By Les Tan

Eric Sandrin in the position he usually is when not taken out by dirty plays – upright. (Photo © Les Tan/Red Sports)

You had to be there to see it.

With 13 seconds to go on the clock and victory wrapped up, Singapore Slinger Eric Sandrin gets a pass and is airborne for a dunk. Filipino Raidel de Ocampo of Air21 was in the way but instead of just stopping, he WALKED underneath Sandrin to ensure that the Slinger would lose his balance.

Sandrin’s teammate Darren Ng recounted in his blog:

“Eric came down horizontally and landed heavily on his back. Everyone who knows basketball knows that this was a pretty dirty play. Eric could have been a lot seriously injured.”

Sandrin, apart from a stiff neck and back, is walking about and is taking medication to help with the inflammation.

In the first game between the two sides, it was obvious that Sandrin had figured out how to wind up the Air21 players with on-court comments. While I couldn’t hear what he was actually saying, it obviously wasn’t “Would you like to have a drink with me tonight?” By the fourth quarter, he had said and done enough that Homer Se kicked him in the back and head and got himself ejected from the game.

That set the stage for the second game.

The Slingers took three quarters before they finally tied it up and with victory assured, Sandrin’s victory dunk was perhaps too much for de Ocampo to take and he took his cheap shot. As Sandrin lay flat on his back, de Ocampo just turned and looked at him and offered no help or apologies. He had done what he wanted to do. He had got his cheap shot in.

What a professional.

See how de Ocampo took out Sandrin with his cheap shot at the 4:55 mark of this video by Ian Chew:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYljrSXZY14