Manny Pacquiao's boxing record is considered as one of the most remarkable in the boxing realm. But it seems that the Philippines' boxing pride is making a huge leap on his professional career. He recently made his debut with the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) team Kia Sorento at the opening of the league's fortieth season on Sunday.
Manny Pacquiao seemed to want it all. Today, he is not just a professional boxer and politician with an outstanding record. He plays basketball professionally and is the head coach for a local basketball team, Kia Sorento. He also owns a share of a team in the Philippine Basketball Association.
Beyond the world of boxing, Manny Pacquiao has ventured into business, acting, music recording, politics and now, basketball. He was elected to the House of Representative in the fifteenth Congress of the Philippines in May 2010, and was reelected in 2013 to the sixteenth Congress.
Many Pacquiao was recently drafted eleventh overall on the first round of the 2014 PBA draft by the Kia Sorento. He was the oldest rookie drafted, the shortest player and the first dual-sport athlete in the Philippine Basketball Association.
Meanwhile in the world of boxing, International Business Times reported Manny Pacquiao is an eight-division world champion. He is popular for making legendary Mexican fighters such as Oscar dela Hoya, Erik Morales and Marco Antonio Barrera to retire. He is also famous in the Philippines for recording albums with some records used as opening song for his bouts.
While Manny Pacquiao is Hall of Famer in the world of boxing, his professional basketball career appeared to be struggling. Though a crowd favorite during the event which has over 50,000 attendees, a record of its kind for Philippine basketball, he was disappointing in his first appearance.
Manny Pacquiao was not able to launch shots and recorded a disappointing zero in the score sheet including two turnovers in just seven minutes of action. Although he drew chorus of cheers from the crowd during the pre-game warm-ups after nailing five of six shots including a reverse lay-up, the seven minutes that Pacquiao played in the court was a compromise.
Trainer Freddie Roach warned Manny Pacquiao to take it easy so as not to suffer a major injury which can ruin his upcoming fight with Chris Algieri in Macau on Nov. 22. Since Pacquiao do not have a remarkable record yet in basketball, Roach pleaded with the other professional basketball players to be easy to his ward during the game.
"(If he plays more than a minute) I myself will take him out. I'm coming with him to Manila, sit on the team bench and act as the head coach with him as my assistant," Freddie Roach jokingly told Yahoo PH Sports before the game. "He can play as long as he wishes, if that's what it will take to make the fans happy. I just told him to take care not to get injured."
Albeit Manny Pacquiao's unimpressive statistics record during his professional basketball debut, he still considered it as a success as he earned his first win as the coach of Kia Sorento. And he finally fulfilled his dream of playing basketball professionally.
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