Nick Rakocevic felt ‘super relieved’ to be spared from any serious injury as MRI results on his right knee yielded nothing major that could derail his campaign with Magnolia in the ongoing PBA Commissioner’s Cup.
The Serbian forward and the Hotshots heaved a huge sigh of relief given how bad the injury looked like when Jackson Corpuz accidentally fell on his leg during their encounter with TNT last week, which they won narrowly.
“I was super relieved,” he said. “When it first happened, I tried to put pressure on it, tried to play, they just told me to sit down ’cause it looked a lot worse than what it was. I just thank God for that. I gotta count my blessings.”
Rakocevic won’t have to sit out games and even saw action against NLEX on Wednesday night, playing as if he isn’t coming off any injury.
The 6-foot-10 bruiser turned in 36 points on a 56.5-percent clip from the field, together with 15 rebounds, two assists, and two steals to lead his side to a 111-97 victory to grab leadership of the standings with a perfect 4-0 card.
There remains a bit of pain in his affected knee, admitted the former USC Trojan. Still, he played on, inspired by the sacrifices of the other Hotshots, including none other than head coach Chito Victolero.
(C) PBA Images
The champion bench tactician recently went under the knife to repair his left Achilles, but made it a point to remain active for his team.
He actually arrived at the SMART Araneta Coliseum for the Road Warriors game aided by a mobility scooter, and at times was walking on crutches.
“He just sacrificed, and him coming out here and coaching shows his passion for the team and for the game. You know, you want to go out there and just play for him when you see him do that,” said Rakocevic.
“Like Coach (lead deputy Jason Webb) was saying earlier, everybody makes sacrifices, and everybody sees that so you want to play harder and you wanna play for the guy next to you, you want to play for the coach.”
With that, Rakocevic simply intends to play on, keen to help the ball club continue their winning ways in the mid-season conference.
“I want to continue to play for Magnolia and play for the team and keep this winning streak that we have going right now,” said the 24-year-old.
