MERALCO and its sister team TNT fight for life on Wednesday. To survive, they need coaches steeped in improvisation.
Both facing a 2-1 deficit each, this cliff-edge scenario could be fatal with just one misstep by Meralco Coach Norman Black and TNT mentor Bong Ravena (or Mark Dickel?).
Their Game 4 battles against separate teams at the Angeles University Foundation gym in Pampanga could be veritable goodbyes for them, if you ask me.
Look, Ginebra, Meralco’s foe, is not of the mercy kind. It takes no prisoners. It kills at the slightest opening.
That is why Tim Cone, the irrepressible Ginebra coach, is a two-time Grand Slam champion.
That is why Tim Cone, who eats wins for breakfast, is the winningest coach with 22 Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) titles across his name.
That is why Tim Cone was plucked out of Alaska by Ramon S. Ang (RSA), the San Miguel top gun with an eye for legends—at a cost too enormously huge it better be kept secret to stop tongues from wagging.
Oh, yeah, Norman Black, the Meralco coach, is also a Grand Slam champ. And, curiously, he did it for RSA’s SMB in 1989. Why Black bolted the PBA’s oldest organization in favor of RSA’s arch rival remains a mystery to this day.
Anyway, two are better than one and so, that makes Cone ahead of Black?
So that, unless Black comes up with his own brand of black magic, Cone could be on his way to a series-clinching win en route to a shot of his 23rd PBA crown, the Philippine Cup aka the All-Filipino trophy?
And what about the other half of the semifinals between TNT and Phoenix?
What can we expect from Ravena, if not Dickel, insofar as stopping the rampaging Fuel Masters from barging into the Finals?
The resurrected Calvin Abueva is already proving to be a headache to the Tropang Giga, given the consistent double-double performances by the uncaged beast.
Add to that the return-to-form of Matthew Wright, who couldn’t seem to do any wrong every time he had the ball in Phoenix’s Game 3 win on Sunday,
Despite being a rookie head coach for practically a number of weeks only, Topex Robinson seems to be loaded with unheard of strategies, endlessly baffling the Ravena/Dickel duo of TNT.
It’s been my humble view that two coaches, Ravena and Dickel, steering a team is counter-productive in that the set-up cultivates a culture of divisiveness, if not outright confusion, among the players. Who do they really trust? In short, loyalty is compromised.
It’d be Ginebra versus Phoenix then in the Finals?
Most likely, I guess.
THAT’S IT It’s a battle between Bambol Tolentino, the political animal, and Clint Aranas, the apolitical, for the presidency of the Philippine Olympic Committee on Friday. A vote for Bambol is to retain the old order. Clint represents a new beginning. Good luck.