This piece was supposed to revolve around the subject matter passion and leadership, though on second thought, should it be passion in leadership instead?
I have long been in the corporate world, spending a lot of time on HR work, and expanding my knowledge on the many facets of HR, including recognizing leaders in organizations. Little did I realize that I would end up conducting seminars and workshops on leadership functions, traits and roles.
And since I have long been involved in basketball as a writer, it was natural that the idea of dwelling on this in relation to basketball would eventually emerge and it has.
But first, my understanding of real passion has changed, my idea before was that it refers to having very strong feelings over something. Now it has gone beyond that. For me, I agree now with what I found out by researching.
Passion is the willingness to do what it takes, regardless of consequences, to achieve a goal, while for leadership, the one word that has stuck with me to describe it is influence.
Now in basketball, many are described as passionate players, but not necessarily leaders. There may be scoring, rebound or assist leaders, or on-court leaders, which for me comes closest to who I believe is the true basketball leader.
I posted the question online and got many replies on who they think were basketball player-leaders both in the PBA and the NBA.
Not surprising, Robert Jaworski was the most common choice as he has been known to lead teams he was with like Toyota and Ginebra, and for me, he has exerted a lot of influence on his players, so he qualifies. If I may add, Jaworski is one player you do not have to like to admire.
The other names that came out were Hector Calma, Fritz Gaston, Alvin Patrimonio, Mon Fernandez, Freddie Webb, Ed Ocampo Jimmy Alapag, YCO’s Renato Reyes, and Allan Caidic. It’s noticeable that no current player was mentioned.
Same with some of the greatest scoring leaders in the past like Vergel Meneses, Bogs Adornado, Nelson Asaytono, Atoy Co, Danny Seigle, Abet Guidaben, Bong Alvarez, and James Yap, not even Caloy Loyzaga, but I guess more due to unfamiliarity, with the latter. They were not equated with leadership, except for Caidic, who was mentioned once, though I replied that he was more of a scoring leader.
I asked Perry Ronquillo of Shell who were the leaders of his champion team. He cited Benjie Paras and Chris Jackson as the real quiet leaders, but with Ronnie Magsanoc as the court leader previously, his point guard Gerry Esplana was not included.
Alaska, the super team of the 90s, I believe it was Jojo Lastimosa, who was the real leader of the team, but sharing it to a certain extent with Bong Hawkins and Johnny Abarrientos.
For Crispa, Atoy Co might have come closest to performing the role, particularly when Bogs left the team, or was it let off the team. Philip Cesar sure had the potential, but only if he wanted to, unfortunately, he did not want the added responsibility of being the leader.
Present player June Mar Fajardo, despite his impressive list of individual awards, leads the team in scoring and rebounding most of the time, but he has not been identified as the team leader.
I am sure a lot of fans will disagree with some of my observations just as they will with some, Filipino basketball fans are intelligent ones who understand the game and recognize the players for what they are inside the court. This is consistent with the replies I got, and that is why I need to thank those who responded.
And here they are, Perry Ronquillo, of course, Sev Sarmenta, Nino Sinco, who spent time with Ginebra and Jaworski, long-time basketball fan Michael Yulo, my colleague Ignacio Dee, Dr. Rico Mesina from The Basketvault, Ariel Morales, Lee Soriano, Cebuana Lhuillier’s Richard Villaseran, Jet Orbuda, Teddy Perena, Renie Redejo, Oscar Gomez Jr., my son JM, and high school batchmate Jon Amante, all the way from Canada..
Next part, I will talk on the same subject matter but in the NBA this time.
