Sison leaves fancied Jewels for Tortillos

Montaña Pawnshop’s loss is Granny Goose’s gain.

Robert Sison officially resigned as coach of the Jewels while accepting a coaching job for the Tortillos in time for the PBL season-opening conference set on Saturday at the San Andres Gym.

Sison, however, will coach Granny Goose on interim basis since Jun Tan, who re-assumed the coaching job last week as replacement for Joe Lipa, still has a commitment back home in Cebu City.

"He’ll (Sison) be coaching the team because I still have a commitment in Cebu but I’ll be present every game," Tan yesterday told The STAR.

Tan will take the head-coaching job as soon as his commitment is over, which could be mid-April.

"I submitted my irrevocable resignation to Montaña and I’m not in any way connected with them anymore," said Sison, suspended two weeks ago for his differences of opinion with team owners.

"There were offers when other teams found out that I’m available and I’ve settled with Granny Goose," he added.

Sison said he resigned because he don’t want to be dragged into the controversy involving Samigue Eman, a 6-10 talent from the South.

There were reports that Sison was suspended after he gave up Eman last December without the knowledge of Montaña owners. Nel Parado took over as his replacement.

"I released Eman to Welcoat in my full capacity as the head coach of Montaña that time," revealed Sison, who steered the Jewels to their first ever title two years ago.

"It was merely a gesture of thanks to then PBL chair Raymund Yu of Welcoat for helping us push for our appeal to the board for (Alex) Compton to play for two more conferences," he added.

He also cited the rumored trade between Eman and Compton, a versatile, do-it-all guard who is playing his last conference, as of the reasons for his suspension.

"I was not in favor of giving up Compton for Eman, that’s one of the reasons," Sison said.

Sison coached the Negros Slashers to a pair of second place efforts in the defunct MBA before joining the Jewels three years back.

He declined a consultancy job at Teletech, an American-owned call center company accepted last week as a guest team.