By Jonas Terrado
PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial spared San Miguel Beer’s Renaldo Balkman and Barangay Ginebra San Miguel’s Joe Devance of any sanctions from an incident that marred Friday’s Game 4 of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals at the Smart Araneta Coliseum.
The two players figured in a heated exchange at the end of the second quarter of Ginebra’s 130-100 win which saw Balkman shoving Devance as the two teams were heading toward the locker room before cooler heads prevailed.
“Pinagsabihan ko lang sila,” Marcial said after talking to Balkman and Devance after the match.
Both Balkman and Devance were quick to downplay the incident during separate interviews with reporters.
“It’s nothing,” Balkman said. “We don’t have no fight. You know, what happened, happened. It’s wasn’t that bad. It made it seem like it looked all bad but we’re just walking to the dugout. That’s all.”
“It was no big deal. Just a little pushing,” Devance said. “I mean, emotions are going to be high, you knowm so that’s all it was. It wasn’t nothing big.”
It was the second time that Balkman and Devance were involved in a heated incident in the series.
Balkman was fined P5,000 for a Flagrant Foul 1 that saw him hit Kevin Ferrer in the third quarter of San Miguel’s 134-109 win in Game 2 Sunday.
Devance meted a P1,000 fine for a technical foul due to an exchange of harsh words with San Miguel’s Chris Ross in the fourth quarter of the same game.
