Filipino basketball players

Cager-turned-celebrity Maoi Roca dies

Delfin Dioquino

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Cager-turned-celebrity Maoi Roca dies

CHAMPION. Maoi Roca helped La Salle capture a UAAP title.

Maoi Roca Facebook page

While playing basketball, former La Salle standout Maoi Roca appeared as a regular in the gag show 'Tropang Trumpo'

MANILA, Philippines – Basketball player-turned-celebrity Maoi Roca died on Friday, January 14.

He was 47.

Roca suited up for La Salle in the UAAP, where he helped lead the Green Archers to a championship in Season 61 in 1998.

He earned a selection to the UAAP Mythical Team.

After college, Roca went on to play for the Batangas Blades in the Metropolitan Basketball Association and got drafted by Tanduay at No. 32 overall in the 2001 PBA Draft.

While playing basketball, the charismatic Roca also pursued a career in the entertainment industry and appeared as a regular in the gag show Tropang Trumpo, where he starred alongside the likes of Carmina Villaroel and Gelli de Belen.

Tributes poured in for Roca, including that from his childhood friend and singer Rico Blanco.

“It gets sadder when I remember your laugh,” Blanco wrote on Facebook in Filipino. “Goodbye Mao. Childhood friend, teammate/opponent, brother.”

– Rappler.com

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Delfin Dioquino

Delfin Dioquino dreamt of being a PBA player, but he did not have the skills to make it. So he pursued the next best thing to being an athlete – to write about them. He took up journalism at the University of Santo Tomas and joined Rappler as soon as he graduated in 2017.