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NBA Finals: Celtics back home with chance to clinch record 18th title

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Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum (0) and guard Jrue Holiday react as Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving (11) and forward P.J. Washington walk off away after the Celtics won 109-66 in Game 3 of the NBA basketball finals, Wednesday, June 12, 2024, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Sam Hodde)

BOSTON — The Boston Celtics’ catastrophic performance in Game 4 of the NBA Finals gave them a chance to clinch another championship on Monday night under the 17 banners already hanging in the TD Garden rafters.

And, coach Joe Mazzulla reminded them, that they would still have two more chances after that.

“We don’t like to lose,” Celtics guard Jaylen Brown said before practice on Sunday. “I think we are ready for Game 5. I think that’s the best answer that I’ve got. I think that we’re ready. We’re at home. And we’re looking forward to it.”

The Celtics cruised through the regular season with the best record in the NBA and then did even better in the playoffs, never trailing in a series while winning 15 of their first 17 games. They opened a 3-0 lead on Dallas, but the Mavericks avoided elimination with a 122-84 victory on Friday night — the third-biggest blowout in Finals history.

That sent the series back to Boston, where the Celtics will again try to win their unprecedented 18th NBA title — and their first since 2008. In a city that’s collected 12 championships already this century, that’s what passes for a drought.

READ: NBA Finals: Celtics take season’s worth of lessons into Game 5

“This is what we all work for,” Brown said. “We are at the precipice of completing what we set out to do at the beginning of the season. So I think it’s not difficult to get everybody in that locker room on the same page right now.”

The Game 4 loss snapped Boston’s franchise-record 10-game postseason winning streak (and also ended Kyrie Irving’s personal 13-game losing streak against his former team). Boston had been 3-0 in potential elimination games so far during these playoffs.

But the Celtics know — and Dallas surely does as well — that they still have three more chances to close out the series. All-Star Jayson Tatum said Mazzulla told his team on Sunday not to “surrender to that idea that we have to win tomorrow.”

While it’s unusual for a coach to diverge from the “one game at a time” mentality, the Celtics said the acknowledgement that they have three tries to win one game takes some of the pressure off them — pressure that may have gotten to them in their total dud of a Game 4.

“We would love to win tomorrow — more than anything,” Tatum said. “But if it doesn’t happen, it’s not the end of the world. We have more opportunities.”

READ: Jayson Tatum reflects on how being a dad changed his life and career

Irving said that the Mavericks are also trying to “enjoy the moment” and not focus on the fact that no NBA team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit in a playoff series. Game 6 would be back in Dallas on Thursday, with the potential deciding Game 7 in Boston on Sunday.

″(We are) just thinking about the goal that we have in front of us as best we can, and try not to get tired of everyone talking about the history that has not been made,” Irving said. “We got a chance to accomplish one of our goals, which is to make it back to Boston. We have another goal in front of us, and that’s to make it back to Dallas.”

That will be a lot harder if Boston center Kristaps Porzingis is available. The 7-foot-2 Latvian was listed on Sunday as questionable with a dislocated tendon in his left ankle.

Porzingis did not speak to reporters on Sunday. He practiced with the team wearing a white sleeve on his right leg, and during the 30 minutes that reporters were able to observe him on the court he was gingerly putting up shots from inside the lane, apparently taking care not to jump.

“I’m not sure where he’s at,” Mazzulla said. “But he’s trying and doing everything he can to try to put himself in position to be out there. I know that for sure.”

Porzingis missed 10 straight playoff games after straining his right calf in the first-round series against Miami. He returned for Game 1 of the finals and was a big reason for Boston’s victory, scoring 20 points with six rebounds and three blocked shots in 21 minutes.

But Porzingis dislocated a tendon in his left leg in Game 2, did not play in Game 3 and was said to be available for Game 4 “on a specific basis, if needed.” (With the Celtics quickly falling behind in a 38-point loss, he never checked into the game.)

Less of a concern is the status of Mavericks star Luka Doncic, who has been on the injury report with injuries to his right knee and left ankle along with a bruised chest. He went through the warmups for Game 2 with his torso and knee wrapped, but delivered a triple double in the loss.



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“At this point in the season, a lot of things going on,” he said on Sunday. “If I’m playing, I’m fine. No worries.”

PBA Finals Game 6 San Miguel vs Meralco

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2024 PBA Philippine Cup Finals schedule (Game 6)

Smart Araneta Coliseum

6:15pm – San Miguel Beermen vs Meralco Bolts

FULL SCHEDULE HERE.

