Pacquiao goes full throttle in basketball push

MANILA, Philippines — Boxing legend Manny Pacquiao is nowadays focused instead on the sport he first fell in love with — basketball.

And there’s no stopping the retired Pacquiao — who in 2017 founded the Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL) that is going strong to this day — from growing his basketball brands.

He now also runs a junior version of the MPBL and a women’s league, the ongoing 14-team WMPBL.

In a gathering on Sunday with MPBL officials and team owners in preparation for the league’s 7th Season, Pacquiao bared his grand plan to sports editors, which is to keep cultivating the sport starting at the grassroots level.

“Yung plano ko talaga is nationwide, inter-barangay para lahat ng grassroots level (talents) ma-discover natin, mabigyan ng chance. By stage sila, from barangay to Junior MPBL, then from Junior MPBL to MPBL,” the former eight-division world champion said during a short speech at the Milky Way Cafe in Makati City.

The 46-year-old Pacquiao stressed he will remain a basketball guy, recalling it was the first sport he took up before he being lured into boxing.

“Passionate lang talaga ako sa basketball — yan talaga ang una kong hilig before boxing,” he said.

Pacquiao blamed it on the omnipresent basketball court.

“Bakit basketball? Before ako naging boxingero, sa bahay namin, yung sa tinitirhan namin, may basketball court kaagad paglabas, tabi ng bahay ba. So nung bata pa kami, namulat na sa basketball,” he added.

But with the need to earn at a young age, the lure of prizefighting was ultimately too hard to resist for Pacquiao.

“Kaya lang noon time na yun sa GenSan, mayroon Sunday boxing. Eh may premyo, siyempre kailangan na ng pera pambili ng pagkain. Kaya ko naisipan magparticipate sa Sunday boxing, kaya napasok ako sa boxing,” he continued.

Now, it’s safe to say Pacquiao has left the boxing limelight to go full throttle on hoops. The MPBL’s 7th Season is set tip off in March with more than 20 teams led by defending champion Pampanga.

The Philippines’ greatest boxer, who’s also trying to reclaim a Senate seat in this year’s midterm elections, has so far resisted the urge to fight once more. In June, he will head to Canastota, New York for his induction into the Boxing Hall of Fame.

For Pacquiao, now that boxing is on his rearview mirror, it’s time to rekindle his passion for hoops.

“First (love), basketball talaga,” he said.