ANGELES CITY--Phoenix guard Matthew Wright dedicated his fiery performance against Magnolia on Friday to his son Sonny who just celebrated his first birthday.
Wright waxed hot with 23 points, pouring eight of those in the Fuel Masters' blistering 22-0 run in the fourth quarter that kindled their 91-84 comeback win over the Hotshots at the Smart 5G-powered AUF Sports Arena.
The Gilas Pilipinas stalwart also collected seven rebounds, four assists and two steals in almost 46 minutes of play without a single turnover as Phoenix arrested a two-game skid to improve to 3-2.
“The first birthday is always very special and I hate to see that I cried just thinking about it. The only way I can make this better was to dedicate my performance to him," said Wright, whose family resides in the United States.
"I'm sure he's watching but I don't know if he understood what I was saying (in the TV interview). But when he gets older, hopefully he'll look back and he'll forgive me for not being in his pictures on his first birthday," he added.
The Fil-Canadian sniper said that missing special family occasions is part of the sacrifice that the 350-man delegation has to make in order to ensure the success of the Philippine Cup bubble.
"Everybody's going through it so you just have to suck it up."
The 6-foot-3 cager said he was even reminded of the bigger undertaking that the overseas Filipino workers have to do for their families.
"It's an amazing sacrifice and it's so hard to be away from your family. And we're only doing it for a couple of months so we got to man up."
"I was just thinking about them today."