IT’S all water under the bridge now, so to speak. San Miguel Beer is out of the Grand Slam picture, a victim of its own undoing.
How can anyone blow away a won-game, letting an 18-point margin slip away just like that—in a contest when practically all the marbles were on the line?
But enough is enough.
Bye, Beermen. Better luck next time.
Let’s focus now on the raging battles pitting teams with similar desires designed to send their bosses to paradise.
Ramon S. Ang, RSA to those close to him, has two teams engaging two teams owned by no less than his chief business rival, MVP (Manny V. Pangilinan).
RSA’s Star and Barangay Ginebra are up against MVP’s Meralco and TNT KaTropa, respectively, in the best-of-five semifinals of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Governors’ Cup. The last time we had an RSA versus MVP series, RSA won as San Miguel Beer defeated TNT 4-2 in the PBA Commissioner’s Cup.
Curiously this time, each side is a mix of veteran and inexperienced coaches.
Norman Black of Meralco is a Grand Slam winner with San Miguel Beer in 1989, Tim Cone of Ginebra the Slam champ in 1996 with Alaska and in 2014 with San Mig Coffee.
Star Coach Chito Victolero is still virtually wet behind the ears, while TNT’s Nash Racela is a rookie, although he has given Far Easter University a University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) crown a while back.
Definitely, with their wealth of experience behind them, Black and Cone are heavily favored to prevail.
Black is steeped in scientific coaching, his diverse talents also giving him coaching crowns in the amateur backyard with five straight UAAP titles as Ateneo mentor.
As the only double-Slam champion, Cone strikes instant fear to any pretender as his records are more than a testament to a long, decorated career in coaching.
So that while Black and Cone seem headed to a head-on collision in the best-of-seven Finals, Victolero and Racela can only hope to score a giant upset.
And aren’t upsets the hardest to achieve?
But, again, it is not bad to dream.
The best part of it is, the best dreams in life are free.
You don’t achieve your dream, fine. You lose nothing. Your dream comes true, bingo. You win everything.
The chance of making a shot at it is a dream already half fulfilled.
For the underdog, to win is but a bonus.
But for an overdog to lose?
A pride deflated no end, a face to be buried in the sand—for a while.
THAT’S IT We finished fifth in China’s International Basketball Federation (Fiba) Cup. Just fine. We didn’t send our best, anyways. In fact, we should maintain this practice from here on. There is no use sending our very best as we could not really capture an Asian crown that perennially pits us against Asia’s best. We are only fit to play at the Southeast Asian Games level, period. To dream of winning the Asian Games or the Fiba Asia Cup is merely that: wishful thinking.