MANILA, Philippines -- Two more players from KIA/Mahindra came out in the open, sharing their sad plight while playing for the Enforcers during the expansion ball clubs’ first season in the PBA.
Fil-Am JR Buensuceso, a backup playmaker, along with shooting guard Alvin Padilla, came out in public, having been encouraged to share their piece after Mahindra players Alex Nuyles and Fil-Swede Michel Burtscher recently vented their frustrations on the team at social media.
Buensuceso said a promised one-year contract extension last July, vanished in thin air when Mahindra team managers Eric Pineda and Joe Ramos decided to drop him altogether, just days after the PBA Rookie Draft last August.
The diminutive playmaker, who left a lucrative job in Los Angeles to pursue his basketball dream in the Philippines, explained that he’s now on a wait-and-see mode in his PBA career since the other 11 ballclubs already filled up their roster less than three weeks before the opening of the new season.
“Basketball was what I knew all my life,” Buensuceso told sports scribes during an informal meet-up with the press Friday night.
“On July 14, the coaches and management sat me down and discussed my future and they said they will extend me one more year. So I have one more year to prove myself again,” recalled the former Brigham Young University-Hawaii stalwart.
“After the PBA Draft, Friday of that week, I met with KIA officials and they gave me the bad news that the team decided to go on a different direction.”
The 5-foot-9 point guard, who had a brief stint with GlobalPort in 2013, said he was told my Mahindra management to report to NLEX for practice, but upon inquiring through coach Boyet Fernandez, the Road Warriors’ have no more spot available.
He later on, learned from NLEX that the Road Warriors were actually wanting to trade for him before the draft, but Mahindra officials didn’t do anything even though they earlier showed interest.
“I just reported for practice (at NLEX) without being told and NLEX welcomed me. They told me that right now, they were over capped in salary but just they’ll just see, tiyaga lang and maybe, something might happen,” said Buenseceso, who averaged decent numbers of 4.9 points, 2.5 rebounds and 2.2 assists as backup to starting playmaker LA Revilla.
“I later found out they (Road Warriors) were trying to hire me two weeks before the draft. They saw my game improved and they wanted to take a chance on me. KIA opened daw sa negotiation till pagdating the draft, deadma na daw sila.”
On the other hand, Padilla, who played for KIA during the team’s first two conferences last season, was offered a buyout on the remainder of his 17-month contract, due to what management termed as ‘poor performance and a penchant for game-fixing’.
“Ang sabi daw ng KIA, i-buyout na lang daw ang kontrata ko, kasi di daw nila nagustuhan yung performance ko. Seventeen months pa yung natitira sa kontrata ko, pero ang offer sa akin nun, five months lang sa buyout,” shared Padilla, who has now reverted to the PBA D-League and will play for Jumbo Plastic.
Padilla, who played three seasons for the UP Fighting Maroons in college, said he originally wanted to just stay on with his original two-year contract with KIA. But team management insisted he just take the buyout or be forced to face the consequences.
“Hindi na lang po ako nagpa-buyout. Ang sabi ko po, bayaran na lang nila (KIA management) ako every month, kaya lang ang sabi nila, kung di ako papayag, irereklamo daw ako sa PBA office for game-fixing,” lamented the 26-year-old Padilla.
Sources said Mahindra players like Hans Thiele, Chad Alonzo, Jopher Custodio and Paul Sanga also have similar bad experiences with the team.
Philstar.com tried reaching Pineda for comment, but as in previous attempts, the Mahindra team manager failed to respond to phone calls.