In a PBA conference forced to play games without a live audience, the league’s biggest draw, the one perennially labeled as having a sixth man that delivers a familiar chant every game, ironically came out as the winner.
The Barangay Ginebra San Miguel completed a masterful performance in the first and hopefully only PBA Bubble, becoming its champion at the expense of TNT Tropang Giga last Wednesday at the Angeles University Foundation in Clark, Pampanga. The team’s triumphant outing was meaningful in several ways, serving as a celebratory occasion to a poignant effort in bringing a sense of normalcy in this basketball-crazy country.
The championship is more than an All-Filipino crown jewel 13 years in the making, or the first without import support for Finals MVP and PBA Iron Man L.A Tenorio. In essence it was a statement performance for the squad known for its Never Say Die (NSD) attitude, having won it all without the privilege it has enjoyed since the legendary Robert Jaworksi joined the team in the mid-80s.
The iconic, all-too-familiar Ginebra chant was obviously in mute mode throughout the conference. Netizens may have noticed that the numbers of online viewers significantly surged during Ginebra games. But it was merely just that: numbers. That really couldn’t help fire up the team in crucial moments or when trailing.
No worries.
Anchored on effective coaching by Tim Cone and powered by a lineup that consistently bagged championships in the past five years, Ginebra won its first four games — a feat last done when they had Billy Ray Bates and Michael Hackett—and went on to top the eliminations. They beat dangerous Rain Or Shine in the Quarterfinals without going to a knockout match and got past its playoff rival Meralco Bolts in a thrilling series highlighted by a booming endgame trey by Scottie Thompson to settle the score.
In the Finals, the first two games could have gone either way but a strong drive from rookie Arvin Tolentino forced an overtime in the opener and Thompson scored a big triple anew in the waning seconds of Game 2 to edge the Tropang Giga. Tenorio’s heroics were evident in the series, either through big shots to respond to RR Pogoy’s rampage or important free throws to keep the TNT at bay.
Stanley Pringle played his little Brownlee role all tournament long while Japeth Aguilar tied his career-best 32 points in last Wednesday’s clincher.
“This is for the fans,” echoed all those who were interviewed in the Ginebra camp, from Coach Tim Cone who surpassed Jaworski’s record haul of four crowns piloting Ginebra to Mark Caguioa who entered the tourney as the first player who played 18 seasons for one team.
It’s a minor miracle of sorts that Ginebra joined the Bubble as among the strong teams on paper, on the floor. They had to do it minus their legions of fans loudly cheering for them or booing their opponents.
A league schedule twist took them to capturing the 44th season’s Governor’s Cup January this year or before Covid-19 put on hold many things in our lives. They partied to the tune of Queen’s “We Are The Champions” twice in 2020 which to many people is a year of sickness and death.
The most popular team in the PBA, and in the country for that matter, stood tall amidst the pandemic. Its NSD mantra fittingly screamed as a rallying point for everyone believing that no matter how difficult, the ongoing global trouble will be overcome as long as there’s still hope and a fighting chance.
(Editor’s note: The author, who writes a weekly music column for the Manila Standard, once covered the PBA for Manila Bulletin and Sports Digest magazine. He composed and recorded a song called “Basketball Pinoy” with his band Syato and penned an essay titled “Yesterday’s Never-Say-Die Spirit of Legends” as part of his “How To Survive the New Normal” e-book published last July.)