Pacquiao Promises No More Hoops Until After Fight

By Keith Idec

Manny Pacquiao promised Bob Arum he won’t play basketball again until after he fights Chris Algieri.

Arum admitted on a recent conference call that he wasn’t at all pleased with Pacquiao’s decision to play in Philippine Basketball Association game on Oct. 19 in Bulacan, Philippines. The 5-foot-6 Pacquiao, who often professes his love of basketball, is a player/coach for Kia Sorento, presumably because his star power attracts attention for the franchise.

Pacquiao played just seven minutes in the aforementioned game, but the Filipino superstar’s participation upset Arum because ankle injuries are so common in basketball that one false move could’ve caused a postponement of the Nov. 22 bout between the heavily favored Pacquiao (56-5-2, 38 KOs) and Algieri (20-0, 8 KOs) in Macau, China (HBO Pay-Per-View). Arum’s Top Rank Inc. and HBO Sports have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars promoting the fight the past 2½ months, including a 12-day, six-city, two-continent press tour that spanned 27,000 miles in August and September.

“I found out that he was playing before he played and I was not a very happy camper,” Arum said. “Professional basketball, no matter the country where it is played, is a rugged sport and a player can turn an ankle very, very easily. These players in the NBA are fantastic physical specimens and yet they get injured all the time.  An injury would have really wreaked havoc on the fight so I was not very pleased. But everyone has assured us – Manny has assured [trainer] Freddie [Roach] and Freddie has assured me that that’s it. After he does the fight on November 22nd, if he wants to try out for the New York Knicks, that’s OK with me.”

The 35-year-old Pacquiao explained that he played on a Sunday – his only day off each week from boxing during training camp – and seemed unfazed by all the controversy his brief participation in the basketball game caused.

“It was a good experience to play in a professional basketball game like that,” said Pacquiao, who noted that more than 52,000 fans attended the game. “I didn’t play long. I just wanted to help my team and that’s why I played. Professional basketball in the Philippines is very competitive and more importantly, we won the first game.”

The WBO welterweight champion added, however, that he won’t play again until after the Algieri fight.

“Right now I have an assistant coach and he will coach the basketball team,” Pacquiao said. “Right now I am focused on my training. After the fight, I will come back to the team and be focused on coaching the team.”

Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.