ANTIPOLO - Three weeks after being let go by NorthPort, veteran guard Paul Zamar was finally given clearance to play full-contact basketball.
“Nakapasa na ako sa hop test and cleared na ako,” said Zamar, who suffeted the ACL injury in the off-season last year.
With that, he’ll already be eligible to be signed by any interested teams pending the deadline for signing of free agents by noon of Monday, in time for the start of the PBA Philippine Cup playoffs on Wednesday.
READ Paul Zamar let go by Northport after recovering from ACL injury
Zamar's contract was no longer renewed by NorthPort when it expired last May at a time when he was in the final phase of his knee rehabilitation.
Also faced with the same case was Nick Demusis of Rain or Shine and Zamar’s NorthPort teammate Agem Miranda.
Demusis' contract was also not renewed by the Elasto Painters last month, as was the Batang Pier's Miranda, a rookie shooting guard out of Jose Rizal University.
TNT was the team that benefited from tapping talents from the free agency list as it dangled guards Almond Vosotros and Mike Nieto.
The 6-foot-2 Nieto was actually an unrestricted free agent with Converge, one of several players the team relegated to the UFAWR2RS list along with Pao Javillonar and Patrick Maadenberg.
Being included in the UFAWR2RS doesn’t mean players can already be tapped by interested teams.
Not your usual UFAs
The likes of veterans LA Tenorio, Jayson Castro, and Beau Belga were all placed in the unrestricted free agency list under a mutual agreement with their mother ballclubs that they won’t sign with any teams pursuing their services.
Other players in the UFAWR2RS list are the Blackwater duo of Kib Montalbo and Tyrus Hill, Ginebra’s Paul Garcia, and Jake Pascual of NLEX.
But if no team signs these players by noon of Monday, it's not the end of their PBA careers. As unrestricted free agents, these players can hook up with any club they wish to join by next season.
If they're still tied down to contracts, their new teams will only need to assume the terms of the contracts.
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