By JONAS TERRADO
Magnolia Hotshots Pambansang Manok import Romeo Travis believes that his friend LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers can pull off surprises when the NBA begins its new season in mid-October.
James made headlines last month when he signed with the Lakers after playing the last four seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers, a move that didn’t surprise Travis.
He and James go a long way as high school teammates at St. Vincent-St. Mary High School in Akron, Ohio and have stayed friends even after the latter became a three-time NBA champion and four-time Most Valuable Player.
“I’m happy for him,” Travis said after Magnolia’s 102-72 win over NLEX Wednesday night at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. “He’s happy and he went to where he wanted to be, you know. So, I’m for him and I’m happy for his family.
“I think it’s gonna be a good situation,” he added. “They gonna surprise a lot of people with that roster because they gonna give a lot of people defensive problems. They switch on everyone and they have a hybrid lineup with LeBron at the five (center position) and that’s just scary.”
The Lakers, with the great Magic Johnson as president of basketball operations and Luke Walton as coach, made moves to give James some supporting cast in Javale McGee and Lance Stephenson while still having a young core led by Brandon Ingram and Lonzo Ball.
Travis said James’ move to Hollywood was only a matter of time.
“I wasn’t surprised at all,” he said. “I knew about it…I heard about it since January so it was like depending on how the season went. I wasn’t surprised at all,” he said.
What’s surprising for Travis was how long it took him to get back in the PBA with the mission to complete some unfinished business, this time with a new team.
