MANILA – TNT Tropang GIGA is planning to consult the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Commissioner’s Office regarding Bobby Ray Parks Jr.’s plan to sit out the 2021 PBA season.
PBA Board chairman and Tropang GIGA governor Ricky Vargas said the team plans to consult Commissioner Willie Marcial to clear the air and determine the rights of both player and team.
“We’ll take a look at it from two points of view. This is not the first time this incident happened. We’ll see how we can address this issue so that moving forward the policies are a lot clearer and fairer to everyone concern,” said Vargas.
On Saturday afternoon, Parks announced on social media that he is taking a leave from the Tropang GIGA as he tends to “personal matters” of taking care of an ailing mother in the United States (US). Tropang GIGA owner Manuel Pangilinan, however, countered this on his Facebook post saying that the 28-year-old Parks was indeed in La Union the past few weeks and not in the US.
Vargas tried to reach out to Parks several times regarding his decision to take a leave but has not received a response from the former Gilas Pilipinas guard.
“I have no problem with that. In fact it’s a noble thing that he’s sacrificing his career for it,” Vargas said. “Ang problema lang, we found out later on that he’s somewhere else. He’s not in LA (Los Angeles). So there is some dishonesty there.”
“He’s a great player, a very potential player. But he’s got to fix a little bit of his character,” he added. “Nakakalungkot lang kasi, he’s such a very high-potential player that if he wants to be a real winner, he has to look at himself very carefully.”
Vargas, however, said that Tropang GIGA is not closing its doors on the possible return of Parks as the management wants to give the player a benefit of the doubt.
Parks, a former National University Bulldogs guard, is a free agent as his one-year contract with the Tropang GIGA expired at the end of the 2020 PBA Philippine Cup. He is working on a new deal with the TNT prior to his announcement./PN
