagles. He is currently teaching Physical Education at Faith Academy.
Johnson said the Guam U17 squad is using the friendlies as part of its tryouts.
“So we’re trying to evaluate them now and cut them to a manageable number of roster. We have 20 players right now of two teams, but eventually we’ll cut it down to one team of 12 players,” he said.
The December meet will be held in Samoa where Guam gets to play with the likes of Australia, New Zealand, and Papua New Guinea, among others.
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