Another historic day for the Philippines as another player with Filipino roots made it to the NBA, well, the most hype ever.
Filipino-American Jalen Green was picked second overall in the 2021 NBA Draft by the Houston Rockets.
He joined reigning Sixth Man of the Year from the Utah Jazz Jordan Clarkson and Raymond Townsend as the only Filipinos to make it to the NBA.
The highly touted rookie received many congratulations on his big day, and one of them is the eight-division world champion, Manny Pacquiao.
Pacquiao turned to Twitter to express his excitement for Green.
“Congratulations to @JalenGreen on getting drafted #2 overall. Looking forward to watching your journey to becoming a superstar.”
Green has been to the Philippines twice as he participated in the National Basketball Training Center, commonly known as the NBTC.
He quickly captivated the Pinoy hearts with his leaping abilities to lead to monster slams and absolute highlights.
But despite his stardom, Green is also huge of Pacquiao.
Weeks before the draft, he visited Pacquiao, not in the Wild Card Gym but in Fox Studio, where they held the kickoff press conference for the Pacquiao-Errol Spence fight.
He then got the chance to take a photo with Pacquiao along with his belt.
