WHILE the Philippine Airlines (PAL) Interclub Golf Championship tees off on Wednesday in Davao City, in grand fashion I must say–the event essentially grabbing most of the sporting spotlight in the next two weeks or so—sharing center stage will definitely be the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Philippine Cup Finals beginning on Friday.
San Miguel Beer’s championship opponent has remained unknown as I had written this several hours before the winner-take-all Game Seven last night between the Barangay Ginebra Gin Kings and then Star Hotshots.
But whoever wins the crown will not matter much insofar as San Miguel Corp. (SMC) is concerned: All three—San Miguel, Ginebra and Star—are SMC teams.
The trio’s crucial achievements are proof once more of SMC’s inherent power in basketball. It is but a renewal of SMC’s triumphant finish in 2016: Winning all three PBA conferences through San Miguel Beer (two) and Barangay Ginebra (one).
Thus, of the PBA’s 12 teams, SMC’s three said teams stood out as the best again in the league’s initial conference for the 2016-2017 season.
It is but another manifestation of SMC’s politically correct system of strengthening its teams’ rosters, equaled with its mission of leaning on and sustaining a tested personnel, both player-wise and coaching-wise.
Of the three, SMB had the least major manpower movement, retaining its starting five despite fans’ calls for a revamp and doing minor trading to some of its bench for role positioning.
Again, it reaped dividends.
SMB’s first stringers—Fajardo, Santos, Cabagnot, Ross and Lassiter—are now the acknowledged best first five of the league for the longest time. It is mainly because of them that the Beermen won two of last year’s three All- Filipino conferences. Thus, retaining SMB’s nucleus is but natural. As the saying goes, “Why fix it when it ain’t broke?”
Barangay Ginebra had snared Tim Cone, the league’s winningest coach. It paid off handsomely as the Gin Kings won last year’s concluding conference, ending a Ginebra losing drought lasting nearly a decade.
And then Star.
Before the season started, SMC’s top guns—with the say-so of grand patriarch Ramon S. Ang, of course—had but two major face-lifts: One, replace coach Jason Webb with Chito Victolero (an Alfrancis Chua masterpiece, I was told). Two, ship James Yap to Rain or Shine in exchange for Paul Lee (cheers to Alfrancis anew).
Today, following those twin moves, Star has tremendously transformed from a virtual cellar-dweller perennially to a title contender.
As I said, this was written in advance. And whoever made it last night to Friday’s Finals blast-off between Barangay Ginebra and Star would be a deserving rival of San Miguel Beer.
SMB, whose star-studded coaching staff had likewise remained practically untouched since 2014, is gunning for history as another victory would give the league’s remaining original co-founder a shot for a rare third straight All-Filipino triumph from 2015.
I will be watching on television the PBA battles in Davao as I need to fulfill a yearly commitment to cover the PAL Interclub ever since I started covering the event in 1976. Or was it 1977?
Ah, doesn’t matter. What’s one year between friends—the PAL Interclub being my pal for 40-plus years?
THAT’S IT PAL President Jimmy J. Bautista is exceedingly proud to see the 70th PAL Interclub Golf teeing off today amid all the hoopla triggered by the fact that the iconic golfest is being held in presidential territory—Davao City being the beloved birthplace of President Duterte. If memory serves, I think this is the first time that the PAL Interclub has chosen the hometown of a sitting President of the Republic as tournament venue in the storied 70 years of the annual national team golf championship. Take a bow, Jimmy…. Looking forward also to renew ties with Ken Angeles, the humble owner of Yellow Fin Tuna, the best restaurant ever in Davao City. Also to Boyet Lim, my dearest, extremely modest buddy for the longest time, who is the newly minted president of Toyota Dealers Association. Cheers!