The TNT Katropa were almost shorthanded when they took on the Blackwater Elite on Wednesday evening at the SMART-Araneta Coliseum.
Early in the afternoon, a fire broke out in C5 that caused major traffic in the area. One person stuck was TNT’s 12-year veteran Kelly Williams.
BREAKING: Fire in C5 Road, Taguig. https://t.co/sDo55hwVGt pic.twitter.com/rJoj8qEblP
— CNN Philippines (@cnnphilippines) January 17, 2018
“Coming from the South, I got to Taguig in about two and a half hours and I heard there was a fire on C5 and I was like, ‘Oh my god what am I going to do?’,” recalled Williams.
“I considered running, I considered jogging. Whatever you got to do, crawl, walk or run.”
Panicking, the 6-foot-6 Filipino-American was adviced by his driver to download Philippine-based mobile app Angkas — a motorcycle service provider. And it was one heck of a ride for the big man.
“My driver said check Angkas, an Uber for motorcycles. Okay. Quickly got out of the car in the middle of the C5, the middle of traffic, found this guy under the overpass, he was surprised to see me,” narrated Williams animatedly.
“I got my helmet on, jumped on the bicycle and we got here for about 40 minutes,” he added. “Every stoplight, the other motorcycles pull up, double take, ‘Oh, what are you doing here?’, ‘Hi guys!’ It was fun, it was actually pretty fun but never again, make sure you plan ahead guys if you possibly get stuck in traffic.
“But it was a good experience for me. You get to see Manila in a different light.”
Around midway through the first quarter of the game, Williams finally arrived. Though relieved to see him, coach Nash Racela and the rest of the Katropa made sure to let him know that he was late.
“Good experience, I apologized to the team, I owe them a team lunch or something and I told coach I won’t do it again,” the 35-year-old expressed.
“Let’s pray that it doesn’t happen again.”
Williams compensated for his tardiness by giving TNT quality minutes. During their 92-83 win against the Elite, he tallied six points, six rebounds, and four blocks in just 17 minutes of action.
“You got to come out there with extra effort after coming in late like that. But it’s always my intention to come out and do whatever I have to do,” he expressed.
“Luckily, I was in a good position to get some blocks and it worked out that way.”
And he owes a lot to his driver Richard, who got him to the venue just in time.
“It was a good experience though, thank you to the cyclist, I think his name is Richard or something like that, he’s a lifesaver.
“I tipped him very handsomely. It was about a hundred but I’m sure I paid with whatever was in my pocket because I was very grateful,” he quipped.
Still, he knows that he also owes a lot to his team. He plans on making it up by treating everyone to lunch during their next practice.
Lesson learned for Kelly.
