One more year for Nenad

MANILA, Philippines — Meralco active coaching consultant Nenad Vucinic has a year left in his PBA contract and will be back on the Bolts bench when the next season opens with the Governors’ Cup in August. Vucinic, 59, played a key role in Meralco’s ascension to the Philippine Cup throne, calling the shots in collaboration with head coach Luigi Trillo.

It was Vucinic who designed the final play for Chris Newsome to take the winning shot with 3.3 seconds left in Game Six of the Finals last Sunday. Meralco called a timeout after June Mar Fajardo knocked down a miracle three to tie it, 78-all. “It was a shock, of course, when June Mar hit the shot but we had time,” said Vucinic who was Gilas’ interim head coach for a FIBA World Cup Asia qualifying window in 2022. “The play had to be for New.”

Vucinic is returning home to visit family in Belgrade and will rejoin Meralco in early August to prepare for the next season. He follows in the line of previous active coaching consultants Rajko Toroman, Todd Purves, Mark Dickel and Slavoljub Gorunovic.

Trillo singled out three factors that decided the outcome of the Finals. “First, discipline of our guys to do our defensive gameplan on rotations from the post and pick-and-rolls,” he said. “Second, the amount of body work showed in the series. I felt our guys were in better shape and we kept on harping on that, the pace we played at. Third, Raymond (Almazan), Brandon (Bates), Norbert (Torres) and Kyle (Pascual) taking turns on June Mar helped us in the long series.”

Trillo also paid tribute to the role players. “I’m happy for guys like Anjo (Caram),” he said. “It took Anjo 13 long years to win a championship. Brandon was very significant because he was extremely brave to battle Christian (Standhardinger) then June Mar. People don’t know Brandon played Games Five and Six with the flu. Norbert became our stretch big and showed up, reminding me of Reynel (Hugnatan) when he played for us.” On Fajardo’s three to tie in Game Six, Trillo called it a great shot by the PBA’s best player. “We still had three seconds,” he said. “Gutsy shot by New. He was 3-of-16 before that game winner.”