{"id":177449,"date":"2014-08-26T04:02:16","date_gmt":"2014-08-25T18:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=177449"},"modified":"2014-08-26T04:02:16","modified_gmt":"2014-08-25T18:02:16","slug":"jericho-drafted-pba-1st-round","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/jericho-drafted-pba-1st-round\/","title":{"rendered":"Jericho drafted in PBA 1st round"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Former<\/a>
Former CNMI national player Jericho Cruz wears the cap and jacket of Rain or Shine Elasto Painters after the Philippine Basketball Association team selected him No. 9 overall in last Sunday\u2019s annual draft of Asia\u2019s first professional basketball league. (KC CRUZ)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The No. 9 turned out to be lucky for Jericho Cruz as the former member of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands men\u2019s national basketball team was picked ninth overall in last Sunday\u2019s Philippine Basketball Association annual rookie draft.<\/p>\n

The former Adamson University King Falcon was drafted in the first round by Rain or Shine Elasto Painters.<\/p>\n

Cruz first used the No. 9 on his jersey when he started playing basketball on Saipan. He also wore the number when he played for the Adamson Falcons and coincidentally his daughter, Pristine Thea, was also born March 9.<\/p>\n

\u201cUp to now he still can\u2019t believe it. [The No. 9] was the first jersey number given by his coach and he never changed that. He feels it\u2019s his lucky number. When our daughter was born on March 9 we got more blessings. Coincidence or not, but the No. 9 made his dreams come true,\u201d said Cruz\u2019s wife Mosh Carlos Cruz.<\/p>\n

The 22-year-old is expected to beef up a Rain or Shine roster that already has Gilas Pilipinas members Jeff Chan, and Gabe Norwood.<\/p>\n

Cruz, who won was part of the gold medal-winning Philippine team in the 2013 Southeast Asian Games in Myanmar, immediately took to Facebook and Twitter to thank all of his supporters, family, and friends in the Philippines and on Saipan.<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks a lot guys. Sorry if I can\u2019t reply to everyone. I want to thank Rain or Shine for choosing me to be part of their family,\u201d Cruz tweeted.<\/p>\n

Jomar Tumaquip and Dan Barcinas, Cruz\u2019s former teammates, and coaches Joe Diaz and Elias Rangamar welcomed his latest achievement and were pleased to see the former Island Boy who learned and started playing at Garapan\u2019s Basketball Court make it to the PBA.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongratulations brother! Your dream finally came true, now live it up. Stay safe and healthy,\u201d said Tumaquip.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst of all, congratulations and I wish him all the best on his new career as a professional player. I hope we could still play again for the CNMI national team,\u201d said former Mt. Carmel School standout Barcinas, Cruz\u2019s former teammate in the CNMI men\u2019s national basketball team in the 2010 Micronesian Games, in a telephone interview.<\/p>\n

Diaz, who coached Cruz as a 12-year-old with the G-Rollers, also has praises for his former player. \u201cI\u2019m very proud of his achievement. I am glad that he started off with me. His hard work had already paid off. He is there now in the pro league in the Philippines.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rangamar added that Cruz being drafted in the PBA will serve as an inspiration to the young players to work hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe foundation of his skills started here on Saipan, it helped him get to where he is now and now kids here can look up to him. He really has the potential and this is great news for the CNMI basketball community.\u201d (Jon Perez: jonperez13@gmail.com<\/em>)<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The No. 9 turned out to be lucky for Jericho Cruz as the former member…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":177454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[310,26,681,63],"class_list":["post-177449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-basketball","tag-cnmi","tag-jersey","tag-philippines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}