San Miguel Alab Pilipinas will not have its rock when it begins its quest for a second ABL crown.
The Alab brass have granted the request of Puerto Rican import Renaldo Balkman to return home due to a family emergency. He will miss its entire 2019-20 campaign.
The development was first reported by Randolph Leongson of Spin.ph.
“May mga family matters that he has to attend to, kaya he’ll go back to Puerto Rico and play there,” team owner Charlie Dy told Leongson.
It will be tough to replace Balkman’s production on both ends of the court, though. But the San Miguel-backed squad hopes that 6-foot-7 American Nick King does the job.
King, who is just 24 years young, is a product of Middle Tennessee University, where he was named as the 2018 Conference USA Player of the Year.
Though he went undrafted in the 2018 NBA Draft, he was part of the LA Lakers’ summer league squad and the Boston Celtics’ training camp team.
He ended up playing in the Celtics’ G-League affiliate Maine Red Claws.
King joins Adrian Forbes and Khalif Wyatt as the three imports of Alab.
