Sampung taon matapos huling mag-coach sa Philippine Basketball Association, nagbabalik ang Serbian coach na si Rajko Toroman sa premyadong liga ng bansa.
Magiging katuwang si Toroman ng head coach ng Converge na si Aldin Ayo sa PBA habang tutulungan naman ng dating Gilas Pilipinas si Charles Tiu sa College of St Benilde sa NCAA.
Natuwa si Toroman, na siyang kaunaunahang coach mula noong tinatag ang Gilas, sa mainit na pagtanggap sa kanya ng mga Pinoy basketball fans isang dekada simula nang huli siyang nag-coach.
Nagbalik tanaw rin si Toroman sa panahong kanya pang hinahawakan ang Gilas na binubuo pa noon ng mga amateur players na sina Chris Tiu, Mark Barroca, Japeth Aguilar, Greg Slaughter, Marcio Lassiter, Chris Lutz, JVee Casio at iba pa.
“I remember the first time I handled Gilas, it was like a Serbian military camp,” ang sabi ni Toroman sa kanyang panayam sa DOWN TO THE WIRE PODCAST kung saan sinamahan rin siya ng kanilang dating naturalized player na si Macus Douthit.
“Fans were saying we don’t have the size, so that’s the explanation for everything,” dagdag pa ni Toroman. “We don’t have the size, but we can do other things. We can practice differently, we can change the system and we got Marcus to give us something that we missed.”
Para kay Douthit, isa sa maituturing niyang pinakamabigat na pagsubok ay nung sumali sila PBA bilang guest team kung saan kaliwa’t-kanang sakit ang kanilang naranasan.
“It was rough,” ang sabi ni Douthit. “Some PBA players resented the whole program because some of these young guys were already playing for the country while some of those PBA players were playing there for years.”
“Once we got there and we proved we belong and not let us pushed us around, I think they started respecting us and they understand what we’re doing for.”
Sinegundahan naman ni Toroman ang kuwento ni Douthit kung saan nardaman niya mismo kung paano sinasaktan ang kanyang mga maa batang player at subukan ang kanilang kakayanan.
Ang isa sa hindi malilimutang insidente ay nangyari noong kanilang nakalaban ang Burger King, na hawak pa noon ng Air21.
Doon ay naramdaman nilang mga batang players ang todo pisikal na laro lalo na ni Wynne Arboleda na na-involved pa noon sa pananakit ng fan at masuspinde ng ilang taon.
“It was really tough,” ang sabi ni Toroman. “Some of the PBA players don’t understand the program and they were thinking they need to show us who’s the boss in the PBA.”
“We had a very, very tough game against Air21, particularly, Arboleda. But that’s also part of learning process. If you can play in the PBA, then it would be easy playing in Europe and Asia.”