Jaylen Johnson is ready to face the consequences after getting into a fight against Glenn Khobuntin that marred Rain or Shine’s eventual victory over TNT in a heated PBA Season 50 Commissioner’s Cup encounter on Friday night.
Both are likely to be slapped with a one-game suspension each by no less than the Commissioner’s Office after trading blows at around the 6:20-mark of the final period, which happened after the two jockeyed for position underneath.
The two were assessed with a flagrant foul penalty two (F2), which merits an automatic ejection and a monetary fine to be determined by the league.
“Whatever happens, it’s a lesson learned,” Johnson told members of the press moments after their 112-109 win at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
The former KBL import had to watch the rest of the match in the locker room as the incident, which immediately became a hot topic on social media, cut short what had been a solid performance for him–all against Bol Bol.
Much of the focus was on the former NBA big man, and he showed that all the hype was worth it after tallying 38 points, 16 rebounds, and five blocks.
But Johnson himself held his ground, too, as evidenced by his 33 points, alongside nine rebounds, three assists, three steals, and a block.
In fact, he lit it up from there with a 6-of-13 clip, and even nailed a four as his floor-stretching ability challenged the 7-foot-3 forward’s defense–and also helped a great deal in pulling his team back from an 18-point hole.
“He’s a great player, talented. Like I said, he’s like a superhuman,” lauded ‘JJ’ of Bol, who played for nearly 40 minutes. “But I felt like I did a good job.”
It was just unfortunate, however, that the fight broke out, putting a major pause to a game that’s already a hard-fought one, given the kind of familiarity the two have with one another, having faced in past semifinals multiple times.
“I really don’t know what happened,” the 6-foot-9 Johnson recalled. “I thought we were playing good basketball, and then the next thing you know, I tried to get position, and then outta nowhere he hit me. It was an intense play.
“He’s a cool dude, I mean, there wasn’t really any animosity the whole game,” he added, referring to Khobuntin.
“I don’t know what happened.”
Given how ugly things turned out, the 29-year-old forward out of the University of Louisville was apologetic and vowed to grow from it.
“I didn’t want that to happen, but it happened how it happened,” he said. “I’m sorry it happened. It won’t happen again. That was a lesson learned. I heard the PBA was physical, I didn’t know it was like that. But in the future, I’ll be better.
“I want to apologize to the PBA because that’s not the character I wanna show. But it happened. Sorry to me, sorry to the team, sorry to him, too. But that’s not the character I wanna portray.”
