SAN Miguel Beer (SMB) seems to love living dangerously.
By facing Barangay Ginebra San Miguel today, SMB is dealing with history—yet again.
Why, because the Beermen are in a must-win situation—and against yet their own sister-team in the Kings.
If the Beermen lose, the back-to-back conference champions get the boot—in a most painful manner.
Before today’s do-or-die game against the Kings, haven’t the Beermen been boisterously bandied about as owning the best chances of scoring a Grand Slam this year?
It was a smooth ride for them at the start—until they bumped into two imports sadly turning out to be a pair of lemons.
The third import was doing fine as SMB went on a three-game roll.
But in his fourth and final game in the eliminations, against Meralco only last Sunday, Terrence Watson caved in—triggering the Beermen’s collapse to put them in today’s Slam-threatening match against Ginebra.
A loss would mean a sad farewell for the Beermen, scuttling their dream of reprising their first Grand Slam feat in 1989—ironically authored by Norman Black as San Miguel Beer coach back then.
On Sunday night it was Black who coached Meralco’s 104-101 win over SMB, egging his Bolts on to erase an 18-point deficit to break a two-year losing curse to the Beermen since 2015.
As a result, SMB has been precariously transformed from a gallant Slam contender to a sorry candidate for an ejection outright with a loss to Ginebra.
But San Miguel Beer is no stranger to danger.
Only conferences ago, SMB survived death three straight times to force a winner-take-all Game Seven against Alaska.
By winning Game Seven, SMB did not only rewrite league history, but its rise from 0-3 to win the All-Filipino crown also established the Beermen as the league’s most resilient bunch ever since the PBA’s birth in 1975.
So, if and when SMB gets to topple twice Barangay Ginebra to make it to the semifinals, the only unsurprised fellow that I can think of is?
Dyarran…Alex Compton!
Reason? Compton was the Alaska coach when the Beermen, down 0-3, collared that historic 4-3 victory over the Aces.
Really, does lightning strike twice?
THAT’S IT The good news is, UP’s stunning win over La Salle last weekend stands as of this writing. The bad news is, UP’s victory faces either forfeiture or validation when a court-ordered TRO allowing Maroon Ben Ricafort to play expires after the document’s 20-day prescription period. The case arose from the UAAP board’s decision disqualifying Ricafort due to the player’s residency issues. Suspense!