NAME any type of altercation, and the court has seen it all.
Just few meters away from it, though, a different story was unfolding on Wednesday.
As La Salle captain Mike Phillips emerged from the dugout on one side of the Mall of Asia Arena, he instinctively raised a hand to greet Adamson coach Nash Racela, who was in the middle of an interview - seemingly a simple, friendly goodbye gesture.
What Phillips didn’t know was that moments earlier, Racela had just finished telling the media about a certain in-game exchange the latter believed happened between them.
READ: This is what got Racela's motor overheated in testy Adamson-La Salle tiff
The good-natured Green Archers big was quick to refute the claim.
“I can say with all honesty, I never said that,” he said. “‘Tumahimik ka muna, coach?’ I wouldn’t say that to someone I respect like coach Nash. I wouldn’t even say that to my own coach. I’m sure that’s just a spur-of-the-moment thing.”
Insiders within the Soaring Falcons camp, however, backed up their shot-caller's claim, adding that the words had a tinge of an accent in them. Phillips is well-known to be fluent in Tagalog.
What the La Salle skipper did admit, however, was that he has to manage a certain emotion once on-court action gets a lot more physical.
“It wasn’t really anything, the exchange with coach Racela,” he explained, as to why he approached the commotion in the first place. “I just had sort of a flashback any time a player falls down. There’s no harm.”
Nothing but nice words from Mike to Nash
Phillips then doubled down that his respect for Racela keeps him mindful.
“I have a lot of respect for him and how they played today as well,” he added.
'Motor Mike,' though, also has to accept the truth that there are always two sides to any story.
“Every story has two sides of the coin. Nothing malicious against him,” he continued.
“I didn’t really hear anything from the crowd. What I only saw was how our player was on the ground, with him saying, ‘Hindi ako makahinga.’ So I was really worried about him and had flashbacks to when Kean [Baclaan] and Mason [Amos] fell and were on the ground. I just tried to be there for him and clear the area.”
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