THE Macau Giant Pandas are not coming back for future stints in the PBA.
Given the way the team competed in back-to-back conferences in Season 50, PBA commissioner Willie Marcial doesn’t see the team being invited again to see action as a guest team in Asia’s first ever play-for-pay league.
“Hindi na,” was Marcial’s curt reply about the prospectes of seeing the Macau-based guest team back again in the PBA next season or in the future.
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The Giant Pandas absorbed yet another huge beating on Tuesday night - a 142-87 thrashing at the hands of defending Governors' Cup champion TNT at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.
The 55-point winning margin was the biggest in TNT franchise history and Chot Reyes’ coaching career.
Macau was also at the wrong end of two of the three biggest losing margins in league history including the worst ever of 60 points which it absorbed just last week at the hands of NLEX, 138-78, at the resumption of the season-ending conference.
The Giant Pandas had lost their last three games in a week-long span by an average margin of 44.6 points.
For a while, TNT appeared ready to surpass the 60-point drubbing Macau suffered at the hands of NLEX as the reigning champions led by as many as 61 points (132-71) late in the fourth quarter.
But import Oscar Lopez spared the Giant Pandas from further embarrassment as he went on a late scoring charge to bring the deficit down to just 55 points.
Macau is the third guest team to be accommodated by the PBA in the last four seasons after the Bay Area Dragons and Hong Kong Eastern.
Of the three, it’s the only one which failed to advance to the playoffs despite seeing action in two straight conferences.
Marcial admitted the league had second thoughts accepting Macau as a guest team in the season-ending conference after limping to a 3-9 record in its maiden foray in the Commissioner’s Cup.
But after the Giant Pandas (then carrying the moniker Black Knights) won three of their last five outings, the league chief thought it best to give the team another chance.
The team likewise vowed to strengthen its roster for the final conference of the season in a bid to redeem itself following that disappointing stint.
Things didn’t change though.
Only the moniker changed. Macau's losing ways continued.
With Phoenix Shackelford no longer around, the late entry of gunner Jenning Leung, and a new import in De’Vondre Perry, the Giant Pandas had another slow start as they lost their first four outings by an average of 20.2 points.
A 106-103 setback to TNT was the closest loss the team absorbed.
After stringing back-to-back wins against Titan Ultra and Terrafirma, it was all downhill for Macau, losing its last five outings.
Worst, key players Damian Chongqui, Ramon Cao, Leung, and Perry all left the team middle of the conference and signed up with other Asian teams.
Head coach Marcus Elliot followed suit, and against TNT, also nowhere to be found on the Macau bench was Raymond Tiongco, who called the shots in the team's last two games.
Macau will have its final outing on Friday against Converge, and from there, it’s goodbye for the Giant Pandas in the PBA.
For good.
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