By REYNALD MAGALLON
Caelan Tiongson will be one of the older hopefuls in the PBA Season 49 rookie draft and he is just happy to be finally settling down with the big league after stints from around Asia.
The 6-foot-5 journeyman was only one of the 19 Fil-foreigners wanting to try their luck in the PBA – much to the excitement of the fans who have been raring him to see play in the league ever since his stint with Alab Pilipinas in the ABL.
“I’m really grateful for the fans in the Philippines. I always said that Filipino fans are always the best in the world so it’s exciting that people are excited for me to come back here,” said Tiongson.
“It makes me excited to play and it makes me motivated to play really hard. I just hope that I don’t let the fans down,” he added.
As to why it took time for him to throw his name into the PBA draft, Tiongson said he simply wanted to explore opportunities abroad.
“I think it’s just a timing thing. I think there’s a lot of opportunities abroad for Filipino players and I just took advantage of that. I mean I had good stints in China, in the ABL and in Taiwan when the opportunity came, I was excited for that,”explained Tiongson.
“It was just more of an exploratory time for me. I was just for a chance to be alittle bit more mobile and now at my age ready to settle down with one spot,” he furthered.
At 32 years old, Tiongson is certainly bringing a lot of experience for a rookie to any team that would draft him. The question however is how fit he is heading into the PBA especially after a long layoff.
Good thing for Tiongson, he will get a chance to get his conditioning back as he joins the Strong Group Athletics for its 34th Jones Cup campaign in Taiwan.
“It’s been a long layoff so coming out here playing with Strong Group with a lot of talented players, it was my first practice in a while so getting my condition back and everything like that is really good for me so I appreciate the opportunity that Charles (Tiu) gave me,” said Tiongson.
