Billy Ray Bates: scouting the wrong team.

MANILA, Philippines -- It was only last October when Philippine Basketball Association great Billy Ray Bates returned to Manila to receive his hall of fame award from the PBA.

Bates, whose life went on a downward spiral since his PBA career ended, was given a job as a skills coach by the Philippine Patriots who compete in the ASEAN Basketball League.

But after only a couple of months on the job, the man known by Pinoys as "The Black Superman" was sacked by his team due to disciplinary problems.

Patriots team manager Erick Arejola says Bates would miss practices, and would sometimes come to practice reeking of alcohol.

Bates also allegedly became a burden to the players from whom he borrowed money.

But the last straw was a recent incident in Bates' team-rented condo unit.

Reoprts said, Bates, who is married, picked up a woman and brought her to his condo.

As it turned out, the woman was a transsexual that shocked Bates and caused him to make a scene in the building's lobby.

Arejola said the incident was detrimental to the team.

Bates admits the incident and apologized to his family and fans.

“I would like to apologize to my wife, to my family, to the sports world and most of all to my fans, that my conduct that night was inappropriate. I wasn't in my clear mind. It something that has happened and there's nothing I can do about it,” said Bates.

But Bates denies he was becoming a burden to the team...by being constantly absent from practices.

“That's not true... I'm a very professional person. I've built a relationship with most of the patriot players,” he said.

Bates insists, aside from the incident in his condo, he has been a model employee and that he values the second chance given to him by the Patriots.

“I didn't have any issues. When it's time for us to do basketball camps to get people to come and support the Patriots, I would get out of my bed at 5 am and travel 3 hours to give a message to kids that I was concerned about. So I don't have any disciplinary problems,” he said.

Bates hopes he will be forgiven and that his family be spared from the mistake he did.


http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/sports/03/16/12/billy-ray-bates-sorry-over-sex-scandal

 

How do you think Mags and I first met? When he shaves he's got great legs.

 

Wow, it's like he Brundlefly'd with his girlfriend.