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    Justin Chua admits this trade by San Mig the hardest to take

    Post-draft trade effectively cost Chua a PBA grand slam
    Dec 19, 2022
    Justin Chua Ian Sangalang San Mig Super Coffee
    Justin Chua was San Mig Super Coffee's second first-round pick in 2013 after No. 2 overall Ian Sangalang.
    PHOTO: PBA Images

    IT’S nothing new or shocking for a PBA journeyman to get traded.

    But for sure, it’s hard to forget your first – especially if you’re a rookie who has yet to even meet your team in practice.

    Asked on SPIN Zoom In’s Fast Take segment about which trade he took the hardest, Justin Chua readily answered his first-ever trade.

    Justin Chua on toughest trade

    “Yung first na first na trade ko. Yung tinrade ako ni coach Tim after drafting day,” Chua admitted, referring to Tim Cone, who took him for San Mig Super Coffee as the 10th overall in the 2013 PBA Draft.

    After all, just two days after the Coffee Mixers chose him, Chua saw himself get shipped to GlobalPort along with Leo Najorda for the rights to the Batang Pier’s first-round pick that year in Isaac Holstein.

    “Parang he wanted me tapos dinraft niya ako tapos parang after two days, tinrade niya ako. So ako, parang, ‘What?’” Chua recounted.

    “Yung matindi dun, hindi pa ako nagpa-practice nun,” he added. “Kasi Sunday draft tapos Wednesday practice, tapos Tuesday, tinrade na ako. Parang ako, ‘Kala ko ba dito ako maglalaro?’ Parang anong nangyari?’”

    As a result, Chua missed out on the chance to be a member of San Mig’s 2013-14 grand slam team as GlobalPort settled as a middle-of-the pack team.

    Chua, though, insisted he quickly moved on from that early heartbreak.

    “Pero after nun, wala na. Okay na ako.” Chua said as he got his own taste of team success when he joined San Miguel a year later on the way to ruling the 2014 Philippine Cup.

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      Chua didn’t mind the constant change of addresses as he searched for personal glory. He would get traded to Barako Bull, Meralco, and TNT, before he finally found a home in Phoenix, breaking out in his third year with the Fuel Masters in 2020, before getting traded again to his current team in NLEX.

      “It kinda crossed my mind to keep switching teams ‘til I get a chance to really play during those times,” Chua said of his journeyman years. “Kasi I felt, personally, everywhere I would go, competitive kasi ako eh. Alam kong kaya ko sila sabayan. But under circumstances, hindi lang talaga ako nabibigyan ng chance, so it’s out of my control."

      “But one thing about me is, in practice, I’ll show everyone na I can compete, or if I’m not better than you, I can compete against you kung sino man ka-position ko. I guess that’s one thing also that’s kept me afloat all throughout these years, kasi alam kong kaya kong sabayan lahat ng nakakasabay ko.”

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      Justin Chua was San Mig Super Coffee's second first-round pick in 2013 after No. 2 overall Ian Sangalang.
      PHOTO: PBA Images
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