RHJ Expected to Return for PBA Playoffs, Says TNT Team Manager Jojo Lastimosa

TNT expects its resident reinforcement – three-time Best Import and three-time league champion Rondae Hollis-Jefferson – to be back in the playoffs.

Tropang 5G team manager Jojo Lastimosa confirmed this to All-Star Magazine in a Viber message.

“He will be ready (in the playoffs),” wrote Lastimosa.

Lastimosa added that the month of October is the earliest time Hollis-Jefferson can return.

The former NBA star played his last game as a loaned reinforcement of the Meralco Bolts in the East Asia Super League, but he suffered a ruptured Achilles during one of the team’s games in Ilagan City, Isabela in December last year.

Hollis-Jefferson stayed in contact with his team and has appeared in some of the games of his squad as well as matches of Gilas Pilipinas while still recovering from his injury.

In the Commissioner’s Cup a few months ago, Hollis-Jefferson’s spot was taken over by another familiar face in the PBA — Chris McCullough, who previously played for San Miguel Beer — and the Gin Kings outlasted the Tropang 5G in seven grueling games.

As Hollis-Jefferson continues to regain his strength and get himself ready for the playoffs, the Tropang 5G is using the long break of the PBA to give its resident import enough time to rest and recuperate.

The Tropang 5G tapped a temporary import in Nick Hornsby, who replaced Rondae’s brother, Rahlir Hollis-Jefferson. The brothers went back to the United States due to family matters.

Hornsby played recently for the Edmonton Stingers in the Canadian Basketball League.

TNT played and lost in an exhibition out-of-town game in Candon City against Rain or Shine, but the Tropang 5G played without an import and fell short against the Elasto Painters, 98-94.