For Romeo Travis, what happened three years ago still lingers in his mind.
Travis steered the Alaska Aces to the 2015 PBA Governors’ Cup Finals. Having been crowned as the conference’s best import, Travis was expected to deliver in the best way he could.
Unfortunately, AZ Reid and the San Miguel Beermen were standing in their way. And the Beermen proved to be a mountain too high to climb, as the Aces eventually lost in five games.
“The way we finished, when I was with Alaska in 2015, that stuck with me for many years. That still sticks with me. I didn’t play well when my team needed me the most,” the 33-year-old recalled.
“That’s pretty much why we lost.”
After three years, Travis has made his way back into the league, and he’s looking for redemption. The naturalized Macedonian is clearly hungry to settle some unfinished business.
But he won’t be doing it in an Alaska jersey.
“When I wanted to come back, I wanted to come back with Alaska, to be honest.
“But for two years they chose someone else when I was available. But now, I was free,” said Travis.
Given that, Travis chose the Magnolia Hotshots. He signed with them back in July, and he made his debut on Wednesday night as the Hotshots took on the NLEX Road Warriors.
And Travis had a good start with the Hotshots, finishing with 21 points and 13 rebounds to spearhead a well-deployed Magnolia to a wire-to-wire 102-72 victory over the spent Road Warriors.
“It was a good situation and I looked at the roster, I looked at the conference with the All-Filipinos, they went to the Finals, they showed that they had good players here,” said Travis
“And that is why I wanted to come back,” he added.
“And just come back and fight for a championship.”
