CHAMPION teams San Miguel Beer and Talk ‘N Text want no less than what they accomplished as they look forward to another successful campaign in the 41st Philippine Basketball Association ahead.
Following a very successful year wherein both squads won all the championships (San Miguel took the Philippine and Governors’ Cups, while Talk ‘N Text bagged the Commissioner’s Cup), the Beermen and the Tropang Texters aim to soar even higher as they try to add more to their trophy cases.
San Miguel Beer had its most successful season in recent memory. This season, it will obviously aim to defend both of its championships.
‘’Everything is possible. Of course, we want to win more championships, but we’ll just take it one game at a time. That has been our approach, but we want to win even more championships and we’re looking to do that,’’ said second-year San Miguel Beer coach Leo Austria, who seemed to be the right man for the job for the Beermen as he was finally able to push the right buttons to steer the storied franchise back to its glory days.
Though the Tropang Texters won the middle conference last season, they shockingly had a poor ending as they surprisingly missed the playoffs in the Governors’ Cup to everyone’s surprise.
‘’We can’t discount the fact that we’re coming off a championship and the hangover from that did affect us in the Governors’ Cup, that’s why we badly want to bounce back strong in this Philippine Cup,’’ said Talk ‘N Text coach Jong Uichico.
Arguably the two strongest teams in the league already, San Miguel and Talk ‘N Text even added more firepower in the off-season to assure themselves that they will certainly contend for titles once again.
The Tropang Texters combined their present and future as they kept their championship team very much intact, while adding some more youthful talent.
The longtime championship core of Jayson Castro, Ranidel De Ocampo, Ryan Reyes, Larry Fonacier, Kelly Williams and Harvey Carey will team up with promising sophomore Matt Ganuelas-Rosser, top two rookies Moala Tautuaa and Troy Rosario, who are considered as the future of the squad, as well as new hires veteran playmaker Denok Miranda and underutilized swingman Dylan Ababou, who was acquired just last week in a recent trade.
For San Miguel, it got even stronger as it will now add new key additions Ryan Arana and Brian Heruela to the already burly group of reigning Most Valuable Player Junemar Fajardo, former MVP Atrwind Santos, Marcio Lassiter, Chris Lutz, Ronald Tubid, Alex Cabagnot and Chris Ross.
Expect the two championship squads to be right up there at the top again competing for more accolades this season.