The Ryan Richards situation is crazy.
Also, new Terrafirma coach Raymond Tiongco was quick to call him out.
Checking out Reuben Terrado’s Youtube clip, the coach threw the import in front of the bus and I can’t blame him.
Look, Tim Cone got his coaching job after working as a commentator.
He turned out fine.
Tiongco starred for the Mapua Cardinals in the 2000s. The verdict is out as to whether or not he’ll keep his position. At the moment, Terrafirma has never won a title since joining the league in 2014. Terrafirma has squandered their draft picks and whenever they have a fighting program, they just mess it up.
The team never developed a winning tradition and I doubt if they’ll ever have one as long as they keep on doing what they are doing.
So this knock is a good thing.
I think Raymond Tiongco doesn’t care about his job security. Again, he is a coaching unknown in a garbage ball club. I have been a fan of Terrafirma for so long. I was an Alaska fan during the 90s but secretly, I wanted the Pepsi Megas and the Sta. Lucia Realtors to win a title. While Pepsi never got to win a championship up until they transitioned from food to telecommunications and Sta. Lucia never won a title in that era, at least they have had playoff wins. This is why I will never give Terrafirma a free pass until they win a playoff series.
BATTLE OF 90S UNDERDOGS (1990 TO 1999)
TEAM | FINALS APPEARANCE | THIRD PLACE WINS |
PEPSI / MOBILINE | 2 | 1 |
STA. LUCIA | 0 | 5 |
NOTE: MOBILINE CELLULARS - 1998 PBA CENTENNIAL CUP CHAMPIONS
But like I said, I admire Tiongco’s guts to just do that to Richards. I guess Richards thought Tiongco was just a patsy. I mean, he’s playing for a team that lost their most consistent players in Juami Tiongson and Andreas Cahilig, just lost their coach in Johnedel Cardel, and will be about to lose Christian Standhardinger for nothing.
That said, Richards is one of two imports in this conference to play under 15 seconds. But while Akil Mitchell didn’t hostage his team and was actually fighting for the team when the injury happened, Terrafirma had to rely on an aging vet who just got in the team to make their selves less incompetent. I don’t know how the Dyip will solve this issue, but the last time they had an import, they stuck with Antonio Hester to a 1-9 win-loss record. While Hester managed to up his numbers at the tail-end of the Governors’ Cup, at one point, he only scored two points and was benched in the entire second half. That situation should have been grounds for a pink slip. Again, Hester had the chance to redeem himself, but again, his antics never translated into wins.
Richards had a bad first game and an unreal second one. Richards basically hostaged Terrafirma when he said that he was going to play in the Northport game. And of all the teams to just leave high and dry, it had to be the season’s worst. Given how short the PBA conferences are, it’s safe to say that Terrafirma’s conference has ended.
Again, I see Terrafirma finishing the season with a "nail-biter." To become “competitive” in the Philippine Cup, they will try to “trick” Ginebra into trading either Maverick Ahanmisi or Jeremiah Gray for their first-round draft pick.
Either that or they will enter the 2025 PBA Draft as the number one, but will end up trading the pick to one of the SMC teams.
Again, they’ll have Kai Sotto, Carl Tamayo, or Kevin Quiambao.