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.