Pacquiao: No basketball - for now

BAGUIO, Philippines – Freddie Roach is extremely glad that Manny Pacquiao’s basketball days are over.

Well, at least in this training camp, the WBO welterweight champion from the Philippines hasn’t touched the basketball.

Roach said it should help because he feels that Pacquiao playing too much basketball while training for a big fight has its side effects.

“Basketball on top of the workouts is just too much,” said Roach.

“That’s why he probably has cramps and so forth at the end of the camp,” he added.

Besides, he risks getting hurt, getting sprained – or even worse – inside the basketball court.”

Whether in this cool summer destination or in Los Angeles, Pacquiao used to sneak out late in the afternoon or even at night to play ball with his friends.

Sometimes he gets so tired he skips running the morning after. 

Roach blamed basketball for the leg cramps that Pacquiao experienced in his last couple of fights.

Pacquiao blamed the formal shoes he’d worn almost everyday since he became a congressman as the cause of the pain in his inner sole or the cramps during a fight.

He said he’s just not used to wearing formal shoes, and it may have caused the pain.

Roach is glad that in the meantime, basketball is out of Pacquiao’s agenda.

Instead, Pacquiao, the 33-year-old member of Congress, is holding on to the bible, from the time that he wakes up until the time he goes to sleep.

Even in the park, after his morning run, Pacquiao would spend an hour reading the bible. And when he gets back to his hotel suite, the bible is often by his side.

“During breakfast, lunch or dinner, the bible is with him. Either he’s the one reading it or someone reads it for him,” said a Team Pacquiao member.

“That’s his way of life now. While he seems to be overdoing it at times, it’s far better than before when he used to spend long hours in the casino,” he added.

Pacquiao is a changed man, and it has made his wife, Jinkee, very happy.

“Manny spends more time now with his family. When he’s not training, he comes home straight from Congress, unless he has other commitments,” the team member said.

Pacquiao said he has realized that reading the bible is better than everything else, including basketball.

“Reading the bible feels more relaxing,” he said yesterday inside his refurbished suite at the Cooyeesan Hotel along Naguilan Road.

Pacquiao spars today at the Shape Up Gym, and late in the afternoon he travels to Manila, and readies himself for Saturday’s trip to Los Angeles.

“Mas masarap magbasa ng bible. So, that’s what I do now,” he said.

In the four-hour ride to Manila, he’d be clutching his bible.

You can bet on that.