EVEN miles away from the Tokyo Olympics, Jordan Clarkson will still have his own official Team Philippines souvenir pin.
The giveaway was courtesy of boxing sports psychology Marcus Jarwin Manalo and will be delivered personally by no other than Clarkson’s Utah Jazz teammate Rudy Gobert.
The arrangements were made on the penultimate day of the Tokyo Olympics and under the most unexpected circumstances.
Manalo, who acts as team leader of the Association of Boxing Alliances of the Philippines (ABAP), accidentally bumped into the French trio of Gobert, Evan Fournier, and Nicolas Batum at the Athletes Village and lost no time to have a quick chat with them, and of course, not letting the chance to go by without having a photo with them.
But upon learning Manalo was a Filipino, Gobert asked him a favor.
“Nakita kasi ni Gobert na from the Philippines ako,” Manalo related to SPIN.ph on Sunday. “He asked me for a pin and told me that he will give it to his teammate Jordan Clarkson.”
Clarkson, whose maternal side is from Pampanga and once donned the Gilas Pilipinas colors, and Gobert have been teammates with Utah for the past three seasons.
Without hesitation, Manalo gave his Team Philippine pin to Gobert despite it being the last one he had in his keepsake.
“Personal pin ko sana kasi last one, kaya lang nahingi, eh. Pero no problem naman,” eh said with a laugh.
The Philippine boxing team is sending this pin to Jordan Clarkson.
Manalo said Gobert didn’t give him in return a souvenir pin from Team France.
“Walang binigay sa akin,” he added laughing.
The photo op however, was good enough of a memento especially after it was taken following France clinching the silver medal in men’s basketball behind Team USA, which bagged the gold behind an 87-82 win.
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