MANILA – Barangay Ginebra San Miguel Kings of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) managed to keep the playing rights of center Gregory Slaughter, who earlier announced his desire to take a break from the basketball world.
The Kings have done it by extending an offer sheet to the former Gilas Pilipinas big man, a copy of which was also given to the PBA Commissioner’s Office, to prevent Slaughter from becoming an unrestricted free agent.
Based on PBA rules, a team needs to extend an offer sheet to a player 30 days since the expiration of his previous contract to keep his playing rights. For Slaughter’s case, it was last Jan. 31.
“If no offer is made within 30 days, the player is a free agent,” said PBA deputy commissioner Eric Castro. “If there’s a valid offer of at least one year, the team has the right to match forever.”
The 31-year-old has earlier announced on his social media accounts his desire to take a break from the game following the expiration of his contract and with Ginebra not extending a new one.
However, San Miguel Corporation sports director Alfrancis Chua said that it should be the former Ateneo de Manila University Blue Eagles center who should approach the management for a new deal and not the other way around.
Chua, at the same time, denied that the Filipino-American giant is set to be traded to the NorthPort Batang Pier together with rookie guard Jerrick Balanza in exchange for Christian Standhardinger.
Slaughter was selected first overall by the Kings during the 2013 PBA Rookie Draft. He went on to win four PBA championships with Ginebra, including the 2019 PBA Governors’ Cup last month.
He was also part of the original Gilas Pilipinas team under head coach Rajko Toroman, and was recently part of the Philippine men’s basketball team that won a gold medal in the 2019 Southeast Asian Games./PN