San Miguel Beer guard CJ Perez during Game 6 of the PBA Philippine Cup Finals.–MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines—The hard work never stops for CJ Perez in the offseason especially after San Miguel Beer lost in the PBA Philippine Cup Finals.

Even after coming off his best PBA season yet, Perez, the Best Player of the Conference in the 2024 Commissioner’s Cup, feels the need to further improve his game and help get the Beermen back to the top.

Chris Newsome PBA Finals MVP Meralco Bolts

Meralco Bolts’ Chris Newsome celebrates after leading his team to the PBA Philippine Cup championship.-MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines—Meralco couldn’t have hoped for any other player than Chris Newsome to hold the ball in the endgame of Game 6 of the PBA Philippine Cup Finals.

Newsome showed why after he nailed the game-clinching shot to deliver the Bolts’ first-ever PBA title on Sunday night.

Chris Newsome Meralco Bolts PBA Finals

PBA Finals MVP Chris Newsome delivers Meralco’s first-ever PBA championship.–MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines–Chris Newsome finally entered hallowed basketball grounds on Sunday night, delivering Meralco’s first-ever PBA title at the expense of erstwhile defending champion San Miguel.

The two-way guard delivered the finishing blow of the 80-78 Game 6 victory at Smart Araneta Coliseum, capping off a stellar effort that eventually earned him the Honda-PBA Press Corps Finals Most Valuable Player.

Meralco Bolts PBA championship PBA Philippine Cup Finals

Meralco Bolts celebrate after winning their first-ever PBA title.–MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines–Call them the “Miracle Bolts.”

Against a battle-tested enemy so used to playing on a pressured-packed stage, the Bolts on Sunday stunned San Miguel, 80-78, to rule the PBA Philippine Cup.

Meralco Bolts in Game 5 of the PBA philippine Cup Finals against San Miguel Beermen

Meralco Bolts in Game 5 of the PBA philippine Cup Finals against San Miguel Beermen. -MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net

Now that they are within a win of their first-ever PBA championship, the Meralco Bolts are determined to not let a golden opportunity slip away.

Their first chance to close the series out is on Sunday night in Game 6 of the Philippine Cup Finals at Smart Araneta Coliseum, where the franchise that endured so many title heartbreaks can make those defeats a distant memory with another victory over the favored San Miguel Beermen.

June Mar Fajardo and the San Miguel Beermen in Game 5 of the PBA Philippine Cup Finals against Meralco Bolts.

June Mar Fajardo and the San Miguel Beermen in Game 5 of the PBA Philippine Cup Finals against Meralco Bolts. –MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net

San Miguel Beer is in a precarious, yet familiar predicament which it will try to overcome in the PBA Philippine Cup Finals when it stands up to Meralco’s first of two chances to end its long search for a championship.

Game 6 is set 6:15 p.m. on Sunday at Smart Araneta Coliseum, where the defending champion Beermen will try to solve the woes that allowed the Bolts to seize a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series two nights earlier.

Meralco Bolts' Allein Maliksi in during Game 5 of the PBA Philippine Cup Finals

Meralco Bolts’ Allein Maliksi in during Game 5 of the PBA Philippine Cup Finals. –MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net

With four PBA titles under his belt, Meralco gunner Allein Maliksi knows a thing or two about winning where lights shine the brightest and stakes are at their highest.

And he proved just that on Friday night, figuring prominently in the Bolts’ 92-88 Game 5 conquest of defending champion San Miguel Beer that also put the club on the threshold of a historic first championship.



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It’s Meralco’s time to win PBA title

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San Miguel Beer center June Mar Fajardo during Game 6 of the PBA Philippine Cup Finals.–MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines—June Mar Fajardo, as expected, displayed grace in defeat after a rare PBA Finals loss by the San Miguel Beermen in the Philippine Cup on Sunday.

Fajardo, a 10-time PBA champion, made sure to give credit where credit is due, tipping his hat to the Meralco Bolts, who closed out the Beermen in six grueling games.

“That’s really how it is. That’s how the sport is. We need to accept the losses,” said Fajardo in Filipino after a heartbreaking 80-78 loss that gave the Bolts their first-ever PBA title.

“It’s Meralco’s time to win the championship. Let’s clap for those who deserve it, let’s congratulate those who deserve the congratulations.”

