It looks like all will be going well from now on between the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters and their disgruntled center Raymond Almazan, as head coach Caloy Garcia revealed that everything has already been settled between the two camps.
The whole hullabaloo started when Almazan did not show up for a few weeks – both at practices and games – due to a reported grudge against Garcia, who is now in his second season as Rain or Shine’s chief tactician.
The reported grudge, as per Garcia after one of the Elasto Painters’ wins without Almazan, stemmed from the time he called out the Bataan native for his late attendance during practices.
“Nag-meeting na kami ni Raymond nung Monday. Everything’s settled already,” said Garcia on Wednesday, moments after the Elasto Painters’ 97-103 loss to the Phoenix Fuel Masters at the Cuneta Astrodome in Pasay City.
Garcia – who was also Almazan’s head coach during his college days with the Letran Knights, and was the one who pushed him to be RoS’ pick in the 2013 PBA Draft – also shared that everybody was present during the meeting.
“Everybody was there.
“Boss Raymond [Yu], Atty. [Mamerto] Mondragon, Boss Edison [Oribiana], boss Danny [Espiritu], asawa ni Raymond, and Raymond. Sana malinaw lahat. In our side nasabi na namin gusto namin, narinig din namin gusto namin marinig,” he said. “Hopefully, all’s well ends well.”
But even with the development, management will be sticking to their decision to suspend Almazan until the end of October. He will return on November 2, but won’t be fielded in versus the NLEX Road Warriors on November 3.
“He’ll be back on November 2 but he won’t be playing the last game,” said Garcia.
“Yun ang pinag-usapan namin. We’re hoping that yesterday he’d come to practice but he didn’t appear. So probably he’ll be going November 2 na.”
