MANILA – Its PBA Commissioner’s Cup streak curtailed notwithstanding, Alaska Aces has no plan to lift the indefinite suspension of veteran forward Calvin Abueva.
Aces head coach Alex Compton said there was no signal from the team management to let “The Beast” rejoin the team’s practice – even after their 74-89 loss to Meralco Bolts on Sunday.
“The word from the team management hasn’t changed. Indefinite means indefinite. It means not forever. ‘Maybe’ – that’s what it means. We’ll see as I talk to management,” Compton said.
While Abueva is suspended in Aces, he may focus on his stint with Gilas Pilipinas, which is preparing for the FIBA World Cup qualifiers against Chinese Taipei on June 29, the American mentor said.
“He’s getting ready for Gilas. We didn’t stop him from playing for Gilas. We didn’t want to get in the way of the national basketball team so we have to get ready for that,” said Compton.
Aces slapped Abueva, a former PBA Rookie of the Year awardee, with indefinite suspension after going absent without leave for more than two weeks to fix some “personal matters.”
It was the second time the Pampanga native left the squad without notice to attend to personal matters but Alaska did not punish Abueva when he first did it last year.
Meanwhile a source told Panay News that Aces is reportedly looking into trade offers from other squads and ready to let Abueva go.
“Not necessarily na ite-trade siya ng Alaska,” said the source, who requested anonymity for being unauthorized to speak to the press on the matter, “but there are teams that are inquiring if available si Calvin (Abueva) for trade.”
“They (Alaska) are studying the offers and they might pull the trigger kung may magustuhan silang offer,” the source added./PN
