Ross, Lastimosa kiss and make up

San Miguel Beer guard Chris Ross was quick to clear that he wasn’t lashing out at TNT team manager Jojo Lastimosa in a testy moment early in the third quarter of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Season 50 Philippine Cup finals Game 3 on Sunday at the Mall of Asia Arena.

Ross said his tirade was directed at some heckling fans taunting him to get up after hurting his ankle.

“It wasn’t Jolas. It was some fans,” Ross said after the Beermen walked away with a 95-89 win for a 2-1 best-of-seven series lead.

The 40-year-old playing deputy said that a group of fans — mostly women — were rushing him to get off the court and felt disrespected.

“I don’t know if it’s family members that are yelling at me, telling me to get off the court and hurry up. I’m hurt. I just think it’s disrespectful to talk to a player when he’s hurt and [you’re] rushing him off the court,” Ross said.

However, Ross admitted he had some exchange of words with Lastimosa when play was stopped.

“It was directed at the fans, but they were women. I don’t talk down on women, I respect all women,” said Ross.

“And then Jolas got into it, so I got into it with him a little bit. But he came up to me after the game and apologized, and that was that,” he added.

Ross sat out the rest of the game and went scoreless in 16 minutes of play.