A FAMILY emergency has denied PBA fans another taste of NBA-style basketball in the coming PBA Governors Cup.
Instead, a player of relatively unknown quality is coming in.
According to a statement by Meralco management yesterday, Shabazz Muhammad will no longer reinforce the Bolts for the coming season-ending tournament as he is dealing with a personal emergency.
Little-known Tony Bishop is coming in to take Muhammad’s place.
“We wish Shabazz the best in dealing with his family matters, and we are looking forward to welcoming Tony Bishop as our import for this conference,” read Bolts team manager Paolo Trillo’s statement.
The development comes as a big blow for the Bolts, who were hoping to see Muhammad dish off the kind of game that made him a collegiate standout in the US and an NBA player from 2014-18. He even got picked at 13th overall in the 2013 NBA draft, a rung above Giannis Antetokounmpo.
In 278 NBA games, mostly spent with the Minnesota Timberwolves, the 6-foot-5 former UCLA star averaged 9.0 points and 2.8 rebounds.
After a brief stint with the Milwaukee Bucks Muhammad has played in leagues outside the US, mainly in China before suffering a torn ACL before the pandemic.
Bishop, a product of Texas State U, is another case entirely.
The Dallas-born Panamanian has been playing internationally since going unpicked in the 2011 NBA draft.
A member of Panama’s national team, Bishop has also played in the NBA G League, Denmark, Lithuania, Germany, Japan, and Romania and just recently finished a finals run in Puerto Rico’s Baloncesto Superior Nacional, where he was one of the top performers for Mets de Guaynabo.
