Arwind made first move to patch things up; Balkman to appear on TV

For someone who nearly got strangled, Arwind Santos sure knows how to forgive and forget quickly.

The Petron Blaze skipper, who bore the brunt of teammate Renaldo Balkman’s shocking meltdown Friday night, said the two have decided to bury the hatchet and concentrate on the bigger task at hand. In fact, it was Santos who even made the first move.

Balkman completely lost his cool in the dying seconds of the Blaze Boosters’ 73-83 loss to the Alaska Aces, confronting the referees and pushing away assistant coach Biboy Ravanes and teammate Ronald Tubid before trading shoves with Santos, who stepped in and tried to prevent the import from approaching a referee.

After Santos’ retaliation, Balkman grabbed the wiry power forward’s neck before they were finally separated.

Balkman has since apologized on Twitter for his outburst, singling out Tubid and Santos in his apology.

Apparently, in the locker room after the game, it was Santos who approached Balkman first to try and smooth things over, according to the team’s official Twitter account.

Petron coach Olsen Racela, meanwhile, attributed Balkman's outburst to his passion and will to win, again according to the team's Twitter account.

Racela reportedly gave a very moving speech in the Petron locker room that helped calm things down. Also, Balkman reportedly personally apologized to Santos and his wife.

Balkman has been summoned to appear before PBA Commissioner Chito Salud on Monday. San Miguel’s Noli Eala has already said, also via Twitter, that they have no plans of sending the NBA veteran home, attributing the outburst to an “off-night”.

However, the final decision will reportedly come from San Miguel Corporation president Ramon Ang, who will reportedly arrive at a decision soon, again according to a tweet from the team's official Twitter account. In the meantime, Philippine Star sports columnist Quinito Henson tweeted that Balkman has accepted an invitation to guest on the AKTV center during halftime of the first game of Sunday's double-header.

"Tim" refers to Tim Brooks, the unidentified man who entered the court and tried to calm Balkman down. Henson mentioned that he is the import's personal chef/nutritionist.