The 2019 Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Commissioner’s Cup incident involving Phoenix Pulse Fuel Master’s forward Calvin Abueva’s clothesline on Talk N’ Text’s import Terrence Jones last Sunday, May 2, has made international headlines, with National Basketball Association (NBA) players now even commenting on the altercation themselves.
NBA on ESPN initially shared the video last Tuesday, June 4 captioned, “Former NBA player Terrence Jones dealt a low blow to an opponent who later clothesline him, sparking a brawl in a Philippine Basketball Association game.”
Current Denver Nuggets point guard Isaiah Thomas responded, telling his 1.62 million Twitter followers, “I would have beat his a**!” A fan clarified, “Whose? Terrence or the other dude?” which Thomas states, “T Jones [is] my dude. I’m talking the other dude.”
Ballislife.com, on the other hand, shared a video on the same day of Abueva provoking his KaTropa opponents, explaining, “Calvin Abueva has been slapped with an indefinite suspension in the PBA after hitting former NBA player Terrence Jones with a clothesline & then dancing on the scorers table!” They added, “Calvin Abueva was also fined for calling Ray Parks’ girlfriend a b**ch and making obscene gesture towards her.”
Golden State Warriors’ center Andrew Bogut from Australia retweeted the video to his 389,000 followers, commenting, “The resume continues building for this fella.”
Bogut has previously been outspoken about his dismay with the Gilas Pilipinas brawl, which Abueva was a part of last July 2, 2018, after the Philippine representatives took a selfie after the commotion. After that event, Abueva served the maximum of six-game suspension.
Currently, Abueva is serving an indefinite suspension national league, along with a P70,000 fine from the PBA Commissioner’s office after being summoned by Willie Marcial. The Phoenix management soon responded after the Commissioner’s statement was released, stating, “While we do not agree with the decision, we have no alternative at the moment but to abide by it. We no longer wish to comment on the basis of the decision but just expect and hope that incidents like this in the future will be treated similarly and decided the same manner regardless of the player involved.”