SWM Selection: Dante Silverio, Coach of the Year (Sports Weekly, 1978)

Sports Weekly Magazine

December 29, 1978 to January 05, 1979 issue

Peter N. Acosta

 

 

To each his own title – Dante Silverio and the All-Filipino, Tommy Manotoc the second conference and Fort Acuña the third conference. Thus, all that was left was to determine whose accomplishment carried greater weight and from there, the selection of SWM’s choice as pro basketball coach of the year ought to be easy enough.

 

There were two other candidates for this honor, Caloy Loyzaga of Tanduay and Lauro Mumar of Filmanbank, but it was the feeling of the men who sat through the whole of the last PBA season that although their feats merited their consideration, these paled in comparison with what Silverio, Manotoc and Acuña accomplished.

 

The SWM group felt though that with the way they piloted their respective teams to the finals despite the tall odds against them, Loyzaga and Mumar deserved at least honorable mention. But as to their being nominated as coach of the year is something else.

 

Thus, the race narrowed down to the coaches of the champion teams in the ’78 PBA series.

 

At the beginning, long before the third conference came around, the 29-year old Tommy Manotoc, an amateur golf standout who first made waves in the PBA last year when he coached the U/Tex Wranglers to the finals of the second conference, looked like he would be “it” for ’78 when he steered U/Tex to its first-ever PBA championship.

 

With the feat, which came as the Wranglers took on the Crispa 400s in the title playoffs of this year’s second conference, Manotoc was hailed as the man who finally brought it about – the end of the dynastic hold of Crispa and Toyota on first place in the league, which over the past three years had seen Crispa and Toyota alternating as conference champions.

 

Indeed, It was a masterful performance under pressure which Manotoc showed as he led the Wranglers to a devastating 3-0 sweep over Crispa in the second conference playoffs.

 

But then came that awful tumble which the Wranglers took in their third conference campaign, a tumble that saw them miss a finals berth by losing to the Tanduay Esquires in sudden death, and then their 3- shutout by Crispa in the third place playoffs, and all of a sudden, there was this rash of ifs and buts about the magic that Manotoc wove in winning the second conference.

 

Tommy himself added something to the downgrading of his chances to make coach of the year honors when he admitted, when asked why the Wranglers missed the finals, that what had been their advantage in the second conference became their “disadvantage” in the third, where U/Tex limped home fourth in a field of five.

 

 

 

Manotoc was referring to the way his two imports, Snake Jones and Glenn McDonald, whom he was able to use simultaneously in the second conference came up short of expectations in a league where the other ballclubs also had the option to field their imports at the same time.

 

Manotoc thus inferred that more than anything else, what enabled the Wranglers to reign supreme in the second conference, was their advantage in having two devastating imports in Jones and McDonald and their being blessed with the option to use both simultaneously against the semifinalists who could only field one import at a time.

 

When both flunked the test in a situation where all teams were even, that was it – pfft went the glamour previously attached to Manotoc’s second conference coup.

 

As for rookie coach Fort Acuña, who, from the time he took over the coaching chores from Silverio, led the Tamaraws to a 7-1 won-loss record that culminated in the Tams’ retention of their third conference title, the feeling was that by the time Acuña took over, he already had a team on the go.

 

“The feat,” said a SWM writer, “made Acuña as a coach of the future but one wonders whether Acuña could have made it without the support of Dante and if he had the team from the start of the season.”

 

Set against the accomplishments of Manotoc and Acuña, Silverio’s sparkled more because he pulled it off in a league often called the PBA’s “most prestigious” and where the competition is generally tougher and keener.

 

It was Mumar who made it as the most outstanding coach of the all-Filipino and not Silverio. But many of the boys who covered that tournament felt this could easily have been Silverio if Dante had not figured in that incident with taunting spectators behind the Toyota bench and which cost him a one-day suspension.

 

But that suspension, SWM feels, hardly detracts from the fact that Silverio did the more notable work from the sidelines in leading the Tamaraws to their first title in the ’78 season and thus makes him the rightful claimant of local pro basketball’s “coach of the year” honors for ’78, the Year of the Tamaraws.

Big Year for Big J: Sonny Jaworski, Mr. Basketball '78 (Sports Weekly, 1978)

Sports Weekly Magazine

December 29, 1978 to January 05, 1979 issue

 

 

Like his friend and coach, Dante Silverio, Toyota’s Sonny Jaworski says he “can’t ask for more” with what he got out of sports year, ’89.

