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PROMISES TO RETURN TO PBA

Romero quits Burger King post, back to PBL

03/15/2009

Mikee Romero is back to the Philippine Basketball League and will concentrate once again to his Harbour Centre.

Romero formally relinquished his “big role” at Burger King in the Philippine Basketball Association yesterday because of what he said was a failure of “his group and the Burger King to come terms.”

Many were caught by surprise by the shocking development yesterday, although there were talks as early as last week on his impending exit from the team.

As a result, Burger King basketball operations went back to the Lina Group.

In a statement sent to media yesterday, Romero expressed his gratitude to Bert Lina and Mannny Pangilinan for affording him to handle the team.

“I wish to thank Bert Lina and MVP (Manny Pangilinan) for allowing me to run Burger King from January to March this year,” Romero said.

“It was a dream come true for me to finally run a PBA team. Unfortunately, the dream must take a back seat as my group and the Burger King company did not come to terms,” Romero added.

Although Romero did not further elaborate much of the details of what went wrong in the deal, it was gathered that Romero failed to infuse the necessary investment at Burger King after an earlier deal involving MVP buying Harbour Centre did not push through.

That failed business transaction left Romero with no choice but to leave the ball club, handing over to the Linas the right once again to run the team formerly known as Air21 Express.

“I salute every single individual, from the bellboy to the overachieving players to the coaching staff for giving me an opportunity to work with them and having an open mind in accepting my own basketball philosophy. As for me, much of my attention would now be devoted to the amateurs again,” said Romero.

“One of these days I would again rejoin the PBA and fight again the battles which I truly enjoy. More power to the PBA, my dream will linger on.”