Coach Manny Pacquiao picks himself in Philippines pro basketball draft

Manny Pacquiao is a very busy man.

Boxing champion. Philippines congressman. Basketball coach.

So it might be forgiven if he didn’t have all the time in the world to dedicate to that last profession. Named the head coach of Kia Motors’ Philippine Basketball Assn. team in June, Pacquiao may not have had a chance to scour the country looking for top young talent in preparation for the league’s draft just two months later.

No need to worry though. Turns out the best player available when Kia Motors’ selection rolled around during Sunday’s draft was right under the team’s nose all along.

Manny Pacquiao.

That’s right. With the 10th overall pick in the 2014 PBA rookie draft, Kia Motors selected its own coach. Apparently the plan all along was for Pacquiao to serve as a player-coach, but he needed to go through the draft in order to make that happen.

Just think how awkward it would have been if another team had selected him before his own squad had a chance to do so.

Keeping with the theme of not having to look far for draft picks, Kia Motors went on to select its coach’s cousin, Rene Pacquiao, in the third round. But before anyone starts making any crazy nepotism claims, Rene played college ball at Southwestern and spent some time in the PBA D-league.

Besides, Pacquiao himself wasn’t even around to make the picks in person. He was out promoting his Nov. 23 title fight against Chris Algieri.

Like I said, he’s a very busy man.

Twitter: @chewkiii