MANILA – James Yap’s return for the Rain or Shine and the Philippine Basketball Association is now official. He signed a one-conference contract with the Elasto Painters on Friday morning.
The Elasto Painters announced the signing of the Escalante City, Negros Occidental-native gunner on their social media pages and he will be good to go for the 2022-2023 PBA Governors’ Cup.
“James was offered a one-year deal, but he opted to sign for one conference only. Yap says that he will do his best to balance basketball and public service,” the Painters said in their Facebook post.
This mark as Yap’s return to competitive basketball after taking a leave in late 2021 to focus on his political career, where he won a councilor seat in San Juan City.
The 40-year-old Yap has been training with the Painters since late last year but was only able to land a contract ahead of the 2022-2023 PBA season-ending conference.
This will also be the first time that Yap is to be handled by Painters head coach Joseller “Yeng” Guiao in the PBA. They had a coach-player partnership twice at the national men’s basketball team.
In a related development, San Miguel Beermen shipped Ilonggo gunner Paul Zamar and a future second round pick to NorthPort Batang Pier in exchange for Allyn Bulanadi on late Thursday.
Zamar, a former University of the East Red Warriors star, was supposed to sign with the Bossing and was already practicing with the team following the expiration of his contract with the Beermen at the end of 2022.
But a PBA rule where a player with expired contracts and who have yet to get an offer from their respective mother ballclub need to wait for at least 30 days before signing with the teams they want to play for.
At the Batang Pier, Zamar is expected for heavy playing time and will be the fourth Western Visayas-based player aside from fellow Ilonggo Juan Paolo Taha and Bacolodnons Jeffrei Chan and LA Revilla.
Bulanadi, on the other hand, is expected to fight for minutes in the tight guard rotation at the Beermen, that features Jaymar Perez, Jericho Cruz, Terrence Romeo and Marcio Lassiter./PN
