South Korea may have not worked for Justine Baltazar, but his previous coach believes a lot of opportunity will follow the rejuvenated forward.
Justine Baltazar has yet to come forward following his two-year ban in the Korean Basketball League for failing to show up for Seoul Samsung Thunders, and it is likely that the soft-spoken forward will remain mum about it. But coach Charles Tiu, who handled the Kapampangan hooper in the Strong Group, shed some light on the issue and also defended Baltazar.
In an interview with Power and Play, Tiu revealed they got the services of Baltazar for the Dubai International Basketball Championship as early as December, even before any deal with the South Korean deal was discussed. The Strong Group coach said he was ready to give way for Baltazar’s overseas team.
“We found out about this Korean deal and we said he can leave early if he has to be there by February 1st. I was ready to let him go, sacrifice our tournament for his sake. I even booked him a one-way flight to Dubai because we expect him to fly out to Korea,” Tiu said.
However, visa problems apparently impeded Baltazar’s supposed South Korea stint.
“I guess whatever development happened was that he could not get his visa for some reason,” Tiu said. “There was one day he had to miss practice. He showed me he was going to the bank. He showed me that they were already preparing envelopes to send to the embassy to apply. I thought everything was going well.”
Baltazar ended up finishing his duties with Strong Group, where they crashed out of the quarterfinals of the Dubai tournament early this month.
News of Baltazar’s ban in the KBL followed, but Tiu believes it is unfair to put all the blame on the 25-year-old wing.
“There were reports,I read ,saying Balti was nowhere to be—no contact with the Korean team. He’s never spoken to one Korean person from that team anyways, from day one. Not one contact was made directly to him. I’m not sure that’s a fair statement.”
Despite the ugly turnout of Baltazar’s early overseas career, Tiu also believes that Baltazar will bounce back stronger.
““The good thing that came out of this, Balti’s game is back. His confidence level came back again,” Tiu said. “When he started practicing with us for the first two weeks he looked really bad. If you guys saw the tournament, I know we lost, but the last few games he looked like the Balti of old and if this is the way you’re playing, some other teams will get you and I hope that;s the case for him.”
Basketball fans are waiting for Baltazar’s next move if he will declare for the next PBA draft or still try his luck in the overseas scene.