Gins settle for Ellis in Fiesta Cup

Barangay Ginebra was forced to settle with old import Rossell Ellis for the early goings of the PBA Fiesta Cup as original pick Jarmaine Walker and supposed replacement Bingo Merriex unable to come for various reasons.

Ellis will arrive Thursday and join the Kings in at least two practice sessions before playing the Shell Turbochargers in the opening game of the PBA transition tourney on Sunday at the Araneta Coliseum.

Immigration problems in Lebanon where he has just completed a tour of duty prevented Merriex to fly to Manila in a time for some workouts with the Kings for the coming PBA wars.

"Dalawang beses hindi nakarating sa atin kaya we just decided to cancel our contract," said team top official Ira Maniquiz.

Merriex was supposed to take the spot of Walker, the former FedEx scoring machine who suffered an injury in a pickup game in the United States. Walker is said to be also having a child custody case with his estranged wife.

With Ellis still to arrive, only nine imports underwent the official height measurement conducted by league physician Ben Salud at the PBA office yesterday.

All of them passed the 6-foot-8 ceiling with FedEx’s Alvin Jefferson being the tallest at 6-foot-7 3/8 and Alaska’s Galen Young the smallest at 6-4 1/8.

Coca-Cola’s Mark Sanford and San Miguel’s Art Long were both measured at 6-7 1/4, Red Bull Barako’s Carlo Willer 6-6 1/8, Talk n Text’s Randy Holcomb 6-6 1/4, Sta. Lucia’s Lamayn Wilson 6-6 flat, Shell’s Marek Ordera 6-5 1/2 and Purefoods’ Lenny Cooke 6-5 1/8.

Ellis averaged 25.3 points, 16.6 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 2.4 steals in seven games with the Kings in the Reinforced Conference last year. He shot at a high 53-percent clip from the field but the charity lane proved to be his Achiles heel as he hit at a woeful 44.6-percent shooting.

He went 3-of-8 at the stripe in a deciding Game Three versus eventual champion Coca-Cola in the quarterfinals.

Standing below 6-3, Ellis could be too short in this tournament. There were words Ginebra officials are still trying to enlist former Red Bull Barako import Tony Lang, who’s still campaigning in Japan. — Nelson Beltran