Jared: It feels like attending first day of school

MANILA, Philippines — Barangay Ginebra’s Jared Dillinger gave a fitting description of the PBA players’ feelings as they finally reassembled for small group practices Tuesday for the first time since March.

“Felt like I was a kid attending first day of school,” Dillinger posted on Twitter as the Gin Kings and majority of the PBA squads started returning to the gym for non-scrimmage conditioning sessions.

The Gin Kings were the early birds in the pro league’s training resumption with their first batch of players kicking things off at 7 a.m. session at Upperdeck.

Rain or Shine, Alaska Milk, Blackwater, San Miguel Beer, NLEX, Magnolia and Meralco followed suit in different hours in separate venues on Day One.

The TNT KaTropa were scheduled to start their training bubble in Calamba, Laguna yesterday while Phoenix, Terra Firma and NorthPort were slated to commence either yesterday or today.

PBA clubs got the go-signal to sweat it out on batches of five and under strict health and safety protocols – a development that augured well in the league’s bid for a gradual return.

“They’re not team workouts yet, they’re just individual workouts. But it’s a great step in the right direction for the league. We’re all back to work, we’re excited,” said Ginebra coach Tim Cone.

“Right now we are taking it slowly. We’re happy for people being able to return on court, though in small groups. So we are focusing there. If everything goes right, we hope to be able to have full team practices in maybe a month,” said Alaska counterpart Jeff Cariaso.

From limited no-contact training, the PBA hopes to get the IATF greenlight on scrimmages by next month and the actual tournament by October, which it plans to do in an NBA-style bubble.