Santos traded to Beermen

By Rey Joble

ALREADY a powerhouse team, San Miguel Beer will be taking in yet another blue-chip player in national team standout Arwind Santos, who will be unloaded by Burger King after the Motolite-Philippine Basketball Association Fiesta Conference best-of-seven championship series.

San Miguel is currently battling sister team Barangay Ginebra in a best-of-seven championship series, but Burger King team manager and incoming PBA chairman Lito Alvarez told Standard Today that he has already talked to SMB officials regarding the transfer of Santos, whose contract will expire this month.

The players, who will be sent to the Whopper in exchange for Santos, are not yet named, but a highly-placed source from the league mentioned 6’9” Samigue Eman, burly forward Ken Bono and veteran shooting guard Chris Calaguio as the likely replacements of the former Far Eastern University stalwart.

“I have talked to Arwind and his manager, Danny Espirtu, that they can negotiate with San Miguel Beer pagkatapos ng championship,” said Alvarez.

Santos started his commercial league career playing under San Miguel Corp.-owned teams in the Philippine Basketball League. He played for Viva Mineral Water, then owned by SMC before it was taken over by Coca-Cola. He also suited up for Magnolia, where he won championships on top of individual accolades.

The 6’4” forward has long expressed his wish to play for San Miguel in the PBA, where he will have an opportunity to win the big one.

The Beermen are a championship-caliber team as they have superstars like Dondon Hontiveros, veterans Danny Ildefonso and Olsen Racela, slotmen Mick Pennisi and Dorian Peña, guard Mike Cortez, up-and-coming stars like Marc Pingris, Jay Washington, Bonbon Custodio and Jonas Villanueva.

The Beermen also have Danny Seigle and Lordy Tugade, who are both on the injured list.

Asked about his thoughts on this new development, Burger King coach Yeng Guiao said he was not aware of Santos’ transfer to San Miguel.

“I have no knowledge of this,” said Guiao. “Maybe, it’s management to management negotiations.”