The video of the brawl in Cebu shows just one part of the story.
Retired PBA players Jayjay Helterbrand and Rico Maierhofer know JR Quiñahan and Beau Belga quite well. And on Monday, the two resident PBA Moto Club members took to YouTube to weigh in on the controversy the Extra Rice Inc. brothers are currently embroiled in: the Cebu basketbrawl that happened on Saturday.
A video clip of the incident, which has made rounds on social media, shows Quiñahan initially getting punched several times by a foreign player at the back of the head before facing up and throwing haymakers himself. In the middle of the fracas, Belga is seen throwing the basketball at the head of the foreign player before retreating, as cooler heads tried to intervene.
In the video “Suntukan sa CEBU” posted on the PBA Moto Club YouTube channel, both Helterbrand and Maierhofer agreed that violence has no place in basketball. They were also in agreement that the video itself provides little context as to why the brawl actually began.
“It’s not the whole video. Hindi natin nakita kung ano ‘yung nangyari before, bakit umabot sa ganun na situation,” Helterbrand pointed out in the reaction video he filmed with Maierhofer. “Hindi natin alam baka tinira ‘yung import, kung may dirty play na nangyari or something.”
Maierhofer concurred, before saying that bigs like himself, Quiñahan, and Belga play a physical brand of basketball, which Maierhofer describes as normal for big men.
“’Yung dalawang 'yan bruiser, they are there to play physical,” Maierhofer told Helterbrand. “I think kaya nagkaroon ng ganyan dahil sa physicality nung dalawa and nag-counterattack ‘tong si import.”
Helterbrand agreed, then doubled down on his initial point that the video does not tell the whole story.
“Pero ‘yang mga import na 'yan sanay sa physical play,” Helterband noted. “For me, there’s something else that happened before that na hindi natin nakita. Maybe they were trash talking. Feeling ko may nag dirty play kasi ‘yung mga imports, they’re always getting beat up. Hindi sila nagre-react ng ganyan.”
The two former champions also appealed to players at all levels not to resort to any form of violence when playing basketball. Helterbrand, in particular, called on all hoopers to play basketball the way it’s supposed to be played.”
Watch the whole reaction video here: