Some 9,300 miles away from Manila, a former NBA champion has been keeping tabs on the journey of the TNT Katropa in the 2017 Governors’ Cup — none other than three-time NBA All-Star and Michigan legend, Glen Rice.
Current TNT import Glen Rice, Jr., the eldest of Rice’s five children at 26, has been lighting it up, averaging 31.09 points, 11.45 rebounds, 5.27 assists, and 2.73 steals this conference to help lead the Katropa to the semifinals.
However, Rice and the Katropa were rendered helpless in Game One of their best-of-five series against the Barangay Ginebra San Miguel, falling by as much as 34 points to suffer a 94-121 loss.
Once he knew about what had transpired in the opening salvo of the series, Rice — who had experienced many setbacks during his stellar career that spanned 15 years — immediately sent out a tweet to Tiebreaker Times, saying that the Katropa need to stay together during times like this.
“When things don’t go your way, how do you bounce back?” the 50-year-old tweeted at 11:03, Tuesday morning.
“TOGETHER.”
“You guys can do it but stay strong and together. Have some pride,” the message concluded.
And this reminder could not be more timely for the Katropa, as plernty of the calls in Game One did not go their way, resulting in frustration and a lot of broken plays.
Rice, Jr. knows where to start, sharing that TNT will go back to basics before heading into Game Two.
“That’s the good thing about the playoffs, you got to win, what, best-of-five? That’s three games. It’s not one game and [you’ve] lost — it’s not the NCAA,” said the Georgia Tech product. “We just gotta get back and we’re gonna watch the film.
“We got to figure out a way where we can strive to do, play better on Wednesday.”
