MYLES Powell said his willingness to play in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals was fueled by his desire to be with his teammates in a game they can't afford to lose.
The Dragons faced the possibility of playing without an import again in Game Six, when they decided to bring Powell back for the first time since November 23 when he hit 37 points in their victory against TNT to close the eliminations.
“Just being out there with my brothers and the will to win,” said Powell, when asked why he decided to play despite nursing a torn tendon in his left toe. “I know what we had to do. I know what I mean to the team. If I couldn’t bring that, I wouldn’t have stepped out on the floor.”
“Coach sacrificed for us and now, it’s my turn to sacrifice and that’s what I did out there.”
In his first game against Ginebra in front of 22,361 fans, mostly rooting for the Gin Kings, Powell scored a conference-low 29 points that proved enough to lead Bay Area to an 87-84 victory and send the series to a Game Seven on Sunday at the Philippine Arena.
“If we would have lost tonight, I want to be out there with my brothers. Win, lose, or draw, I want to be out there. I didn’t really know what I was going to do out there tonight. But coach said my spirit was there. I had my brothers’ back. I just put it in God’s hands and we came out on top,” said Powell.
Powell said he considers the Dragons as his family, and he hopes that their collective effort will lead to a victory in Game Seven at the Philippine Arena.
“We all know the job and the job is to go out there and win. We all want to win. We know what’s at stake. Ginebra is a great team. We know whatever we lacked, they are going to punch us. We stuck together.
"We have each other’s back. We break the huddle and say family. And family has each other’s backs. That’s what we are out there to try to do. The main goal was to win. And to get to Game Seven. And that’s what we did,” said Powell.