CHICAGO - Since his stint with San Miguel Beer in the 2022 Governors' Cup, Shabazz Muhammad had always yearned to return to the PBA.
""I really enjoyed my time here and think I definitely helped my stock and would love to bring back a championship if I do come back," Muhammad, the 14th overall pick of the 2013 NBA draft, told me via text message last March 2022 while he was on vacation, swimming and snorkeling on the island paradise disguised as Boracay.
READ Magnolia goes with Shabazz Muhammad in GR3's place for Panabo game
With his glittering NBA credentials - 278 games across six seasons - plus a penchant for 50-plus point games, many PBA teams have since drooled over draping him with their jersey.
There's just one problem.
"I can't. San Miguel won't release my rights," he told me last March.
HE'S BACK!!
Eighteen months later, the roadblock was opened and the dynamic 6-foot-6, 223-pound wing was tapped to reinforce Magnolia, the Beermen's sister team.
Shabazz told me on Friday night that he arrived in Manila the day before. He took a 22-hour flight from Venezuela where he played for the Trotamundos BBC which toils in the Venezuelan Super Liga.
He has yet to practice with the Hotshots who are set to duel with the Meralco Bolts in an out-of-town sortie in Panabo, Davao Del Norte tomorrow night.
Shabazz is a showman, with a boundless temerity to explode and please.
But this import change can be gleamed as perplexing, ill-timed.
STUNNING TWIST.
Coach Chito Victolero had grown fond of GR3 and the pair even went on a little R and R at Pico de Loro beach last month. Per multiple sources, this switch may not necessarily have been Victolero's decision.
I reached out to coach Chito. He has yet to respond.
With a 3-2 record, it seems that Magnolia's management, which had reportedly been long enamored with Shabazz, panicked.
It shouldn't have.
Robinson III, a blue-chip import with a big name and stout credentials that include 688 games played in the NBA through nine seasons, was already starting to get his footing in the PBA.
GR3 had just guided Magnolia to a two-game winning streak. And he was impeccable through five games by averaging 24.2 points, 11 rebounds and 2.6 assists while shooting 50. percent from the field and 43.7 percent from 3.
Desperate measure
But then again, desperate times demand desperate measures.
The Hotshots haven't won a title since 2018. The pressure is on. Magnolia is hoping, praying that Muhammad is their savior.
It could turn out to be a genius move.
But the danger of it ending up like a pie in the face also looms.
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