Despite coming in as a late replacement, import Henry Walker has made a huge impact to the Blackwater Elite who have won four of their last six games with him leading the squad.
Walker believes Blackwater has gained the respect of every team in the PBA as the Elite learn a new culture.
“It’s now a totally different culture,” Walker said. “I’m a competitor. If you don’t come out in practice and compete, I’m gonna embarrass your ass and I’m gonna tell you about it. With that level being raised up, it’s about competing. Now everybody has to compete and that has changed our mindset. Everybody is not worried about winning or losing. Just go out there and compete and see what happens. That’s what we do. We’re trying to build that type of environment where it’s war. It’s fight and fight for everything.”
Blackwater lost to Ginebra, 98-81, on Friday night but Walker said that despite the defeat, the defending champions had a hard time holding off the Elite.
“We’re not just gonna lay down. If you come and play us, scrap your shit up because we’re coming. That’s how we’ve been playing. We’ve been giving guys our best shot. Today, we earned their (Barangay Ginebra’s) respect today,” he said.
Ginebra coach Tim Cone couldn’t agree more.
“The final score doesn’t give justice to the difficulty of the game. We kinda blew it up in the last couple of minutes. But I thought the game could have gone either way,” he said.
