JEAN MARC PINGRIS remains at the top of his game and at 39 years old, still packs a lot of power and skills in his 6-foot-4 muscular frame grizzled from a promising high school and collegiate career and an explosive act not only in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) but also in the national team program.
Until retirement beckoned the proud son of Pozorrubio in Pangasinan after a 16-year PBA career.
“I decided to retire to give way to the young players,” Pingris told BusinessMirror on Wednesday, the morning after he announced his decision to hang his No. 15 jersey with Magnolia.
“I am so thankful to the San Miguel Corp. and Magnolia for their all-out support,” he said.
Pingris was quick to declare he can still stand the banging and pounding from younger players, but opted to walk down the lane toward a full-time family life.
“If you’ll ask me, I can still play, I am in a good condition even during the pandemic,” he said. “It has nothing to do with injuries, but the time has come [to retire]. I want to focus on my businesses.”
“I have nothing to prove anymore. I already enjoyed my PBA ride,” he added.
Speaking of Magnolia, the “Pinoy Sakuragi” is bound to spend most of his time in Santa Cruz, Nueva Ecija, to tend to his poultry farm that rests on an eight-hectare property he invested on from his playing career.
The poultry is large in scale. Do the math—36,000 poultry heads in each of the 640 chicken houses. That’s huge.
And where do all these chicken go? Where else but to Magnolia—his team for the last 11 years—where they will become the “Pambansang Manok” on every family’s dining table.
Pingris was drafted third overall by defunct Air21 (then FedEx Express) on 2004 behind No. 1 Rich Alvarez (Shell) and James Yap (Purefoods). Before that, he played for Philippine School of Business Administration and later on the national team under Boyzie Zamar.
His strong presence in the middle and a work ethic on defense that compares him to a raging bull in fighting for those rebounds and blocking shots earned him a spot on Chot Reyes’s Gilas Pilipinas team that broke the South Korean jinx in the 2013 Fiba Asia Championship.
Pingris was in tears—and practically everyone else on the team—after that historic 86-79 victory over the Koreans that sent the Philippines to a return act to the World Cup in Spain.
“My Gilas stint in 2013 is one of the most memorable experiences in my basketball career, besides my first PBA championship with Purefoods in 2005 and the notable 2013 grand slam with Magnolia under former coach Tim Cone,” he said.
Pingris’s social media post on his retirement was his basketball career in a nutshell. He thanked practically everyone that made him the Pingris of Philippine basketball—Air21 owner Bert Lina, Zamar, Johnny Tam, Leo Austria, Siot Tanquingcen, Ryan Gregorio, Reyes, Jorge Gallent, Cone, Jason Webb and Chito Victolero.
Also on his honor roll were his teammates, members of the coaching staff, utilities, Doc Raffy, Nick, RC, Jojo Peralta and Reena Dimaculangan.
The list went on with Purefoods team manager Alvin Patrimonio, long-time governor Rene Pardo and SMC bosses the late Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco, Ramon S. Ang, Alfrancis Chua and Butch Alejo. He also thanked long-time manager Ed Ponceja.
Pingris won’t go easy into retirement with celebrity wife Danica and their 12-year-old son Jean Michael and nine-year-old daughter Anielle Micaela.
“I also see myself doing travel vlogs and coaching big men in the PBA,” he said. “I am thinking of travelling around the entire Philippine archipelago.”
How about a career in showbusiness, join his father-in-law Vic Sotto in the longest-running Filipino noon time show “Eat Bulaga?”
“I don’t think so,” he said.