 

“It has been a memorable year,” he said, as he savored, along with the other members of the Toyota ballclub, the heady brew of the Tamaraws’ success In the PBA season that just came to close with Toyota as the league’s only two-time champion team for 1978.

 

But while his teammates actually partook of the bubbly that flowed at the Toyota party as if tomorrow Moet et Chandon would be going out of style, the man whom just about every basketball expert believes was the one who provided Toyota with the direction that enabled the Tams to hold sway in the All-Filipino and third conferences of the local pro league, settled for a glass of soda pop.

 

He also didn’t hang on till the wee hours, saying as he bade goodbye to everyone, that he had an early day tomorrow.

 

But the season is over, someone said.

 

To which Sonny said, smiling: “To a pro, a season is never over.”

 

True, and never truer than in the case of a pro’s pro like Jaworski, who credits his consistently heads-up performance in the ’78 PBA season which earned for him the coveted MVP award for the All-Filipino and later in the year, his selection as “Mr. Basketball” to an “almost religious devotion to physical fitness.”

 

Jaworski recalled that in preparation for his role as quarterback of the Tams in their ’78 campaign, he went into a physical conditioning that began not too long after last year’s Christmas holidays and went on the whole season.

 

The program, he said, consisted of a regular session with weights as well as exercises designed to strengthen the muscles used in the game of basketball and aimed at beefing up the stamina.

 

“The whole thing, he said, “was not by any means easy because, well we are not as young as we used to be, but the results, I’m happy to say, have been most gratifying.”

 

By “gratifying,” Jaworski, now 32 and as lean and strong as when he first set out on the road to basketball superstardom, obviously meant the way he made it as an almost hands-down-choice as the most valuable player of the All-Filipino long before the tournament ended with his team as champion.

 

“Sustained brilliance” was the phrase used to describe Jaworski’s performance in the first conference and the statistics bore out the hosannas heaped on the Jaworski game.

 

 

 

The figures showed Jaworski led the league in assists, was Toyota’s top man in the battle for the rebounds and game-rally came up with the drive and the clutch hits in the key games that the Tamaraws won on their way to the All-Filipino title, Toyota’s second since the 1977 third conference.

 

In the third conference, which the Tamaraws won on a tough 3-1 decision over the gritty Tanduay Esquires in the best of five pennant playoffs, Jaworski, along with Toyota import, Carl Terry, were the touchstones of the Tamaraws’ devastating running game.

 

He was also the Tamaraws’ second big man in the offense, averaging 14 points per game in the elimination round which Toyota swept. In the playoffs, Jaworski averaged 17.17 per game, his highest output the 19-point effort that he pulled off as Toyota won the go-ahead third game against the Esquires.

 

In the fourth game of the playoffs, Jaworski shared centerstage with the flamboyant Carl Terry where he teamed up beautifully with the much assists department to set up the plays that enabled the Tamaraws to lead by as much as 23 points and eventually win by a walk.

 

Ramon Fernandez was the Tamaraw whose performance approximated Jaworski’s in the third conference, but a lean four-point output by Fernandez in game 2 of the playoffs made the superb Toyota slotman a second choice as team MVP for the series.

 

Other than the way he stood heads and shoulders over the Filipinos who saw action in PBA ’78, another thing which made Jaworski the biggest name in pro basketball in the year about to close was hi being tapped for a series of promotional campaigns by industrial firms dealing in computer items.

 

Jaworski did a promo campaign for Cerveza Negra, Tender Leaf tea and Toyota, and towards the end of the year, he was tapped for a TV talk show, entitled “Celebrity.”

 

Thus, as the man says, he really cannot ask for more with the way things turned out for him in ’78. The only thing that bugs him is what he’ll have to do by way of an encore in ’79.

The Night Toyota Made It 2 for '78 (Sports Weekly, 1978)

Sports Weekly Magazine

December 29, 1978 to January 05, 1979 issue

Peter N. Acosta

 

 

(Editor’s note: This game took place two days after Sports Weekly Magazine went to press last week for its Christmas week issue. Thus, our inability ot feature it – despite its significance – as our Game of the Week the last time around.)

 

The banner, the only one, first flustered in the stands when Toyota’s Big 3 – Francis Arnaiz, Ramon Fernandez and Sonny Jaworski – strung up an eight-point cluster to give the Tamaraws an 8-0 lead two minutes after the first quarter began.