Fajardo gave everything he had in the finals, finishing with 21 points and 12 rebounds in Game 6. He also made a clutch triple that would have forced overtime had it not been for Chris Newsome’s game-winning jumper with 1.3 seconds left.

READ: PBA Finals loss fuels CJ Perez to get better

The loss was Fajardo’s first loss in the PBA Philippine Cup Finals after winning in his last six trips to the all-Filipino championship round.

“While it’s painful to lose, that’s just how life is. We won championships but this time, it’s Meralco’s time. The ball was theirs. Let’s congratulate them, they played well as a whole,” said the seven-time PBA MVP, who missed a last-second 3-pointer that would’ve won it for San Miguel.

“As for us, we’ll keep our heads up. It’s not the end of the world for us, right? There’s still the next conference so we can bounce back there.”



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Junior PGT starts Visayas swing in Iloilo

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Young golfers from Iloilo City and surrounding areas get the Visayas swing of the Junior Philippine Golf Tour (JPGT) Series I going Monday at the age-old layout formerly known as Sta. Barbara in Iloilo.

Tiffany Bernardino looms as the hometown bet with the biggest chance as she campaigns in the 13-15 girls’ division even as championship trophies in the 8-9, 10-12, and 16-18 for boys and girls will be contested throughout the week at the course now known as Iloilo Golf Club.

Players earn points based on their performance in each tournament, with no limit on the number of events they can enter in a series. However, players in the Visayas and Mindanao swings will have only their two best results counting toward the final rankings for the 72 spots in the JPGT Match Play Championships at The Country Club in Laguna in October.

“I am excited to play at Iloilo’s historic golf course. My focus will be hitting the fairways and greens. I need to trust my game and play as best as I can. Hopefully I’ll be able to figure how to conquer the long fairways,” said the 13-year-old Bernardino.

Those playing in the Luzon will have four of their best tournaments counting for the final match play rankings.



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In hostile Boston, Mavs’ Irving aims to keep focus on NBA Finals

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Kyrie Irving of the Dallas Mavericks looks to pass the ball during the third quarter against the Boston Celtics in Game Two of the 2024 NBA Finals at TD Garden on June 09, 2024 in Boston, Massachusetts.  (Getty Images via AFP)

NEW YORK – Resigned to the villain’s role in Boston, Dallas star Kyrie Irving is less concerned with silencing hostile Celtics fans than with quieting self doubt and leading the Mavs in a must-win NBA Finals game five.
“Let’s just call it what it is,” Irving said Sunday as the Mavs prepared to try once again to fend off elimination in the championship series, in which they trail the Celtics 3-1.
“When the fans are cheering ‘Kyrie sucks’ they feel like they have a psychological edge, and that’s fair,’” said Irving, who was hounded by Celtics fans still rankled by his departure in 2019 after two seasons with the team.
Amid the jeers he delivered two sub-par performances in games one and two, the Mavs eventually falling 0-3 down before a blowout victory in game four to extend the series.
“Of course, if I’m not making shots or turning the ball over, that makes it even more of a pressing issue that they can stay on me for,” Irving said.
“I think in order to silence even the self-doubt, let alone the crowd doubt, but the self-doubt when you make or miss shots, that’s just as important as making sure I’m leading the team the right way and being human through this experience, too, and telling them how I feel.”
Sunday’s victory ended Irving’s own 13-game losing streak against the Celtics.
He’s cognizant of his complicated personal history with the team, which he said stretches back further than his petulant demonstrations when his Brooklyn Nets were swept by the  Celtics in the first round in 2022.
He said Sunday it started when he arrived in Boston in 2017, when he failed to engage with the history of the storied franchise or, as he put it “the cult that they have here.
“That’s what they expect you to do as a player,” Irving said. “They expect you to seamlessly buy into the Celtics’ pride, buy into everything Celtics. And if you don’t, then you’ll be outed.
“I’m one of the people that’s on the outs,” he added with a laugh. “I did it to myself.”
Now Irving is more concerned with the task facing the Mavericks as they try to become the first NBA team to erase an 0-3 deficit to win a playoff series.
“Most importantly, (it’s) not making this about me or getting into the energy with anyone else other than my teammates,” Irving said, adding that the Mavs must think “about the goal that we have in front of us as best we can, and try not to get tired of everyone talking about the history that has not been made.”
Irving, who won a title alongside LeBron James in Cleveland in 2016, said he had encouraged his teammates — many in the Finals for the first time — to embrace and enjoy the moment.
“We got a chance to accomplish one of our goals, which is to make it back to Boston,” Irving said. “We have another goal in front of us, and that’s to make it back to Dallas.”



