Four-player deal: Burger King trades David for Coke's Cabagnot

MANILA, Philippines - Burger King and Coca-Cola closed a trade deal in the first working day of 2010 with the Whoppers acquiring the services of Alex Cabagnot and Wesley Gonzales for Gary David and Chico Lanete.

“On our end, we made this deal to solve our problem on the absence of Wynne Arboleda. With our acquisition of Alex Cabagnot, we’ve got a solid guard to rely on,” Burger King top official Lito Alvarez told The STAR.

“But acquiring a solid player requires you to also give up a solid player. We had to give up Gary David,” Alvarez added.

At Coca-Cola, David will be playing under former Air21 (now BK) coach Bo Perasol.

“Coach Bo asked for Gary. He knows how to use Gary. He blossomed to the kind of player he is today under coach Bo with us,” Alvarez said.

The two ballclubs worked on this trade deal in an effort to improve their bids in the KFC PBA Philippine Cup which resumes tomorrow at the Araneta Coliseum.

The Whoppers (5-10) and the Tigers (3-12) are down in the lower half of the chart, slugging it out with the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters (4-10) and the Barako Bull Energy Boosters (2-12) for the last three slots in the wildcard plays.

In fact, Cabagnot and David are doing well individually.

Cabagnot is No. 18 in the stats side of the Best Players of the Conference derby with averages of 13.5 points, 5.9 assists and 4.1 rebounds.

Burger King is Cabagnot’s third team after being drafted by Sta. Lucia No. 2 overall behind Jay Washington in the 2005 annual draft.

“We need a player like Cabagnot but it’s not easy to give up Gary David,” Alvarez told The STAR moments after announcing the trade deal to the Lina Group people after a Mass at Cargohaus in Pasay.

“Even Mr. (Bert) Lina was surprised. He talked to me and reminded me how close to each other the daughters of Wynne (Arboleda) and Gary (David),” said Alvarez. “I’m sure, though, that everything will be fine. This is just basketball and friends will always be friends.”

David, a product of Lyceum University, is originally a Coca-Cola Tiger.

No. 10 draft pick by Coca-Cola in 2004, David played one season with the Tigers then was shifted to Air21.

Meanwhile, the PBA said due to the busy international basketball calendar this year, top-caliber Asian imports whom the PBA teams hope to tap in a bid to draw the crowds may not be available to play in the coming Fiesta Conference.

“Most of the big name stars we hope to sign are either tied up with their mother ballclubs or will be deep in training for the big international tournaments scheduled late this year,” according to the PBA.

The league said teams can now openly recruit their respective imports for the 2010 Fiesta Conference with a 6-foot-6 height limit.

Imports who had been measured from the 2005-06 season, however, need not be re-measured with the reinforcement’s last record of measurement to be used as the import’s official height.