Disgruntled import claims Gilas not paying salary on time

Jamal Sampson — Smart Gilas Pilipinas’ candidate for naturalization who wants out of the team to accept a lucrative offer in China — has accused his employer of not paying his salary on time. The American center bared in a series of emails to the sports blog Fire Quinito that the Samahang Basketbol ng Pilipinas (SBP) still owes him part of his payment for December, his first month with the Gilas team. “I’m still owed money from December, we are in February now and I haven’t gotten it all," Sampson related to "Fire Quinito."

The 6-11 Sampson came in to replace CJ Giles as Gilas’ reinforcement late last year and signed a one-year contract with the team. He played limited minutes during the team’s campaign in the Dubai Invitational Basketball Tournament last month, claiming to be injured, and immediately after, coach Rajko Toroman announced that Gilas is parting ways with Sampson. "He (Sampson) was injured, he is injured and he will always be injured. I have said that a player needs to sacrifice for this team. If you can’t handle the pain or small problem, you cannot contribute and lift the team to the level I want," Toroman said during a sports forum. "This is a young team that plays with passion and heart and they can’t carry this kind of attitude of Sampson." Still under contract Sampson, though, maintained that he’s still under contract with Smart Gilas (only he’s taking the month of February off as per his contract) but is working to get his release from the team. “The team didn’t meet numerous contractual things. I had a bigger deal in China but the team wanted to keep me so they kept upping their offer to meet, that’s why the process of me signing took so long. Unfortunately, from the beginning, all those things put in the contract to get me to stay weren’t met, late and missed payments, and other things in the contract couldn’t be delivered," he said. Toroman, though, turned the tables on Sampson. “He keeps on blaming the SBP for not honoring its commitment with him, but it was he who didn’t honor his commitment," the Serbian mentor said in reaction to Sampson's claim. “His commitment is for him to play for us, but he didn’t want to play when we were in Dubai. He told me he was injured, but I didn’t believe him. He was injured and will always be injured. He just doesn’t want to play." Sampson said he asked to be released even before Gilas left for the squad’s Middle East sortie in January. “While we were in Qatar before we even went to Dubai, I asked to be released, and they told me they would (do so), right after the Dubai trip but that hasn’t happened," he said. He added that since he didn’t get his salary in full, he should have sat out Gilas’ games to rest his hurting knee but still, he played it out for the sake of his teammates. “December’s payment that was owed to me was late. Under my contract, they owed me a payment by January 1st, no later, well before we left for Qatar and Dubai. If I wasn’t paid, my contract states that I didn’t have to play or practice. I wasn’t obligated to play in Qatar or Dubai," he related. “I tried to play through the injury because I like the guys on the team. They expected me to go out and risk my knee, while I haven’t even been paid from the first month. It’s February right now and I’m still owed money I should have got in December from the first month I was on the team," he added. Although he admitted he stands to earn more elsewhere, Sampson reiterated that his decision to leave Gilas is not all about money. “It’s not just a money thing. There’s other stuff in contract I haven’t spoken on that hasn’t been honored, such as plane ticket I have for family, cellphone stuff, stuff to do with condo," he said in his latest email to Fire Quinito. “It wasn’t just money, there other stuff in contract not met. Basically they put whatever they had to in the contract to get me to sign, then once I did, they didn’t or couldn’t uphold it," he added. - GMANews.TV