Joey Mente (February 24, 1976 – August 22, 2018) was a Filipino professional
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...
player in the
Philippine Basketball Association
The Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) is a men's professional basketball league in the Philippines composed of twelve company-branded franchised teams. Founded in 1975, it is the first professional basketball league in Asia and is the se ...
who last played for the
Welcoat Dragons. He was drafted 10th overall by the
San Miguel Beermen
The San Miguel Beermen are a professional basketball team in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). It is one of three PBA clubs owned by the San Miguel Corporation group of companies along with the Magnolia Hotshots and Barangay Ginebra ...
in
2001
The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...
.
Career
Mente first played for the Iloilo Mega Volts standout in the defunct
Metropolitan Basketball Association
The Metropolitan Basketball Association (MBA), or Metroball, was a professional basketball league in the Philippines that ran from March 7, 1998, to July 26, 2002.
History
The MBA played its first game on March 7, 1998, at the Don Narciso Ramos ...
during the maiden season of the league.
Mente was drafted by the
San Miguel Beermen
The San Miguel Beermen are a professional basketball team in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA). It is one of three PBA clubs owned by the San Miguel Corporation group of companies along with the Magnolia Hotshots and Barangay Ginebra ...
and played there from 2001-2005. Though his height was 5'10", he participated in the
PBA Slam Dunk Contest, and won as the "2001 Slam Dunk King". In the
2006-07 PBA season, he played 20 games for
Welcoat in the
2006-07 PBA season and averaged 8.3
points per game
Points per game, often abbreviated PPG, is the average number of points scored by a player per game played in a sport, over the course of a series of games, a whole season, or a career. It is calculated by dividing the total number of points by nu ...
2.6
rebounds per game
'Rebound' is a term used in sports to describe the ball (or puck or other object of play) becoming available for possession by either opponent after an attempt to put the ball or puck into the goal has been unsuccessful. Rebounds are generally ...
and 1.7
assists per game
In basketball, an assist is attributed to a player who passes the ball to a teammate in a way that leads directly to a score by field goal, meaning that they were "assisting" in the basket. An assist is also credited when a basket is awarded due ...
.
Illness and death
In 2018, Mente was diagnosed with two tumors, one in his head and the other in his chest, and underwent surgery. He later had radiation treatment and went home to
Samar
Samar ( ) is the third-largest and seventh-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total population of 1,909,537 as of the 2020 census. It is located in the eastern Visayas, which are in the central Philippines. The island is divided in ...
for chemotherapy. He died on August 22, 2018, at the age of 42.
References
External links
Player ProfilePBA-Online! Profile
1976 births
2018 deaths
Basketball players from Northern Samar
Filipino men's basketball players
People from Northern Samar
Point guards
Rain or Shine Elasto Painters players
San Miguel Beermen players
Deaths from cancer in the Philippines
Lyceum Pirates basketball players
San Miguel Beermen draft picks
{{Philippines-basketball-bio-stub