Sportsman Mikee Romero may have finally achieved his dream of making it to the Philippine Basketball Association.
Coca Cola Bottlers Philippines Inc. (CCBPI), yesterday announced that it has formally informed the office of the PBA commissioner of the “sale and transfer of its Powerade Tigers team franchise to Sultan 900 Inc. which is owned and represented by its chairman and chief executive officer Romero.”
The letter to the PBA, dated July 30, 2012, did not disclose how much Romero paid to acquire the CCBPI franchise.
According to the PBA commissioner’s office, it will immediately convene the PBA board of governors to secure its approval of Sultan 900’s entry into the league by a two-thirds vote of its membership.
The pronouncement from the PBA also said that a vote on Sultan 900’s inclusion into the roster of ballclubs will be made “at the soonest possible time after the requisite documents from the parties have been secured and the due diligence required under the constitution of the PBA has been completed by the commissioner.”
Romero’s entry into the league comes after an illustrious bid in the Philippine Basketball League by his Harbour Center ballclub where it garnered seven titles and in the Asean Basketball League where his Philippine Patriots won the inaugural tournament two years ago.
The inevitability of the Powerade sale came after CCBPI was re-acquired by the Atlanta-based Coca Cola main proponent from San Miguel Corp. with the former making it clear that it had no plans of extending the company’s exposure in the league.
And this became even more apparent when Powerade traded off marquee players rookie Marcio Lassiter and veteran Celino Cruz to Petron Blaze and resurgent big man Doug Kramer to Barako Bull.
Despite those trades, Romero will nevertheless still have a solid core of reliables in the league’s leading scorer for the least two seasons Gary David, 2011-2012 season top rookie pick Jayvee Casio and defender Sean Anthony who were part of the Tigers’ Cinderella team which nearly pulled off the impossible in the Philippine Cup before settling for second place behind powerhouse Talk ‘N Text.
There, too, would be the other entrants from the slew of trades — Rabeh Al Hussaini, Jondan Salvador and Rey Guevarra — who have found their niche in the league after wallowing with their former teams with limited playing time.
Romero would also be inheriting a tough and wise coaching staff led by head mentor Bo Perasol who was the chief engineer in that Philippine Cup dream ride where they became the first team in league history to be seeded last going into the quarterfinal round to make it as far as the Finals.