BJ’s back on bench

There’s a familiar face on the PBA guest team Eastern bench in the Commissioner’s Cup. It’sx picked by Purefoods on the second round in the 2005 PBA draft. His claim to fame is in seven years of playing UAAP juniors and seniors basketball, Manalo never missed a Finals. He won a juniors title with Ateneo and three seniors crowns with La Salle.

After the UAAP, Manalo saw action in the PBL and the Cebuana Lhuillier national squad under coach Dong Vergeire. During his playing career, he endured tears in his meniscus, ACL and MCL aside from suffering a fracture. After he was drafted, Manalo practiced with Purefoods under coach Ryan Gregorio for three months then unable to recover totally from his injuries, decided to step back from the game.

In 2012, Manalo joined GlobalPort (now NorthPort) as head of basketball operations in the PBA and stayed on for nearly three years. Then, he became team manager of the Iloilo United Royals in the MPBL. Manalo now operates his own construction company, specializing in waterproofing. “I was just tasked to help (Eastern) because I had a previous experience in managing a PBA team 10 years ago with GlobalPort,” said Manalo. “I’m currently helping out EASL in their Future Champions Basketball Camp but my full-time work is our construction business.”

Eastern, based in Hong Kong, was advised by its local federation to use only Eastern as team name in the PBA so as not to confuse fans since it’s known as Hong Kong Eastern in the domestic league and EASL. Eastern’s lineup includes three former Bay Area Dragons (Glen Yang, Hayden Blankley, Kobey Lam) and four Asian Games veterans (Siu Wing Chan, Ka Hin Leung, Yuet Yeung Pok, Adam Xu). Xu played three years at NCAA D3 New York University. Two recruits are 6-8 Ray Cao and 6-5 Steven Guinchard. Cao was born in Sydney, played three years at NAIA’s Florida College and averaged 14.5 points in the Australian league. Guinchard was born in France and holds French and Taiwan passports. He played three years at D3 Emmanuel College in Boston.

In Eastern’s PBA debut, Pok wore a jersey showing his nickname Simba. He had a jacket on during the warmups so the nickname wasn’t noticed by PBA officials until the first quarter of the game against Phoenix. Pok was not allowed back on the court starting the second quarter because of improper uniform. The uniform with his real name arrived in time for Eastern’s second game. Other leagues allow nicknames on the back of jerseys but not the PBA.