CHICAGO - In a blockbuster trade that sent league-wide tremors last May 28, the Converge FiberXers acquired the rights to Mikey Wiliams from TNT in exchange for Jordan Heading.
The bold, ambitious tango seemed like the perfect dance for both parties.
Williams, a two-time PBA champion and two-time Finals MVP, needed a new team to call home after enduring a bitter 25-month contractual dispute with the Tropang 5G. Converge, on the other hand, is hungry for an incandescent star.
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But on the heels of our June 5 reporting that the 6-foot-2 sharpshooter has signed a Uniformed Players Contract (UPC) with Converge, it now appears that a union between the two parties will end the way it began: Just a dream.
A source with knowledge of the talks told me on Thursday night "it is more likely that he is not playing with Converge" and that "nobody is in contact with Mikey."
The absence of an open line of communication had similarly plagued the Williams-TNT ordeal, which is ironic given that the telecommunications giant generates a stream of revenue from consumers talking and texting.
MONEY - WHAT ELSE - IS APPARENTLY THE DEAL-BREAKER.
"He's asking for too much," a separate source told SPIN.ph while throwing around the princely sum of $30,000 a month.
While Converge doesn't necessarily begrudge Mikey for determining his market value, the FiberXers felt that the price is simply too steep given that the No.4 overall pick of the 2020 Draft has been away from the PBA for two years and looked spectacularly average in a brief foray with the Strong Group Athletics (SGA) during a Dubai pocket tournament last January.
There are also concerns about Mikey's basketball game shape and conditioning and the fact that he will turn 34 years old this October.
As of posting time, Mikey Williams has yet to respond to a text message I sent him.
But his camp told me that the asking price was only around $28k a month or roughly P1.5 million in the current dollar-to-peso exchange rate.
HIGHEST PAID.
Still, that kind of salary scale belongs up there in the rarified air where perhaps only June Mar Fajardo breathes.
Free enterprise has a facility that allows athletes to assign a value they think is fair compensation and Mikey shouldn't be crucified for requesting it.
By the same token, the distinction between the two stars cannot be overlooked.
The 6-foot-11, 268-lb. Fajardo is an 8-time league MVP and 10-time PBA champion. He is also a devoted Gilas Pilipinas soldier who is universally-loved by Pinoy hoops fans and an ambassador who has represented San Miguel in the best possible light.
The FiberXers squad was supposed to be Mikey's team of last resort, an independent outfit eager to give him a second chance.
Sadly, instead, Converge only looks like another bridge the mercurial point guard has burned in the PBA.
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