During the second half of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals opener between Rain or Shine Elasto and Talk ‘N Text, Ivan Johnson took his stingy physicality on a whole new level, as he bumped into Elasto Painters’ head coach, Yeng Guiao, after stealing the ball from the opposition. After the incident, the game was momentarily halted as the referees slapped a technical on the Tropang Texters’ import.
“He did it on purpose,” said Guiao, who also indicated that the incident happened on his blind side and he wasn’t prepared for what Johnson did, “The video showed that he can easily avoid me.”
Guiao also recalled how Johnson continued to taunt him even right after the event. He would later on cite that this as a ‘lack of breeding’ and ‘lack of respect’ on the reinforcement’s part.
“I’m not surprised because that has been his reputation,” added Guiao.
Guiao also pointed out reasons as to why Johnson is out of the NBA, and currently playing overseas. Also, what surprised Guiao is that Johnson was just given a technical for his action, since he expected Johnson to be immediately thrown out of the game.
With the rare tussle, Guiao just hopes that the league will do something about it. Moreover, he even pointed out that he didn’t do anything to upset Johnson that could lead him to the mentioned instance.
Likewise, Gilas coach, Tab Baldwin, promptly apologized to Guiao right after the incident. Guiao, however, said that whatever apologies given, the story is that Johnson really did it on purpose.
“I guess it’s up to the league to evaluate and assess on what’s need to be done,” added Guiao, “We’ll focus on the game and we’ll focus on what’s need to be done. We’ll just see on what happens with him. It’s still a long series.”
