As in the previous four matches, Game Five of the 2017 Commissioner’s Cup Finals at the SMART-Araneta Coliseum, Friday night, between the TNT Katropa and the San Miguel Beermen was nothing short of eventful.
However, TNT import Joshua Smith was not in the mood to talk about the match, which they lost, 102-111.
The hulking 6-foot-10, 330-pound American did not speak about his 15-point outing, where he went a perfect 7-for-7 from the floor. Nor did he discuss TNT’s morale right now, as they are down 2-3 in the best-of-seven series.
All that the 25-year-old could mutter was his disgust over the officiating.
“PBA officials are terrible,” spoke Smith, who only had two foul shots in Game Five — far from the 10.0 attempts he was averaging in the series. Furthermore, the Seattle, Washington-native incurred four personal fouls.
Asked to elaborate further on the matter, Smith, who is now averaging 15 points and 10.2 rebounds, did not oblige. But he went on to enumerate all the referees of Game Five as he continued his short yet beefy rant.
“PBA officials are terrible — number 14, 17, 40,” spoke Smith, pertaining to umpires Noy Guevarra, Rey Yante, and Mau Orioste.
