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 6th 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.
