Sol Train's welcome to the Philippines moment was memorable.
When imports get to the Philippines to play basketball, they always remark on how physical and taxing the league can be.
Just how physical? Sol Mercado recounts his own experience as a Fil-Am player as he spoke to fellow baller Jared Dillinger during their Coast to Coast Session uploaded as part of their Let It Fly Podcast YouTube page.
At the time, Mercado was heading to practice for Harbour Centre under coach Jorge Gallent in the Philippine Basketball League.
"I walk to the gym and I have never, in my entire life, played in heat like that," Mercado recalled. There was no air-conditioning at the gym.
"For real, I threw up. I felt like I was gonna pass out in my first practice."
He did get some help learning the ropes from TY Tang, and they eventually got together for the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters in the PBA.
"Took me in and he is a baller. Midrange bandit," Mercado said of Tang. "He could hoop. He could've played longer."
After the heat, Mercado got a first-hand experience with the Philippine style of play.
"My first thoughts about it was like, 'These dudes are dirty as hell.' Beau Belga was my teammate. He's dirty now, but it was like they were trying to test me, see what I was made of," he recalled.
But Mercado, who used to play American football, welcomed the challenge.
"I play a physical game. I'm like, 'Yeah, come with it!'"
Turns out, it was nothing compared to an actual game.
"Oh no, these dudes are really dirty. This is what dirty looks like," Mercado said as he compared it to what happened in practice. "That was normal teammates' play!"
Of course, Mercado adjusted fairly quickly to the PBA's bruising style, so much that he had become one of the league's premier guards in pretty much his first conference. In fact, he would go on to have a long, productive career as one of local basketball's most athletic, most physical guards—the kind who could take a beating and just walk away (at least for the most part).
(MDB)