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Game 6 hero now looks at next career move

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Meralco Bolts’ Chris Newsome celebrates after leading his team to the PBA Philippine Cup championship.-MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net

Chris Newsome is aware that an old trophy from Meralco’s gloried past used to be on display somewhere in the company sports complex in Ortigas where the Bolts regularly hold their practices.

He had hoped to see the 1971 MICAA Open title sitting alongside the Jun Bernardino Perpetual Trophy, which the Bolts were awarded for being the PBA Philippine Cup champion after they defeated San Miguel, 4-2, in the best-of-seven series after an 80-78 win on Sunday night where Newsome hit the winning basket at Smart Araneta Coliseum.

Newsome has done his part, finally helping the franchise to its first PBA title. And Meralco will now have to do its part with Newsome entering unrestricted free agency.

“Whenever this Finals is done, we have time to reevaluate the situation,” Newsome had told the Inquirer before the series began. “Of course, the result of this Finals could play a lot into negotiations when it comes to free agency.”

How the favorable result was arrived at will surely come into play after Newsome drained a fallaway jumper with 1.3 seconds left that saved the Bolts from an implosion that saw them blow a 17-point lead in the first half.

With Newsome being part of the 2015 Draft class that will be eligible for unrestricted free agency, Meralco effectively loses its rights on the 33-year-old swingman.

This will be the second off-season that such players have been accorded the huge privilege. It started last year when those who entered in 2014 took advantage of the rule implemented three years ago which players like Chris Banchero, Barangay Ginebra’s Nards Pinto and Maverick Ahanmisi took advantage of.

Newsome, though, has not played for any other team than Meralco, a big plus when he considers his next career move.

Banchero left Phoenix in 2022 to sign with Meralco, Pinto opted to join Barangay Ginebra after several years with Meralco while Ahanmisi switched from Converge before the start of this season. INQ



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After very long wait, Bolts now belong in company of PBA immortals

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Chris Newsome –MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net

At long last, the Meralco Bolts, perhaps the team with the most number of heartbreaks in terms of chasing a PBA championship, were able to write a happy ending to this story.

And it took one of the longest-tenured players in franchise history to deliver the winning shot that announced Meralco’s coming—after a 14-year wait—as a league immortal.

“There was a time that we really got discouraged because we kept failing and failing,” said Chris Newsome, whose baseline shot with a second left sealed the 80-78 victory and a 4-2 best-of-series win, that gave the Bolts the Philippine Cup, the most prestigious prize in the big league.

A missed three-pointer from June Mar Fajardo, who earlier tied the count at 78 with three seconds left with a desperate triple, sealed the upset as the Beermen failed to prevent the Bolts from finally completing their long chase of a crown.

But Newsome, who in his first of four previous Finals appearances in the 2016 Governors’ Cup didn’t convert a potential winning shot in Game 5, came through when it mattered, his promise to bring a title to the Meralco headquarters in Ortigas finally fulfilled.

“That’s a sign that if you work harder, you keep improving yourself and keep believing in yourself, good things will happen,” added Newsome, who before the season savored the taste of winning as part of Gilas Pilipinas’ run to the gold medal in the Hangzhou Asian Games.

Meralco not only won the PBA title for the first time, it also ended a 53-year search for a trophy in big-time basketball which it last tasted when Robert Jaworski led the Reddy Kilowatts to glory in the 1971 MICAA Open.

That league is long gone, and the championship trophy hasn’t been seen since the canteen at the Meralco gym was closed. Now, it can add the Jun Bernardino Trophy to its collection.

To say that the Bolts won it unexpectedly is fair. At one point, the team handled by coach Luigi Trillo and active consultant Nenad Vucinic was staring at an early vacation when a stunning loss to winless Converge dropped to 3-5 in the eliminations.

But Meralco persevered, snatching the third seed in the playoffs after denying San Miguel an elimination round sweep in Batangas City, before surviving old nemesis Barangay Ginebra in a semifinal that went the full seven games.

“That was the goal, to just overcome [Ginebra] and we were able to do that,” said Newsome. “I think that allowed us to gain that confidence to come out and give it a good run. We peaked at the right time.”