 

But other than that solitary flag, there was nothing in the Toyota camp’s posture in game 4 of the best of five playoffs for the PBA’s third and last conference title of the year that would indicate that the Tamaraws’ fans felt this was “it”: the night when the Tams would finally make it back to the top of the conference they ruled last year.

 

As Toyota’s pinch-hitting coach, Fort Acuña, himself said: “Sure, we’re up, 2-1, but in a series like this, nothing is sure until the final whistle had blown and the scoreboard shows we’ve got it made.”

 

Old friends of Toyota who had earlier called the office of Toyota coach on vacation Dante Silverio to inquire where the victory party will be held were advised: “No plans yet. Anyway, it’s easy to stage a bash once we’re there.”

 

Toyota’s feeling of uncertainty despite its having won two games of the best of five playoffs to move a win away from the title figured.

 

For although the Tams won game 3 by 10 points after dropping the second game to the tough Tanduay Esquires, it was by no means a look-me-no-hands triumph.

 

Tough as nails since they came out swinging in their first-ever fling in a PBA title showdown, the Esquires had made the Tams work hard for the two wins posted by Toyota and now with their backs against the wall, they were expected to make it doubly tougher for Toyota.

 

But right off, when they got caught with their pistols in their pockets by an all-out Toyota barrage that sent them down by 8-0 after two minutes in the first quarter and then by 15 points, 30 to 15 at the end of the period, the Esquires were on the ropes.

 

 

 

Their problem was further compounded by the awful plight of their key import, Gene Moore, who, although he managed to play in game 4, just wasn’t his old aggressive self in both the defense and the battles for the rebound as a result of his still sprained right ankle.

 

With Moore in such dire straits, Carlos (Primero) Terry had a ball for the whole night, pumping in a game-high 36 points, hauling down 15 rebounds, making one assist, three blocks and two steals to lead the Tams to a 108-98 triumph.

 

For his part, Terry’s partner, second year Toyota import Bruce (Sky) King was equally as devastating against Tanduay’s David Payne as he came up with 19 rebounds to dramatize Toyota’s control of the boards and the match.

 

Despite the margin of their victory, however, the Tams felt the pressure all the way.

 

More so when in the final quarter, the Esquires inched to within 10 points off Toyota’s lead four times and then once to eight points before Terry, Jaworski and Bruce King put the game on ice with a 6-2 blast that sent the Tams beyond recall, 106-94, with the time down to 1:46.

 

Another twinner by Terry on a slam dunk against a pair of hits by Payne and the Tams had got it – the fourth game win that wrapped up Toyota’s fifth championship in a four-year PBA campaign, the second for the Tams in the 1978 season.

With the game and the title in the bag, the Tamaraw camp finally whooped it up, letting go of a cloudburst of confetti with only a minute left in the game.

 

The Toyota victory bash, however, was not held until two nights later.

 

The win elated Dante Silverio, who said it proved that the Tams could be competitive “so long as they give their best.” Adding that he prepared the team for a grand slam year in ’78, Dante said that although Toyota didn’t make its goal, he couldn’t ask for more.

 

Along with rookie Coach Acuña, Silverio got the traditional victory ride from his jubilant players.

Toyota's Giant-Killing Binge: First Canada, Then Yugoslavia (Sports Weekly, 1978)

Sports Weekly Magazine

September 29, 1978

On the Line, Vic Villafranca

 

                                        

 

As if they didn’t have enough problems trying to catch the now-crowded last bus in the semifinal round of the PBA’s second conference, Toyota’s Tamaraws found themselves walking the gangplank against the Canadian and Yugoslavian national teams in non-PBA games at the Araneta Coliseum.

 

The matches were meant to be tune-ups for the Canadians and Yugoslavians who are playing in the world amateur basketball championships scheduled to start next week. But for the Tamaraws who didn’t have anything to gain from the whole exercise, it seemed like an unnecessary distraction in their bid to pump themselves up physically and mentally for their pivotal games in the south against Royal Tru Orange and Tanduay.
 

 

But having committed themselves to play, the Tamaraws really didn’t have a choice but to go through the motions of playing unwilling sacrificial lambs.

 

“What,” says an old-time PBA watcher, “if one of Dante’s imports got bumped pretty bad? Or what if Jaworski lands on his back again, won’t that spoil the chances of Toyota against Royal and Tanduay?

