Cameron Krutwig’s first Asia stint as import is more than just basketball.

Other than helping the Blackwater Bossing’s quest for another playoff run, the Loyola Chicago stalwart, who led the Ramblers to an upset win of top seed Illinois in the US NCAA Tournament last year, is starting to embrace the Filipino culture more.

“I don’t have any idea about Philippine basketball,” Krutwig told ABS-CBN News. “I did some research. I know it’s the oldest (professional basketball) league in Asia. I did some research, watched some of the games from the last All-Filipino Cup, but I don’t know much about it.

“Coach (Ariel Vanguardia) kinda hit my agent and hooked me up, so I kinda weighed the options and I felt it was a good idea to come out here.”

Built with a 255-pound body and stands 6-foot-9, Krutwig will reinforce the Bossing in the coming Commissioner’s Cup and the Belgian League veteran had immediately got along well with his new teammates.

“I think there’s a lot of guard players, shifty guards, shooters,” added Krutwig. “A lot of good cutters. We have a lot of guys who love to cut and move. I love to play with guys who love to cut and move and can finish.

“We’re running some good stuff and we’ve got some shooters and it complements my style pretty well.”

• Blackwater taps young Cameron Krutwig as import in PBA Commissioner’s Cup

For Krutwig, one of the reasons why he decided to come to the Philippines was the Filipinos’ passion for the game.

“I know basketball is a big deal here,” he added. “This is why I decided to come here because basketball means a lot to people here. There’s a big fandom around.”

But there’s more to basketball that made Krutwig fell in love with the Philippines.

“The guys (my teammates) were great. I’ve only been here three weeks and slowly getting to know the guys slowly building chemistry with them,” he added. “It’s been great. We had some guys who had birthdays recently and they bought food for us. It’s been good.

“I’ll try anything once (Filipino food). I’ll try anything once. I’ve been ordering and I like sea food a lot, there’s a lot of good sea foods here, crab, shrimp, lobsters. That’s another thing, everybody knows somewhere to go and we have a lot of coaches and staff t go here and there. I’ve got a lot of places to try.”