A Basketball Standpoint: Why I am happy for Olsen Racela now.

From today, Olsen gets to handle the whiteboard, map out plays by himself leaves a smile to the Petroniverse

If you have been following my blog, you would know how much I am a Petron fan, though I had always make this blog balanced as I blogged about ROS, Talk and Text and other teams, I always find a special place for Petron.

Let me start by saying, I do not hate Rajko Toroman... His presence with the Smart Gilas 1 squad has certainly pummelled Philippine basketball to the international scene. However, when he started taking an active role at the Petron Blaze Boosters bench, things started to heat-up, especially when he started sharing "co-coaching" duties with the Head Coach, Olsen Racela.

Olsen Racela is not new to the franchise, spending almost majority of his playing career with the Beermen and a year as assistant coach to Ato Agustin. When he was appointed Head Coach, things didn't came as easy as it would be. Olsen considered it difficult to handle the pros than to handle Energen Team Pilipinas but he knows he has a lot of support ahead of him, that including Rajko Toroman.

The first 5 Petron games had been a drag. With a 2-3 record that time, Players seemed to be confused to whom they would listen to during timeouts, to whom they would approach during dead-ball situations and to who really has the say with the whiteboard. We can recall instances during timeouts that Rajko was mapping out plays for the team. Fans got confused with the eventual setup and for those who have seen Olsen's career like me, We wanted to see Petron with Olsen (and Olsen alone as the head coach).

The management did a shake-up Wednesday. The early Toroman was nowhere to be found in Petron practice. Olsen Racela would call the shots alone (technically not alone as he has a talent-pool of coaches). During his first game alone versus Global Port Friday, we didn't see that much changes, there are still Toroman plays but everything is a work in progress.

I am happy for Olsen because finally, he has been given the opportunity to do things on his own. I cannot say this would mean WINS for Petron but this would mean less confusion to the team setup itself. Arwind Santos made an interesting statement remarking that the players are happy and comfortable (and music is finally allowed in their dugout). With the quote that the Best Players do not become the best coaches?" Let's wait and see. I do not want to typecast. I will just watch.


The views and opinions expressed by the owner of this blog is only for the perusal of those who would be interested to read it and comments are most welcome.

Posted in: A Basketball Standpoint,Coach Olsen Racela,new Petron Coach Olsen,PBA,PBA 38th season,Petron Blaze Boosters