 

The inference is that if at all, the Tamaraws won’t really play hard against both foreign teams, just enough to make the folks in the bleachers go home with the tale that they saw a ballgame and not a ballet, an honest-to-goodness hardcourt encounter, and not a fencing exhibition. Surprisingly, things didn’t turn out that way.

 

Playing as if they were playing for all the marbles in the world and not merely to make BAP President Lito Puyat feel good on a weekend, the Tamaraws went hammer and thongs, helter and skelter, full system and all systems go against their taller and heavier opponents to give just about everyone in the crowded Big Dome an excuse to go home with a bad case of sore throat.

 

When, after being down by 10 points at the half which closed at 36-46 in favor of the Canadians, the Tamaraws stormed their way to a 82-all tie with a little over four minutes left in the ballgame and then went on from there to unload clutch hits. It was as if New Year had come ahead of schedule.

 

The whole coliseum flew into a tizzy, national pride ran rampant in the jampacked stands, and while it was true Toyota Coach Dante Silverio never got to be kissed on both cheeks by the enthused fans, he got an ovation that ought to make up for all the gloom that has been his lot since the start of the PBA second conference.

 

“Beautiful, just beautiful,” said a sportscaster, carried away by it all. Later, at the players’ locker room, the Tamaraws’ two American imports, Bruce King and Carl Terry, as well as Jaworski and Arnaiz, were hard-pressed beating off fans who wanted to pump their shooting hands black and blue.

 

It was Terry who gave the Tamaraws the lead with 14 seconds left and then Jaworski iced the whole thing when he drew a foul after intercepting a throw-in by the Canadian side. Sonny knocked in both of his free throws for the eventual 92-88 Toyota victory.

 

Coming as it did an hour after the Czechoslovakian team all but waltzed its way to a 105-70 win over a Philippine team and before second-ranked Yugoslavia walloped Crispa, 108-92, the coup pulled off by Toyota made up for both dampers, the rout of the Philippine team especially.

 

Two nights later, Toyota stunned Yugoslavia by five, 118-113.

 

 

 

It was, as the Express’ Ernie Gonzales wrote, “a big blow for the Philippine Basketball Association.”

 

Pinched for space, Ernie never got to expand what in his view was the significance of the victory, but was obvious that he meant to point out that if the BAP had consented to the inclusion of top local pros in the national team, we ought to be able to come up with a showing that won’t make the local bleacher crowd feel like walking out sore and sullen in the rain. We probably won’t win all our games but at least, it will give the hometown folks something to cheer about, something to make everybody feel that it isn’t a flock of sheep that we sent to the world basketball arena but a gaggle of lions.

 

Of course, it’s too late now to do anything. But, gosh, can you just imagine how things might have been if we had Jaworski and company in the national lineup? It probably won’t mean that we’ll knock the favored entries in the world basketball series bowlegged, but one thing we ought to get farther than the slaughterhouse.

 

The PBA hardcourt show goes on the road this week with the semifinal hopes of two of the four teams billed in out-of-town games hanging in the balance in the league’s southern swing.

 

The two are Toyota and Royal Tru Orange who are scheduled to clash in Iloilo and the go separate ways – Toyota via the slow boat to Bacolod to play Tanduay and Royal to Cebu to take on the Crispa Redmanizers.

 

The key game in the series is the Toyota-Royal matchup. Up with identical 7-5 won-loss cards, the Orangemen and the Tamaraws need at least a split to earn at least a tie for a round of four berth. Thus, whoever wins in Iloilo will have a jump on the other. The Iloilo loser, on the one hand, could be in real trouble because it will only be a setback away from outright elimination from the semifinal race.

 

It seems farfetched, but there could be a change in the semifinal picture and most likely a playoff if Tanduay and Crispa, who are tied with eight wins each, are to bomb out twice in their Southern schedules. Crispa, particularly, will be in a bind because while Tanduay has an 8-3 slate, Crispa is 8-4.

 

At any rate, despite the exhibition series of some of the teams playing entered in the world cagefest in the South, the games to watch will be the PBA matches in Iloilo, Bacolod and Cebu.

 

NOBODY ASKED ME, BUT….

 

With the opening of the world basketball tournament next week, the spotlight moves away completely from that other international tournament being held in the Philippines – the long-drawn, now boring world chess championship series between Anatoly Karpov and Victor Korchnoi…I never realized how much laughts I’ve missed until I watched the telecast of the NBA games and compared it to the Arcilla-Eduque show on Channel 4…More and more, it’s beginning to look as if it’s curtains for Danny Florencio and his pro basketball career…Just once, I’d like to hear TV basketball analyst Tito Eduque say “bad call” everytime one of the PBA refs makes a really bad call.

