ANGELES, PAMPANGA — Along with everyone else in the PBA bubble, Barangay Ginebra San Miguel felt alarmed when the league announced on Wednesday that one of its referees may have tested positive for COVID-19 — the first-ever case reported this season.
The Gin Kings couldn’t help it, since the announcement came just hours before their Philippine Cup clash with Phoenix Super LPG at the Smart 5G-powered Angeles University Foundation Sports and Cultural Center.
“There was obviously a lot of talk about it,” said Coach Tim Cone. “In our Viber group, everybody was Viber-ing. There was total room quarantine today so none of us can get out of the room nor go visit anybody. We got all of our news on Viber.”
Moments after the first game — which saw NLEX get its first win in the bubble after beating NorthPort — the PBA announced that the referee, whom the league said is asymptomatic, tested negative in an antigen test.
Commissioner Willie Marcial said that it could be a ‘false positive’ case, though. They are now awaiting the result of the RT-PCR test with the hope that it is negative.
The Barangay, meanwhile, were able to keep their focus on the task at hand. And proof of that is their 86-71 win versus the Fuel Masters, marking their fourth win in as many games in the bubble.
“So there was a lot of talk,” the league’s most accomplished mentor said, “and eventually, we said, ‘Hey, let’s put it away, we got game time coming up. Let’s go win a game first, and then we’ll talk about it again.’
“It was certainly a topic of conversation but I think we settled it out, focused well, and continued to play.”
Now, Cone hopes that the situation will settle so that they can all continue the shortened season. And the rest of the teams in the bubble are surely hoping the same.
“Hopefully that gets settled and we continue on as normal as we can be,” the 22-time PBA champion coach said.