Newsome and Cliff Hodge, another Meralco lifer, played with a spirit never seen in the past. Allein Maliksi used negative press to fuel himself to vital performances in the last two games of the Finals, while Raymond Almazan, Bong Quinto, Brandon Bates, Anjo Caram and many others delivered.



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Tears of joy were all over the court when the final buzzer sounded as the Bolts finally reached the mountain top. INQ

Irving ends skid vs Celtics, Mavs try again in Boston

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Dallas Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving, center, drives to the basket against the Boston Celtics during the first half in Game 4 of the NBA basketball finals, Friday, June 14, 2024, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

DALLAS — Kyrie Irving’s personal 13-game losing streak against the Celtics is over.

Now it’s back to the parquet floor in Boston to face his former team again, the Dallas Mavericks still alive in the NBA Finals after avoiding a sweep with a 122-84 blowout in Game 4 on Friday night.

The first two road games in this series weren’t Irving’s best, the two in Dallas quite a bit better despite a Game 3 loss that left the Mavs with a deficit no NBA team has overcome to win a playoff series.

Combine that with much more of an impact from the role players around Irving and co-star Luka Doncic, and maybe the constant booing of Irving from the jilted fans in Boston won’t ring quite as loudly in Game 5 on Monday night.

Plenty of green-clad Celtics fans were planning a celebration in Texas, but the loud cheers early when the game was close didn’t last long.

READ: NBA Finals: Kyrie Irving says Mavericks change ‘starts with me’

“You saw all those Celtics fans in there tonight. They travel in packs,” said Irving, who spent two seasons in Boston. “When we go to Boston, there’s going to be a bunch of them yelling a whole bunch of crazy stuff still, but I think we’ve been able to grow and face kind of this adversity head on.

“We’re figuring out each other in a crazy way during the highest stage of basketball,” Irving said. “So it’s a beautiful thing, but it also can be chaotic if you don’t know how to stay poised through it.”

If the Mavericks are to become just the 12th of 157 teams to force a Game 6 after falling behind 3-0 — and get the title series back to Dallas — the supporting cast for Irving and Doncic will have to keep it up.

Dereck Lively II connected on a 3-pointer for the first time in his career — exactly seven months after the the second of the two regular-season attempts from beyond the arc by the 7-foot-1 rookie center.

At one point in the second half, Lively had 12 rebounds, his final total, to 16 for Boston. No wonder Dallas outscored the Celtics 60-26 in the paint, where Lively scored the other eight of his 11 points.

READ: Kyrie Irving channeling 2016 as Mavericks plot NBA Finals rally

Dante Exum hit two 3s and had another taken away when replay revealed he had stepped out of bounds. The buckets from deep were coming from so many Dallas players — 14 of 23, although those numbers were skewed a bit by the blowout — it didn’t matter that Doncic and Irving combined to go 1 of 14.

“It’s five people on the floor,” Doncic said. “So that’s huge for us. Everybody played with a lot of energy. That’s how we got to do it. We got to think the same way in Game 5 in Boston.”

Doncic scored 25 of his 29 points in the first half, while Irving had 10 of his 21 in the third quarter to help push a 26-point halftime lead to 38 before all starters were out of the game for good late in the third.

Lively’s games in the finals have somewhat mirrored those of Irving, his fellow Duke alum. The 20-year-old was mostly quiet in Boston. The two games in Dallas put him in the company of Magic Johnson as the only rookies with consecutive double-doubles in the NBA Finals.

He replaced starter Daniel Gafford earlier than in any of the previous finals games, and coach Jason Kidd said Lively just happened to be in the right spot — the right corner — when he hit the 3 to put Dallas ahead for good about three minutes later.

It’s unlikely Lively will start at this point — something he did early in his rookie season — but the crowd probably will notice when he heads to the scorer’s table for the first time back in Boston.

“If they leave me open in the corner, I’m going to get them up, for sure,” Lively said. “It’s just having that trust. Luka is going to give me the ball. As soon as I shot it, he kind of jumped for joy when it went in.”



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Irving is still trying to find some joy in Boston, and he gets another chance this season.

Charles Barkley says next season will be his last on TV

On: By: admin


FILE – Charles Barkley arrives at the NBA Awards on June 24, 2019, at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, Calif. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)

Charles Barkley said Friday that next season will be his last on TV, no matter what happens with the NBA’s media deals.

The Hall of Fame player has spent the last 24 years working as a studio analyst for TNT, which could lose the rights to broadcast NBA after next season.

