Greg Slaughter made a very timely return when Barangay Ginebra San Miguel faced rivals San Miguel Beermen in the 2019 PBA Governors’ Cup quarterfinals, Sunday evening at the SMART Araneta Coliseum.
The 7-foot slotman sat out several weeks, missing the Gin Kings’ last three games thanks to a thumb injury, which he incurred during one of Ginebra’s team practices.
Slaughter played for 20 minutes and 37 seconds, finishing with five points and four rebounds as the crowd darlings took down the Beermen, 100-97, to advance to the semifinals.
And his thumb injury meant he was among the cuts for Gilas Pilipinas’ 12-man lineup for the 30th Southeast Asian Games. But the possibility of his inclusion still remains.
Head coach Tim Cone revealed as much, saying that the team might reconsider putting the Filipino-American cager into the final 12 should he fully recover.
“He’s still not feeling one hundred-percent with that thumb. If he can show us he’s a hundred-percent, then we will think about making a change at the managers’ meeting and including him at that point.”
Cone, though, asserted that Slaughter has to prove he is pain-free before he includes the Ginebra big man.
“But he has to prove he’s healthy and that thumb has a full range of motion,” Cone said. “Right now he’s still sixty, seventy-percent. He’ll join us in practices and we’ll have an opportunity.
“If there’s an injury or something, we’ll still make changes at the managers’ meeting the day before the tournament proper. That’s December 3rd,” the decorated bench tactician added.
“It’s a final twelve, but there still could be changes, especially depending on how people feel after the quarterfinals.”
