Sean Chambers laments Veejay Pre family drama before leaving FEU for UP

Following UAAP men’s basketball Rookie of the Year Veejay Pre’s transfer from FEU to UP, Tamaraws coach and PBA legend Sean Chambers voices concerns on ‘adults making decisions for a kid’ and reiterates his love for his former player

MANILA, Philippines – There is no love lost between FEU head coach Sean Chambers and Veejay Pre, but Chambers hoped the situation could have been handled better.

Shortly after the former Tamaraws forward officially bid goodbye to FEU, Chambers rued Pre’s circumstances before departing the team, saying that he was stuck between adults’ decisions.

“I’m one of those who believe that as a family, (our decisions) may not all be in line together. At the end of the day, we have a kid stuck in the middle, and that’s heartbreaking,“ Chambers said as the Tamaraws opened the FilOil preseason with a win over UE on Thursday, May 22.

“He’s a kid, and as adults, we need to stop talking about it and let him go about his way. Because it’s a lot of adults making the decisions for a kid, and he’s caught in the middle,” he added.

Pre has since moved to the UP Fighting Maroons, the stacked defending UAAP men’s basketball champions, in a blockbuster transfer for Seasons 89 in 2026 and beyond.

Last May 8, FEU athletic director Mark Molina said that the Season 87 Rookie of the Year was being “forced to leave” by his family despite his personal desire to stay in the school, with Pre even asking his father to change his mind and remain with FEU, but to no avail.

Chambers was astonished by the peculiarity of the situation after watching the UAAP for over 30 years.

“I think this is the first time I’ve seen a situation where a kid loves his university, loves his teammates, loves his coaching staff, but he has to make a decision for the best of his family,” he said.

“God bless Veejay. He sent me an amazing message. I love that kid like he is my own son. But at the end of the day, I will never tell my family what to do with their own kid.”

Chambers reiterated that the team will always uphold integrity, the same way his PBA team, the Alaska Aces, embodied it through its existence.

“We achieve success with excellence, and we achieve it with integrity…We want to do things right with everybody involved.”

For now, the Tamaraws are in the process of letting things go and sticking with what is in their control.

For Chambers, such redirection would not only help Pre put things in the past, but also help FEU develop their current talents.

“We need to move on for the betterment of Veejay,” he said. “The goal was to have the talent and make the talent better. We’ll continue building.”

With Pre’s departure, Chambers hopes it will light a fire on other players as their look to start their rebuilding anew.

“Here’s the deal, we all love Veejay, Veejay loves us…Veejay is our family…I wish him all the best, I really do,” he said.

“Basically, it’s next man up now.” – Rappler.com