THE PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals rematch between San Miguel Beer and TNT KaTropa lived up to its billing with not just one but two commotions taking place in the heated affair which the Beermen won, 99-94, last Saturday.
First, it was Terrence Romeo and Marcio Lassiter, who committed a hard foul on the volatile Texters star that the latter didn’t like, leading to second motions, technical fouls, and eventually ejections late in the first half.
Then, early in the fourth quarter, Arwind Santos and Anthony Semerad got entangled after a rebound battle, resulting in elbows to each other’s heads before teammates managed to separate the two. They got thrown out as well.
How ironic that at the height of both commotions, Renaldo Balkman was nowhere near.
Particularly in the second one, the controversial SMB import was just sitting in one of MOA Arena’s courtside seats – with his legs casually crossed – while watching Santos and Semerad go at it.
This was the same Balkman who blew his top five years ago when he complained about officiating and surprisingly choked Petron teammate Santos in a game in the 2013 edition of the midseason tournament, leading to a lifetime ban that was lifted only last March.
Five years later, the once-temperamental former NBA player was a picture of calmness on the sidelines.
Former Petron coach and current SMB team manager Gee Abanilla attested to how the Puerto Rican combo forward has changed since then.
“Yes, definitely Renaldo has matured a lot,” Abanilla said on Monday. “And like any other player, time has a way of teaching you patience and wise decision making when confronted with a situation – something that most younger players have a hard time coping with and would usually act on instinctively.”
“I just want to be clear that even then, Renaldo was (and is) a good and genuine person, but definitely a competitive one,” he was quick to add. “He loves the sport and definitely loves playing here in the Philippines.”
“So we are just really glad of how he is handling himself to date and we look forward to building better memories with him,” Abanilla continued.

It remains to be seen how Balkman would react if he’s the one directly involved in a heated situation. Nevertheless, Lassiter believes his teammate is a changed man.
“I think he was calm because it didn’t involve him directly. I can’t speak for him because I don’t know what he’s thinking. But I feel that he’s a different person from the time we played together at Petron,” Lassiter said.
Chris Ross added the Balkman is even the one who acts as pacifier.
“He is always the one telling us not to lose our cool and to just play the game and let our game do the talking,” Ross said. “Even if calls aren’t going our way, he encourages us to overcome all obstacles.”
So if time has molded Balkman into a more mature player, time will also tell how he behaves going forward when the going gets tougher in SMB’s title-retention bid.
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