DIAMOND Stone is set to suit up for San Miguel as Thomas Robinson is relegated to the injured/reserve list.
Stone will be eligible for the Beermen as they play against Blackwater to open their 2022-23 PBA Commissioner’s Cup campaign, according to the league’s website.
See Injured Newsome confident Meralco teammates can pick up the slack
San Miguel has yet to disclose the reason behind the change, as of posting time, but the move to send Robinson to the injured/reserve list meant that the Beermen can still reinstate him for the conference.
Drafted 40th overall by New Orleans in the 2016 draft, Stone played for the Los Angeles Clippers during the 2016-2017 season after playing for one season with Maryland in the NCAA.
He went on to suit up for different NBA G League teams afterwards in Windy City, Salt Lake City, and Rio Grande.
Diamond Stone with Allen Durham.
Stone also played briefly for Meralco but during its campaign in the Fiba Asia Champions Cup in 2018 in Thailand where he teamed up with Allen Durham.
The 25-year-old Stone last played for Taiwan Beer in the T1 league in Chinese Taipei where he led the league in scoring during the 2022 season.
The highly-touted Robinson will sit out, for the meantime, for the Beermen. The 31-year-old was drafted No. 5 in the 2012 draft by Sacramento and once played for the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Beermen begin a new conference after ruling the Philippine Cup last September, beating TNT in seven games.
San Miguel was the last to win the Commissioner's Cup in 2019 before the conference was temporarily scrapped for two seasons due to the pandemic.
Team manager Gee Abanilla later confirmed that Robinson is injured and is unable to play through the pain.
“Injured and not playable so we got Diamond Stone,” said Abanilla.
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