Players hungry for motivation

MANILA, Philippines – While staying in top shape is part of the job, PBA players are admittedly searching for extra motivation as they push hard in their home workouts in these uncertain times.

Training individually and not knowing when the league will resume or if it will resume at all has posed a mental challenge to the ballers during quarantine.

“I’ve always been training for the season, for the games. Right now we’re in such uncertain times. We don’t know when that (restart) would come so it’s hard to stay mentally strong and keep your mind set that the league would eventually come back,” San Miguel’s Chris Ross said while guesting on The Huddle on TV5.

“When your resources are limited at home, if the workouts start to get a little tedious, repetitive, it’s hard so we got to be that much more mentally strong to push through,” he added.

For NLEX veteran Asi Taulava, there’s a personal milestone to chase once the PBA resumes play.

“I wanna be the first guy to play in four (different) decades and that’s my motivation everyday when I do my extra work,” said Taulava, who joined the PBA in 1999.

“I’m 47, and sometimes I think about the aches, the pains in the morning when I wake up but it all goes away when I think of that. I want to be the first guy to do it so when I walk away from the game, I can say I did something,” he added.

Meralco’s Chris Newsome draws inspiration from the health benefits of staying fit.

“I try to think of the long term. Regardless of whether I’ll be playing basketball or not, that’s something that’s going to be good for my overall well-being and lifestyle,” said the Fil-Am guard.

“Even when my basketball career is finished, I still want to have healthy habits, be able to be in the best physical shape that I can be.”

After over four months of doing it by themselves and sometimes via zoom with their respective teams, the PBA players will finally join some of their teammates for their conditioning – face to face.

Armed with the blessing of the government, the pro league is preparing to resume non-scrimmage training sessions for the 12 teams under strict health and safety protocols by July 20 or 22.

These sessions will be limited to four players at a time doing mostly conditioning drills.