Fans of the Rain or Shine Elasto Painters held their collective breath in the third quarter on Sunday as main man Adrian Nocum lay on the hardwood writhing in pain. Prior to that, he collided full speed with Meralco Bolts forward Cliff Hodge, who himself spent a few minutes on the floor—also in pain.
Hodge eventually got up and was assessed an unsportsmanlike foul on the play. Nocum recovered as well, spent a few minutes on the bench, and then returned later on, finishing the game and even dishing out what turned out to be the game-winning dime to Aaron Fuller for Rain or Shine’s fourth win in the PBA Governors’ Cup. From the looks of it, the high-flying guard from Tondo escaped serious injury.
Guiao Blasts Cliff Hodge
That Nocum escaped injury didn’t matter to Rain or Shine coach Yeng Guiao. For the fiery tactician, the veteran bruiser knew exactly what he was doing.
“Medyo kinabahan kami doon sa nangyari kay Adrian,” Guiao said after the game. “Again, it’s Cliff Hodge. Ang dami nang ganong insidente ni Cliff Hodge. He’s the dirtiest player in the league, and dapat tignan ng liga yan… He’s a danger to the other players in the game. His record speaks for itself. Sinaksak niya ‘yung paa niya, kaya tinawagan na unsportsmanlike foul.”
Replays showed Hodge may have, indeed, stuck his left leg out ever so slightly as he tried to wall off Nocum’s drive. The result was a knee-on-knee collision that dropped both men for the count.
Guiao and Hodge Have History
This isn’t the first time Guiao has put Hodge on blast. Back in 2014, the longtime coach didn’t mince words when he called out the hardworking Fil-Am for excessive physicality after Game 2 of the 2014 Commissioner’s Cup quarterfinals showdown between Meralco and Rain or Shine.
Evidently, there’s no love lost between the two, with Guiao’s view of Hodge apparently unchanged.
“Maraming incidents na ganon, na I think cause danger to players. It’s been a lot of situations where Hodge is involved,” Guiao added.
Hodge Responds
Cliff Hodge, for his part, appears unbothered by Guiao’s unprompted rant, noting how the outspoken mentor doesn’t like him to begin with.
“I was coming in to take a charge, and Coach Yeng always hasn’t liked me so whatever he says, it’s okay with me. I play hard for my team, that’s all I do,” Hodge told reporters in a media scrum postgame. “I saw him coming full speed. I went in to take a charge and at the moment, I was going to take a charge, he sidestepped. [He] sidestepped right into my knee and then he dished it and so then we both went down.”
Later on, Hodge reiterated he has no ill feelings toward Guiao, whom he says is just doing Yeng Guiao things.
“I mean Coach Yeng is Coach Yeng,” he pointed out. “He likes to do that, so I just let him do what he does. That’s his personality, so yeah. No hard feelings for me.”
The feeling might not be mutual, though.
