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THE
trade of two prized big men will involve a third by the
end of the week.
Romel
Adducul will be going to the Purefoods Tender Juicy
Giants just after he plays one game for Red Bull, which
acquired the veteran center from San Miguel Beer over
the weekend in exchange for franchise slotman Enrico
Villanueva, BusinessMirror gathered yesterday.
Adducul
is expected to suit up for the Barakos today against
Coca-Cola in a 4:35 p.m. game at the Araneta Coliseum,
and will then be dealt to the Giants in exchange for a
Purefoods player with an expiring contract, reportedly
young forward Jon Dan Salvador.
Villanueva will be wearing a San Miguel jersey for the
first time when the Beermen face Air21 at
7:30 also tonight, just days after Red Bull asked the Philippine
Basketball Association (PBA) to replace the slotman on
the restricted trading list (RTL) with Mick Pennisi.
PBA
commissioner Noli Eala put the RTL system in place last
February to ensure parity in the league while avoiding
apparently one-sided deals. The Commissioner’s office
puts one player on each of the league’s 10 teams on the
list, unless a team requests for a change.
Villanueva and Pennisi are fresh from serving on the
national team that won the Southeast Asia Basketball
Association (Seaba) Men’s Championship Sunday in
Ratchaburi, Thailand. The victory earned the Philippines
a spot to the Olympic qualifying event in July, the Fiba-Asia
Championship in Tokushima, Japan.
Trading
Adducul to Purefoods, which loaned ace center Kerby
Raymundo to the national team, would complete the deal
hatched by San Miguel Corp. (SMC) last week to send the
unhappy big man from the Beermen to the Giants.
SMC,
which owns the PBA’s San Miguel, Purefoods and Barangay
Ginebra franchises and cannot trade players among its
teams without a third party, initially shelved the
Villanueva-Adducul deal when the media got wind of it
last week.
But the
trade was sealed when Red Bull team manager Tony Chua
met with SMC sports official Robert Non in
Bangkok,
Thailand
on Sunday.
Chua,
the PBA board’s vice chairman, and Purefoods board
representative Rene Pardo did not reply to messages
seeking comment on the trade.
The deal
gives the Beermen a Mythical Team member in the
26-year-old Villanueva in exchange for a decorated
center who has grown disgruntled with his lack of
playing time under returning San Miguel coach Siot
Tanquingcen.
The
31-year-old Adducul, who has collected six Most Valuable
Player trophies from college, the Philippine Basketball
League (PBL) and the defunct Metropolitan Basketball
Association (MBA), also complained of being benched at
Ginebra last year, when Tanquingcen was also the Gin
Kings’ mentor.
Sports
agent Ed Ponceja, who represents both Adducul and
Salvador, did not confirm if the Purefoods-Red Bull swap
would push through, but said the former San Sebastian
College star would be happy if he stayed with the
Barakos.
Adducul,
a Tuguegarao native, played briefly for Red Bull in the
PBL. He also played in the MBA until 2002, then entered
the PBA through Ginebra, which drafted him second
overall in 2003.
Villanueva, a collegiate MVP himself, leaves the Barakos
after three seasons but will reunite with Ateneo
teammates Wesley Gonzales and LA Tenorio at San Miguel. |
