THE bullet that almost fell Talk ’N Text’s burly forward Ali Peek remained lodged in his neck as doctors at Medical City in Ortigas waited for the Filipino-American’s family’s approval to proceed with surgery.

Members of Peek’s family flew in from the US on Wednesday.

Police, meanwhile, ruled out robbery as the motive for the shooting. They are now focusing on a revenge angle, although everything looked sketchy as of Wednesday afternoon.

The 36-year-old veteran player in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) was shot on Monday night by an unidentified assailant in the parking lot of the RFM Sports Center in Mandaluyong City right after the player finished his plyometric workout.

Peek is in stable condition and is resting, according to his head coach Chot Reyes. He missed his team’s Philippine Cup game against Powerade at the Smart Araneta Coliseum on Wednesday.

Surgery will be a delicate procedure after a CT scan revealed that the bullet missed Peek’s spine by one millimeter, his jaw by a hair and a major artery by two centimeters.

A sketch of the assasilant has been released by authorities while Tropang Texters owner Manny V. Pangilinan put up a P500,000 reward for any information that could lead to the arrest of the assailant.