He did not produce monster numbers in his PBA debut, but Chris Daniels still earned much praise.
Daniels had 25 points and 16 rebounds to lead Alaska past the Columbian Dyip, 111-98, Sunday night to start off their 2019 PBA Commissioner’s Cup on a high note. But it was his high character as a player that his coach commended.
“He’s like a coach.
“He’s one of the smartest guys that I’ve been around. I wanna tell him something or what I believe, and he’ll go on about how he feels exactly the same way,” lauded Aces head coach Alex Compton.
“When you have a guy like that, that knows how to win? He had twenty-one points in the first half, [but] he doesn’t care about scoring. If it’s his turn, it’s his turn. If it’s not his turn, it’s not his turn. He’s gonna read the defense and get the team the best shot,” continued Compton, who is just 10 years older than Daniels.
“So having a brain and a skillset as he has is great,” he added. “You have an incredibly high-character guy… He’s very skilled, he’s very smart.”
Meanwhile, Daniels gushed under the praise.
“That’s a great compliment from coach,” said the 35-year-old, who has been playing basketball professionally for 11 years now, and has had numerous stints here in Asia such as Korea, China, and Lebanon.
But Daniels said that he still has a lot of things to learn.
“I still have a lot to learn. I’m relatively new to this so I have a ton of stuff to learn about the PBA,” said Daniels, an NBA D-League champion in 2013. “But while I’m on the floor, I’m going to help my guys any way I possibly can.
“If I see something that’s going to help them and help our team, I’m going to say something about it.”
Something Daniels wants to work on is his defense. He felt like he did not do enough in the victory, especially against Columbian counterpart Kyle Barone, who poured 30 points and 22 rebounds in 41 minutes.
“I did okay scoring, but I need to do better defensively,” he said.
“I need to find a way to move my feet better so I can stop my man from scoring. If I can stop my man from scoring anywhere in the twenties to thirty points, then we got a great chance at winning.”