 

JPM Notes:

 

1.     A riveting and vivid memory of the Toyota-Canada game happened in the first few seconds of the game when, right after tip-off, Jaworski made a barreling drive against Tom Bishop which startled the Canadian. It was the Big J’s strong message that he will not be bullied by the stronger, bigger Canadians.

 

2.    Canada was coached by Jack Donohue and had the likes of Bishop, Leo Rautins, Jay Triano and former Honda Hagibis import, Jim Zoet in the lineup. They eventually ended up 6^th overall in the 1978 FIBA World Championship.

 

3.    Yugoslavia won the 1978 FIBA Championship, three weeks after absorbing a stinging loss to the Toyota Tamaraws. It’s starting unit was perceived to be the best in the tournament – PG Zoran Slavnic, SG Dragan Kikanovic, SF Drazen Dalipagic, PF Mirza Delibasic and C Kresimir Cosic. Kikanovic, Dalipagic and Cosic made it to the All-Tournament First Team.

 

So Guess Who’s Highest Paid Toyota Tamaraw? (Sports Weekly, 1978)

Sports Weekly Magazine

September 29-October 6, 1978

 

 

 

            With his position of prominence in the Toyota ballclub, it would seem as if the Tamaraws’ take-charge guy and the winner of the “most valuable player” award in the last PBA All-Filipino series, Robert (Sonny) Jaworski, would be drawing – at the very least – a five-figure monthly paycheck.

 

            But it is not so, according to the official figures of the Games and Amusements Board on the salary of each member of the Toyota team based on the contracts furnished the GAB by the PBA.

 

            In fact, Jaworski is not even the highest-paid player in the Tamaraw lineup, the GAB figures show. The highest paid is Ernesto (Estoy) Estrada, the former Royal Tru Orange star forward picked up by the Tamaraws from Filmanbank following Filmanbank’s purchase of Seven-Up’s PBA franchise early this year.

 

            Estrada, who holds a 22-month contract with Toyota starting April, 1978 and due to expire January 31, 1979, receives Php 6,000 from Toyota.

 

            Estrada’s pay is PHp 1,000 more than the pay scale of the team’s original “Big Three” – Jaworski, Ramon Fernandez and Francis Arnaiz – who were listed in the GAB list as receiving Php 5,000 a month each. The current contracts of Jaworski, Fernandez and Arnaiz started April, 1977, and like Estrada’s, are also scheduled to expire January 31, 1979.

 

            After Estrada, Jaworski Fernandez and Arnaiz, the next highest paid Tamaraw player is Nicanor Bulaong, whose salary is listed at Php 3,500 a month.

 

            After the Php 3,500 a month Bulaong comes a bunch receiving Php 2,500-a-month salaries, namely, Fort Acuña, Quirino Salazar and, would you believe, Danilo Florencio?

 

            There is, however, one possible explanation for what appears to be a low scale for a player of Florencio’s stature. Since Toyota only absorbed Danny’s Seven-Up contract when Florencio was acquired by Filmanbank, this meant that Toyota was not obligated to pay Florencio higher than what he was getting in his old contract, which was absorbed by Toyota, and which won’t be expiring until April, 1979.

 

            Then, there is this fact that when Toyota got Florencio, it paid off U/Tex, Florencio’s old ballclub (before Seven-Up), the amount of Php 100,000, reportedly corresponding to Florencio’s advances from U/Tex.

 

 

 

            After the team’s top four highest paid players and the three receiving Php 2,500, the GAB figures show the rest of the players in the Tamaraws’ lineup with Php 2,000-a-month salaries. These are Pablo Javier, Abe King, Jr., Emerito Legaspi, Jesus Sta. Maria and Oscar Rocha.

 

            Rocha no longer sees action with the Tamaraws, but he is still listed in the team roster and is presumed to be still receiving his Php 2,000 a month because his contract won’t run out until January 31, 1979.

 

            Computed annually, this is how the yearly pay rate of each Tamaraw shapes up:

 

            Estoy Estrada, Php 72,000; Sonny Jaworski, Francis Arnaiz and Ramon Fernandez, Php 60,000; Nicanor Bulaong, Php 42,000; Fortunato Acuña, Danny Florencio and Rino Salazar, Php 30,000; Pablo Javier, Abe King, Emer Legaspi, Jess Sta. Maria, and Oscar Rocha, Php 24,000.

