Yeng Guiao spares no one. Not even Mr. President.
Rain or Shine Elasto Painter veteran Gabe Norwood is the consummate professional. He is also fundamentally sound and rarely makes mistakes.
In short, he is the kind of player who is probably in the good graces of the fiery Yeng Guiao.
But, it turns out, even Norwood is not immune to getting an earful from the veteran tactician, who is known to give players smoldering scoldings from time to time.
And in the pilot episode of the podcast Let It Fly co-hosted by Norwood, Jared Dillinger, and Sol Mercado, the 6-foot-5 Gilas Pilipinas veteran hilariously recalled the first time Guiao gave him an earful.
“I don’t think Sol knows this, but his first game with Meralco [Bolts], he’d just gotten traded and we played each other in Cuneta [Astrodome]. I had a fastbreak and you’re [talking to Mercado] like chasing me down on the fastbreak, and it was only the worst because of what happened after,” Norwood narrated when asked about his worst experiences on the court with his best friend, the Sol Train.
The two, of course, go way back and were actually teammates with Rain or Shine from 2008 to 2011—the year Mercado was traded to the Bolts.
“You went up to contest, and I dropped a pass behind my back, turned the ball over. So, Coach Yeng calls timeout and it was the first time he went off on me,” Norwood continued. “He was like, ‘Just because you’re his best friend you’re not gonna try [to attack]. Bro, he went off on me—all because of you.”
Norwood, of course, was smirking at times while narrating the hilarious recollection to Mercado. But best believe he was not smiling one bit when Guiao was giving him his very first talking-to many years ago.