Basketball fans could not wait to get their hands on a highly collectible Philippine stamp featuring basketball living legend Robert Jaworski.
Ryan Jaworski, one of the sons of the former Toyota stalwart and Ginebra playing mentor, expressed his excitement in a social media post with a digital copy of the limited edition stamp.
“My dad and my idol forever. I love you dad,” said the younger Jaworski, who used the hashtags #LAWINGJAWO, #LIVINGLEGEND, #NSD, and “BIGJ.
The Philippine Postal Corp. is coming out with a series of limited edition stamps, featuring legends in different fields, beginning with the launch on Oct. 16 of the Jaworski stamp in celebration of the 75th year of the Philippines’ first stamp.
For true-blue stamp collectors, the most collectible stamp is what they call the Official First Day Cover (OFDC). Several stamps are stuck in an envelope with the OFDC marking.
“Iyan talaga ang inaabangan talaga ng mga collectors ‘yung FDC. ‘Yan kasi ang may presyo sa trading,” said stamp enthusiast Freddie Sy.
With the release of the Jaworski stamp, expect the fans of the basketball legend to join the rush to buy the first batches.
Jaworski die-hard follower Danilo Coma is planning to buy seven sets in honor of jersey No. 7 of the basketball icon.
“Wow, congrats Idol Big J. Iba ka talaga. Gusto ko magkaroon niyan. Gusto ko 7 pieces,” said Coma, a Jaworski fan, who committed to writing the name Jaworski a million times.
He has so far written more than 600 thousand “Jaworskis” on various materials, from papers to shirts or whatever available blank sheets.
A close friend of Jaworski, architect Rey Punongbayan, said the honor definitely belongs to Jaworski, whose image depicts the Philippine Basketball Association logo.
Another Jaworski fan, Archie Inlong, recounted his brief encounter with Jaworski ni Tagaytay City, where he got the chance to approach the basketball idol.
“I managed to say ‘thank you’ for the many years of great basketball games he gifted us with. I was teary-eyed and felt very privileged to have said that to him personally,” said Inlong.
The Jaworski stamp is coming out just more than two weeks after the release of the stamps featuring Tokyo Olympics’ boxing medalists Eumir Marcial (bronze), Nesthy Petecio (silver) and Carlo Paalam (silver), and the first Filipino Olympic gold medalist weightlifter in Hidilyn Diaz.