Blackwater taps new import in King

MANILA, Philippines — Winless Blackwater tries to move on from its import woes and early struggles in the PBA Season 49 Governors’ Cup with former NBA player George King taking over the job from here.

King, who was picked 59th overall by the Phoenix Suns in the 2018 NBA Draft, is expected to arrive by Wednesday ahead of the 0-3 Bossing’s next assignment against Barangay Ginebra on Friday.

The Bossing played all-Filipino in their 108-128 blowout loss to San Miguel Beer Sunday night after sending home the ineffective Ricky Ledo, who is apparently bothered by an ankle injury.

After an impressive performance in the pre-season, Ledo was a letdown in the actual hostilities, averaging a lowly 9.0 points on a combined 6-of-28 field goal shooting in two games as Blackwater got beat by Rain or Shine, 97-110, and NLEX, 87-104.

The Bossing initially sought to bring in Cameron Clark but the former NLEX and SMB import pulled out yesterday due to a family emergency.

Enter the 6-foot-6 King, who last played for the Ironi Ness Ziona in the Israeli Premier League.

“It was a really tough week. A long and hard week. A lot of mental challenges because we did not expect the import (Ledo) to turn out that way, let’s be honest there,” said Blackwater coach Jeff Cariaso.

“I look at it in a way that you can’t do anything about the three games that happened already. There’s still seven games there and we feel like once we get rolling and hopefully this import will be able to give us that spark that we need, you never know what could happen. We are still very optimistic and positive about this conference.”

Meanwhile, TNT and SMB seek to solidify their hold of leadership by stretching their hot starts to 3-0 against separate rivals today at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.

The defending champion Tropang Giga, who were victorious against NorthPort, 101-95, and Meralco, 93-73, look to add Converge (1-1) to their early victims in Group A at 5 p.m.

The Beermen go for No. 3 in Group B against a redemption-aiming Ginebra (0-1) at 7:30 p.m. Justin Brownlee and the Gin Kings look to gain traction after their disappointing debut against ROS, 64-73, last Saturday in Candon, Ilocos Sur.