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Barangay Ginebra’s Stephen Holt. Photo from Facebook/PBA Rush.

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Romwel Anzures

ABS-CBN News

<div style="margin-bottom:0px;line-height:normal;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;-webkit-text-stroke-color:rgb(0, 0, 0)"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1723451714602IMG_4688.jpeg" style="width:950px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Barangay Ginebra’s Stephen Holt. Photo from Facebook/PBA Rush."/>Barangay Ginebra’s Stephen Holt. Photo from Facebook/PBA Rush.</div>MANILA — Stephen Holt will be entering a new phase in his PBA career.The incoming second-year guard is among the newest aces of Barangay Ginebra San Miguel as he was acquired by them in a blockbuster trade with TerraFirma Dyip last month, and he revealed how things went for him when the deal was announced.&quot;I found out about it just like everybody else. When I saw it on the website, I just landed back in Manila,&quot; he said at the league&#x27;s Season 49 Media Day last week in Pasay. He has, since then, already played a couple of tuneup games with the Tim Cone-coached squad and even starred during their friendly against the tuneup game against the New Taipei Kings in Macau. <div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/2024/8/11/new-team-same-mindset-for-terrafirmas-standhardinger-pringle-1755">READ: New team, same mindset for TerraFirma&#x27;s Standhardinger, Pringle</a></div><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/sports/2024/7/13/pba-ginebra-sends-c-stand-pringle-to-terrafirma-for-holt-go-1010">READ: Ginebra sends C-Stand, Pringle to Terrafirma for Holt, Go</a></div>And despite being with them for less than a month, the change of scenery has been great so far, said the Filipino-American. &quot;It&#x27;s been great so far. The easiest part of my transition to Ginebra is that the culture is already set,&quot; shared Holt. The culture here is already set. They have a veteran group, a veteran coaching staff, so even though I&#x27;m a new player, they&#x27;ve done a great job of acclimating me into the Triangle System.&quot; &quot;That&#x27;s why I think I&#x27;m gonna fit into this system.&quot;But despite joining the crowd-darlings, the Season 48 Rookie of the Year frontrunner said that his love for the Dyip will always be there. &quot;Obviously, we just had a very good off-season with TerraFirma. I&#x27;m very happy with what we accomplished last season, and again, that was a stepping stone in my career,&quot; explained Holt. &quot;I mean, we were able to build something special over there. Up to this day, I&#x27;m friends with some guys over there. I was able to get that closure with the guys, but obviously, our friendship will continue. I got a lot of love for TerraFirma,&quot; continued the 6-foot-4 guard, while also touching on some of the relationships that he built over in the Dyip&#x27;s garage. &quot;Me and Juami [Tiongson] have a great relationship. We&#x27;re already talking mess with each other. We&#x27;re lucky we&#x27;re not in the same bracket, &#x27;cause there will be more chitchat on the floor. But we&#x27;re still in the same group chat, me, Javi [Gomez De Liaño], Isaac [Go], and Juami. They&#x27;re my guys, and what we accomplished last season, that&#x27;s gonna be in our hearts forever,&quot; he shared. Holt even discussed how they were poised to finally turn around the fortunes of TerraFirma. &quot;We had to take baby steps. We couldn&#x27;t say that: &#x27;Oh, we&#x27;re gonna win a championship the first year.&#x27; We had to get into the playoffs. So my mindset was: &#x27;Okay, we made the playoffs in the All-Filipino conference. Let&#x27;s try to make more than that in the import-laden conference.&#x27; That was gonna be our goal. We had so many close losses last season, and I think we put the league on notice of how competitive we really were,&quot; he said.&quot;I wouldn&#x27;t say [we&#x27;ll win] a championship within the next year or two, but we were gonna be a perennial playoff team.&quot;While with the Dyip, Holt once voiced out about league parity and competitiveness. But now that he is with the powerhouse that is Ginebra, has his stance changed?&quot;At the end of the day, you can only control what you can control. When I was with TerraFirma, I wanted to make the team better, I wanted to make the league better, and give the league a great product,&quot; Holt said.&quot;I think our story helped the league a lot, making the playoffs and defeating San Miguel. We were a confident group. The work always shows, 1 through 16, and everyone was working before and after practice, that&#x27;s the culture that we built.&quot;&quot;Now that I&#x27;m here, I&#x27;m just gonna continue with my leadership and my work ethic. Hopefully, I could have a positive impact on this group even if it is a veteran-laden group,&quot; he continued. And aside from his hopes to bring his talent and other intangibles to the Barangay, he is also hoping to finally win his first PBA title. &quot;The expectations are already there.  know what it means to put on this jersey — competing for championships — and that&#x27;s what we&#x27;re gonna strive for and that&#x27;s what I&#x27;m all about. I&#x27;m here to win,&quot; offered Holt, while also saying how he doesn&#x27;t mind sacrificing for Ginebra just for them to earn the championship. &quot;I&#x27;m not worried. At this stage of my career, I&#x27;m here to win. My last championship was in 2017, and in my last three years in Europe, I lost in the Finals, so I&#x27;m very hungry. I&#x27;m here to work, and whatever minutes I get, whatever position that I play, I&#x27;m just here to get to work.&quot;&quot;I know how I approach the game is gonna fit well with this group, and I think the coaching staff and the players can see that already in the first weeks of camp.&quot;&quot;Hopefully, we can put ourselves in a position to play for a title. We don&#x27;t know how we&#x27;re gonna look at the start of the season with the new group, but hopefully, we could continue to rise,&quot; he said. <div><ivs-player data-ivs-key="e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603" data-ivs-spid="3001339" data-ivs-vid="3065699"></ivs-player> <script src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/js/loader.js"></script></div>

Now is the time to win for Barangay Ginebra newcomer Stephen Holt

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Now is the time to win for Barangay Ginebra newcomer Stephen Holt

Romwel Anzures,

ABS-CBN News

Published Aug 12, 2024 06:42 PM PHT

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