But no matter where the games end up, Barkley won’t be following.

READ: Charles Barkley sticking with Turner, ends LIV talks

“There’s been a lot of noise around our network the last few months and I just want to say I’ve talked to all the other networks, but I ain’t going nowhere other than TNT,” Barkley said while working on NBA TV’s NBA Finals postgame show.

The NBA’s current deals with ABC-ESPN and Turner Sports expire after next season and the league has been talking with NBC, ESPN and Amazon, among other networks and platforms, about what comes next.

Commissioner Adam Silver said last week he hopes new long-term deals will be completed shortly.

READ: 76ers unveil statue honoring Charles Barkley

Barkley and broadcast teammates Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny Smith have discussed their uncertain future on their popular “Inside the NBA” studio show.

Barkley would seemingly draw interest from any network televising NBA, but the 61-year-old has decided that 25 years will be enough and he will “pass the baton,” hopefully, to a TNT teammate such as Vince Carter or Jamal Crawford.

“But I have made the decision myself no matter what happens, next year is going to be my last year on television,” he said.



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Alas coach De Brito relishes ‘amazing journey’ being girl dad

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Alas Pilipinas coach Jorge Souza De Brito during the AVC Challenge Cup 2024. –MARLO CUETO/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines — Jorge Souza De Brito may have made a name for himself as a seasoned volleyball coach currently calling the shots for Alas Pilipinas but he will always be a girl dad.

The Brazilian tactician, who has been handling the Philippine women’s volleyball program since 2021 through the FIVB development project platform, has traveled the world to coach for different squads in a couple of countries like Japan, Turkey, and South Korea before finding his second home in Manila.

And it wasn’t easy, especially when he was away from his family as De Brito had to fulfill his duties as volleyball mentor.

READ: De Brito happy to deliver Alas Pilipinas medal at home

“There’s a prayer I always do when there are some flights or I’ll be away. That if something happens, let God take care of them. Because it’s hard. And the worst part is always there with the mom. So the mom has to—it’s the mom and dad. And I just ask for God to protect me to be back or protect them to be safe,” De Brito told reporters.

The 57-year-old De Brito, who recently got his contract extended until the Southeast Asian Games next year after a historic bronze medal in the AVC Challenge Cup, is grateful to receive a second chance to stay in Manila, which is also considered the second home of his wife Raquele Lenartowicz and daughters Julia, Anna Muiza, and Helena.

His family felt at home, especially his daughters, who have been studying in the country.

For De Brito, being a father is the best part of life as it also makes him a better coach and man.

“For me, it’s like having your heart outside your chest. It’s amazing because, you know—when you’re not a father, you don’t know exactly what it means. You can imagine, but you don’t know. It’s a part of you just walking around, growing. It’s amazing because they want your protection and care,” said De Brito, who was emotional during an intimate interview with reporters. 

READ: De Brito relishes PH coaching stint despite ‘a lot of challenges’

“But suddenly, they start to grow, they start to make their own steps. You start to be so proud of it, but also you’d be afraid because the world is not perfect, and it’s always dangerous. But it’s an amazing journey being a dad. It’s something that will make us alive every single day.”

“Of course, you never sleep, a hundred percent, because, you’ll always have to [think]: ‘What happened? What are they going to do in the future? What are they thinking about? What can I do to make things comfortable, not too much for them not to fight, but enough to not be afraid of all the things they have to face in the future. It’s the best part of life,” added De Brito also the father of Marina from his previous marriage.

All De Brito wants for his daughters is to become genuine and loving people.

“No matter where I’ll be or if I leave, I hope that they can be good, they can be honest, they can find a way, and try to be kind and find happiness in everything they do. They’ll make me happy if they just keep on doing this. Spreading love.”

The former Brazilian Olympic medalist as a player has brought his father figure in coaching, which also helped the Alas players to be closer.

This Father’s Day, De Brito wishes all dads a good and happy life.



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“I’m a father, too. I know how hard it is. I know there’s a part that we always do, and that’s work a lot to provide them everything they need. But I want to share with you guys that all they need is our love,” De Brito said. “I wish you happiness and a lot of love and use all the moments that you have to spend with them. Because more than everything you can give them, all they need is our time. I wish you have a long time with them and enjoy this special moment with the kids. So, it’s so good because even if they grow, they’ll still be our kids. Happy Father’s Day.”