Manny Pacquiao Makes Professional Basketball Debut In Philippines Before Record Crowd

MANNY PACQUIAO made his "professional basketball debut on Sunday, just a month before he is set to defend his WBO welterweight crown," according to the AP. Pacquiao started Sunday's game for the "newly formed KIA Sorento of the Philippine Basketball Association but played only seven minutes and committed two turnovers in his team's 80-66 win over the Blackwater Elite at Philippine Arena." The 5-foot-6 Pacquiao said after the game that he would "take a break from his KIA duties to focus on the defense of his WBO welterweight crown on Nov. 22 in Macau against undefeated junior welterweight champion CHRIS ALGIERI" (AP, 10/19). The INT'L BUSINESS TIMES' Vincent Paul Hidalgo reported the game "attracted close to 53,000 attendees, a record of its kind for Philippine basketball" (IB TIMES, 10/20).