TAB Baldwin has found himself in a corner again, like a recidivist schoolboy sent to face the wall as punishment for another mischief.
Already bashed in social media for belittling local coaches and badmouthing the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), PBA referees and the Fiba (World Basketball Federation), Baldwin got himself accused of “a bit of insincerity” by no less than the PBA chairman himself, the straight-talking Ricky Vargas.
Baldwin, now renamed “Badwin” in sports media, got the ire of Vargas when, after apologizing to Vargas for his multiple rants against Philippine basketball, he said he was “taken out of context” in that ill-fated podcast three weeks ago.
Baldwin aired his new pitch while guesting on Tuesday, June 30, in the highly-popular weekly Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum.
For that, the current coach of Ateneo in UAAP basketball got rebuked anew by Vargas, who, as TNT KaTropa governor to the PBA board, had a major role in firing Baldwin as TNT assistant coach in the aftermath of Baldwin’s misconduct.
“For me, that was over and done with after he apologized to us,” Vargas told the Inquirer’s Musong R Castillo. “But to tell other people that he was quoted out of context made me think that he was a bit insincere in his apology.”
Vargas also said additional sanctions against Baldwin “will now be up” to Al Panlilio.
The action of my tocayo Al, the youthful SBP president, is eagerly awaited by a basketball republic aching to banish Baldwin to the doghouse.
Of those that Baldwin had whacked, only the PBA has acted thus far, fining the Kiwi-American P75,000 and slapping him a three-game suspension.
Will tocayo Al, definitely hurt when Baldwin called Fiba’s citizenship rules “criminal,” crack the whip on Baldwin, who, ironically, is SBP’s director for Project Gilas?
The local coaches association, whom Baldwin accused its members of being “tactically immature,” has also remained quiet as a post.
So, again, when is an apology an apology?
To say you were misquoted after apologizing is simply bullshit.
Absolutely, Vargas knows that by heart.