As part of the 2014 PBA rookie class, Paolo Taha was eligible to sign with any team interested in him.
Sometime last month, the 6-foot guard out of College of Saint Benilde was on his way to the boundary of Quezon City and Pasig.
But he was not going to Northport’s practice facility in Green Meadows. He instead headed to Meralco Gym – the home of the Bolts.
According to multiple sources closely monitoring the situation, Taha almost signed with Meralco.
Meralco had badly wanted to load up its backcourt prior to the restart of the 2021-22 PBA Governors’ Cup. The Bolts shipped away Baser Amer early last year while losing Nard Pinto to Ginebra a year later.
According to team insider, Meralco had made an offer to TNT 3×3 player Almond Vosotros but was denied by the league as 3×3 players need to finish their entire season before getting a chance to sign with a 5-on-5 team.
Photo by PBA Images
With their hopes of landing Vosotros going down the drain, Meralco searched elsewhere, going for Taha instead.
Taha was coming off a spectacular Philippine Cup that saw him norm 11.2 points on 57.1-percent shooting from the field with 3.5 rebounds. In the ongoing conference, he is posting numbers of 5.8 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 1.3 assists.
Waiting for him at Meralco Gym was a two-year offer. A better deal compared to the one-year extension given by Northport, his home for the last three years.
But on signing day, Taha received a call he did not expect. A Northport official suddenly turned up the offer, giving him a three-year deal.
It was a deal that was hard to refuse. “Take it or leave it.”
Northport had already known as early as mid-January that it was about to lose both Robert Bolick and Nico Elorde. It cannot afford to lose Taha as well.
Taha went on to have a change of heart, making a u-turn from Ortigas Avenue and turning left to Green Meadows Avenue. Yes, he had to politely turn down Meralco to come back home to Northport.
Meralco still ended up with a big catch in Chris Banchero days later.
All’s well that ends well, as they say.
