Jamie Malonzo may have lost the brawl, but at least he won the support of the Philippine Basketball Association and the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas.
PBA commissioner Willie Marcial yesterday said there will be no sanctions on Malonzo, who was seen brawling with a shorter man in a video that had gone viral shortly after Gilas Pilipinas’ 53-point massacre of Chinese Taipei in the first window of the FIBA Asia Cup.
Marcial said the Barangay Ginebra swingman already reached out to him to apologize, saying that the brawl that was said to have happened at a restaurant in Taguig City was a result of a mere “miscommunication.”
The PBA chief added that Malonzo sat out the game against Chinese Taipei on Sunday night not because of the brawl, but because of a gastroenteritis and Covid-19. He tested positive again for Covid-19 on Sunday, a few hours before facing the Taiwanese.
He didn’t delve into detail about the incident that took social media by storm after the 6-foot-5 Malonzo was floored by a flurry of punches from a man way smaller than him. A lady, however, intervened and pulled the attacker away from an obviously beaten Malonzo.
“It was a ‘miscommunication’ and it didn’t go well. So I apologized to you Comm, the PBA, to the Ginebra fans, SBP and Gilas,” Marcial quoted Malonzo as saying.
“I didn’t ask anything other than that.”
Malonzo had an impressive performance in his first game under full-time Gilas coach Tim Cone.
Against Hong Kong, the Filipino-American swingman from De La Salle University fired 11 points to help Gilas Pilipinas pull off a 94-64 win at the Tsuen Wan Stadium in Hong Kong.
But he didn’t sustain his impressive performance as he sat out the game against Chinese Taipei.
SBP executive director Erika Dy added that they will not impose any sanction on Malonzo.
After all, the brawl happened during his personal time and it didn’t affect his commitment to represent the country in major international events, including the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Latvia in July and the FIBA Asia Cup next year.
“We will have no sanction here as it happened during his personal time,” said Dy in a message to Daily Tribune on Monday.
“As far as we’re concerned, it did not affect his commitment to play for the team. He was ruled out due to being Covid positive and we did not learn about the incident until last night.”
Prior to the SBP statement, Gilas Pilipinas coach Tim Cone asserted that he was forced to play with an 11-man roster because Malonzo was “sick.”
“He’s sick. It’s a medical thing so I don’t want to talk too much about it,” said Cone, who also coaches Malonzo at Ginebra.
“Actually, he and Justin (Brownlee) were both sick coming home from Hong Kong and we were really afraid that neither of them would play but Justin bounced back. Jamie, we had to contemplate and bring him to the hospital. He’s down and out.”
Cone added that Malonzo was severely dehydrated from their Hong Kong trip, prompting the federation to send a doctor to check on him.
“We sent our doctors to him but I think some guys just got severely dehydrated on the trip. We did miss him tonight, he was supposed to be part of the rotation.”
