Former Beerman Doug Kramer calls it quits after 12 seasons
Former Petron Blaze and San Miguel big man Doug Kramer has called it quits after 12 seasons in the PBA.
The 36-year old center/forward out of the Ateneo de Manila University suited up for the Beermen for 2 seasons (2013 to 2015) and was part of the team which won 2014-15 Philippine Cup title.
Kramer, who spent his last 3 years in the league with Phoenix Pulse, played his last game last Friday as the Fuel Masters ended their disappointing conference with a 120-117 overtime win over the also-ran Blackwater Elite. The 6-foot-5 bruiser accounted for 3 points and 10 rebounds in his farewell performance.
“It wasn’t a spontaneous thing. I planned this maybe for the past year and then parang na-solidify lang yung plans ko the past few months. I wanted to announce it, No. 1 because parang no-bearing na yung game and I wanted the fans to know also that it was my last game. There were some fans that came out and said their goodbyes,” said Kramer.
Despite being in good physical shape, Kramer bared that he wanted to go out on his own terms and not because he had no other choice.
“I’m very healthy, I’m very strong physically, I can still take the banging. But parang naging notion na kasi for almost every basketball player, will you wait till something is really painful until you give up, until puro pain killer ka na lang. I’m not like that,” said Kramer.
“Basketball is something that I made na parang one of my avenues. I’ll give my all, I’ll be professional, but knowing it’s only an X amount of years, six years, 10 years, 12 years, whatever it may be. At the end of the day, I’m still very young. I’m 36. I still want to do so much,” added the 5th overall pick in the 2007 rookie draft.