Sports Weekly Magazine
September 24-October 1, 1976
Bitoy Bonifacio
The man least concerned about the reports of renewed troubled supposedly rocking the Crispa team is the team owner himself.
After going over anti-Crispa stories earlier in the week, Danny Floro smiled amusedly, leaned on his soft office chair and stroked his happy belly.
“I don’t know where they have been getting all these stories,” Floro said. “I am amused. Nakakatuwa. I should be the first one to know if there is really alarming trouble in the team.”
The latest anti-Crispa line came from Tony Siddayao, a close friend of Toyota team owner Dante Silverio. Siddayao reported: “They (the Denims) are in miserable shape physically, chiefly because of a reluctance to put some effort in their training and because of depressed morale.”
A seasoned campaigner, Floro has more than gotten used to all these.
He said: “It’s very likely that we would again encounter minor problems along the way, but that’s just normal. I don’t see any reason why I should be overly concerned about this. We have bigger things to tackle.”
What Floro is proud about is his players’ ability to patch up their own problems, which obviously has been part of the Crispa formula for success. Sportswriter Recah Trinidad was direct to the point when he commented: “If it has to be another Crispa show, then expect the Denims to encounter rough sailing, plod through dissensions and petty squabbles. It would be terribly un-Crispalike if they would clinch another major title trouble-free. Problems seem to be a major ingredient in the Crispa formula for success, the players changing inexplicably from mediocre to superb overnight.”
Crispa is a team known for its practical promptness. Coach Baby Dalupan’s cagers have always made it a point to be at peak form at championship time, never ahead of schedule.
“I don’t know how coach Dalupan does it,” Floro said. “But I myself believe that a team should never be at its best too early in the league.”
If Crispa encountered any considerable trouble at all in the current PBA Open, it has been with Cyrus Mann.
“You see after Mann kept on returning to the US, the other players got bothered. They were not sure if Mann liked to play with us or not.”
“But that, I believe, has all been solved” said Floro. “He (Mann) has vowed to cooperate. He has been working out regularly. Nakikipagbiruan pa sa mga players.”
What are the chances of Crispa in the current PBA series?
“I am quite confident we will make it to the round of four,” Floro said. “the other teams that will make it are Toyota and U/Tex. The fourth qualifier is still a big question mark. Kung sino ang swertihin.”
Will it be another Crispa-Toyota championship duel?
“You never can tell, it’s hard to tell,” Floro said.
Problems? Floro continues to be amused about the reports of team troubles.
“At least, I will have something to talk about with the boys,” the bright-faced Crispa team owner laughed.