 

            The same annual computation shows Toyota’s yearly expenditure for the salaries of its players at Php 504,000. In comparison, Crispa, the first team featured in this series, has an annual outlay of Php 353,700 for the salaries of its players.

 

 

How Much Do PBA Stars Really Get? (Sports Weekly, 1978)

Sports Weekly Magazine

September 22-29, 1978

 

 

 

(Editor’s Note: With this article Sports Weekly magazine starts a series on an oft-repeated question among fans of local bigtime basketball: how much do the players of the different teams in the PBA really get? Featured this week are the members of the Crispa Redmanizers ballclub, the defending champion team in the ongoing PBA second conference.)

 

            Because they ride around in flashy cars, go to discos at the drop of John Travolta’s name and dress as if they are part owners of men’s boutiques, the Crispa Redmanizers almost always strike people as a bunch of ballplayers who have struck oil or have got the Shah of Iran for a godfather.

 

            Gushed a fan marveling at Bogs Adornado’s sleek Mustang: “Gee, Bogs must really be getting a lot from Danny Floro.”

 

            Another, noting Atoy Co’s imported T-shirts, wondered out loud how much the Crispa hotshot is getting now to be able to afford such highly-durable shirts. “I bet,” he told a friend, “Atoy is getting no less than Php 10,000 a month.”

 

            It probably will surprise this fan that according to official records in the Games and Amusements Board, Atoy Co and Bogs Adornado do not even get Php 5,000 a month and that they are not the highest paid players of the Crispa ballclub.

 

            As per the figures on PBA player salaries gathered by SWM from official public records in the GAB< the monthly salaries of Co and Adorando, the team’s most popular players, are only Php 2,000.

 

            That’s right, Virginia, only Php 2,000.

 

            Aside from the two, other Crispa players in the Php 2,000 a month bracket are Philip Cezar, Rey Franco, Abet Guidaben, Jaime Javier, Rey Pages, Rudy Soriano, Willie Tanduyan and Tito Varela.

 

            Listed as receiving salaries of Php 1,500 a month are Armando Torres, Freddie Hubalde, Bernie Fabiosa and Virgilio (Bong) Dela Cruz.

 

            As for the Crispa player with the lowest pay scale – Php 1,000 a month – this turned out to be the inactive and reportedly the soon-to-be-sold Cristino Calilan.

 

            And who’s the Redmanizer with the highest pay? According to the Crispa record submitted to the GAB, this is guard Gregorio (Joy) Dionisio, whose salary is Php 2,475 a month.

 

            Viewing the Crispa payroll in the light of today’s soaring price scales of players, it would seem as if the Redmanizers are underpaid. But then, one studies when the contracts of the team’s well-known players began and one finds out that almost all of them began receiving their Php 2,000 pay rate four years ago.

 

            In the cases of Adornado, Co, Dela Cruz, Fabiosa, Franco, Guidaben, Hubalde, pages, Soriano, Torres and Varela, the GAB records showed that their present salaries date back four years ago – from April, 1975, the time when they signed up with Crispa. The four-year contracts expire on May 1, 1979.

 

            Dionisio’s contract won’t run out until May 1, 1980, but like the rest, it also started four years ago – on April, 1975.

 

            As for Calilan, his contract started April, 1977 and will expire on May 1, 1979.

 

            Crispa’s rookie Tanduyan’s two-year contract started May 1, 1978 and won’t expire until January 1, 1980. It’s the same thing with Varela’s four-year contract, which according to the records, won’t expire until April 1, 1980.

 

            The Crispa player with the shortest contract is Jaime Javier, whose one-year stint started February 1, 1978 and is good up to February 1, 1979.

 

            Crispa players whose contracts will be expiring before the start of next year’s first conference are Adornado, Calilan, Cezar, Co, Dela Cruz, Fabiosa, Guidaben, Hubalde, Javier, Soriano and Pages.

 

            The figures listed down in the GAB record on the salaries of the Crispa players were based on the contracts supplied to the board by the PBA. While perhaps many fans may find it unbelievable that the team’s big stars, notably Co, Adornado, Cezar, Hubalde, Soriano, Guidaben and Fabiosa, have not gotten salaries near the Php 8,000 a month deal which Manny Paner wangled from CFC, the fact remains that although incredible, the GAB figures are.