The Tropa are a band of brothers.
TNT Tropang Giga big man Poy Erram has gotten a lot of attention in this PBA Governors’ Cup—and mostly for the wrong reasons.
Erram has gotten whistled for flagrant fouls and has been complaining incessantly to the refs. He also undercut—accidentally or deliberately— Barangay Ginebra San Miguel’s Scottie Thompson late in Game 3 and was even seen dropping a forearm shiver on the head of newly minted Best Player of the Conference Christian Standhardinger.
Then, at the end of Game 3 on Friday, he was seen approaching the PBA’s technical committee to point out a fan speaking ill of his parents in some heated trash talk.
Through it all, TNT has stuck with their beanpole big. And it appears the Tropang Giga will have Erram’s back all the way through.
“Mukhang maayos naman si Poy,” TNT coach Jojo Lastimosa told the press in the aftermath of the Tropang Giga’s Game 4 win on Sunday at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. We talked to him. It’s an ongoing battle for Poy. He’s got some issues at hindi alam ng mga tao ‘yun.”
Lastimosa also rued the heckling that got Erram hot in the collar.
“For a fan shouting below the belt comments on him—that really hit him,” Lastimosa pointed out. “For me that’s a big no-no. Once you include the parents of the players in your taunting, that’s a different story. We’re gonna go out and fight for him.”
The artist formerly known as The Fourth Quarter Man in his playing days also intimated that he won’t be taking any insensitive heckling lying down.
“If it happened to me, I’m going to go out and fight that person. It’s just unacceptable. We’re with Poy on that,” Lastimosa emphasized.
Erram, to his credit, seems to have moved on from the Game 3 incident, playing the entire Game 4 without any untoward incidents.
He will have to be in his best behavior again on Wednesday as TNT and Ginebra engage in an all-important Game 5, also at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.