Refreshed Heading ready for Season 50

Jordan Heading has shown what he could bring to the table for TNT Tropang 5G despite dealing with nagging back issues.

Acquired in a trade with Converge midway through the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup, Heading provided the much-needed backcourt presence and firepower for the depleted Tropang 5G in a foiled grand slam bid in Season 49.

The Filipino-Australian gunner looks forward to contributing more after a couple of months’ rest and enough time to integrate fully into head coach Chot Reyes’ system when the league opens its golden anniversary with an all-Filipino contest on 5 October.

“Just got to get my feet wet in terms of getting this fire into a conference. Yeah, I’m excited to be able to actually get a proper pre-season under me and to learn. I’m kind of learning on the fly here in the playoffs,” Heading said.

“It’s a pretty crazy time to learn about what’s going on in terms of systems, in terms of how guys play.”

Heading was selected in the Gilas special round of the 2020 Draft but only suited up in the 2024-2025 Commissioners’ Cup after getting traded to Converge. He was shipped to the Tropang 5G, which lost top guards Jayson Castro (knee) and Rey Nambatac (groin) and backup Jielo Razon (appendectomy), in exchange for controversial guard Mikee Williams last June.

Heading made an immediate impact and helped TNT secure a playoffs spot, get past twice-to-beat Magnolia in the quarterfinals and outlast highly physical Rain or Shine in the semifinals in six games.

Although the banged-up Tropang 5G came up short of a triple crown against the June Mar Fajardo-led San Miguel Beer, Heading proved to be a perfect fit in Reyes’ rotation.

“Yeah, thankful for the experience for sure. Thankful to be here with Talking Text. You know, very lucky to be in my second conference, to be able to be in this situation,” the former Gilas member said.

Heading averaged 13.3 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.75 assists per game in the previous season.

He hopes to get a better result in the next conference.

“I mean, obviously losing a final is a lot of motivation in terms of just the whole off-season and pre-season. You’re thinking about this last game, this last series, that didn’t go our way, so that motivation is huge,” he said.

“And I know that TNT won two conferences this season, but I didn’t. So, you know, I lost this one, so I’m hoping to win the finals. So that’s a lot of motivation for me to come out next season and hopefully be able to be involved in some championships.”