Sports Weekly Magazine
July 13-20, 1979
On the Line, Vic Villafranca
As with all homecomings, Crispa’s return last Saturday to the PBA winner’s circle after being out of it for more than a year was good, old-fashioned sob opera.
Outside the Big Dome following the Redmanizers’ pressure-ridden 118-111 decision over Toyota in the there’s-no-tomorrow, sudden death, fifth match of the playoffs for the 1979 PBA All-Filipino championship, the rains of departing typhoon Gening fell in sheets.
But inside the Coliseum, the scene was just as watery as an ecstatic, virtually delirious Redmanizer bunch, from team manager Valeriano (Danny) Floro to relief slotman Jimmy Javier, let it all hang out, let the tears and the sobs break loose, let the glare of the TV lights dance on their tear-speckled cheeks in an emotion-packed final drama that marked Crispa’s comeback as a PBA champ.
For those who caught the spectacle on their TV sets, the whole thing must have seemed like one big tearjerker as men deemed too old to cry in public choked, babbled and then broke down in torrents of tears as the impact of the long-awaited moment hit them flush between the breast bones and reduced a bunch of grown-up boys into a clutch of hopelessly sobbing boys.
One unforgettable sight of the post-game drama that climaxed Crispa’s successful campaign for a title after a string of four frustrating attempts was that of Danny Floro sobbing uncontrollably live and in color when asked to say how he felt about Crispa’s comeback to the top of a PBA tournament.
“This is not the first time,” said a visibly emotion-ridden Danny, trying to brush away the tears from his chubby cheeks, “but this is very important. I dedicate this to my father and mother.”
For a man whose ballclub may be said to have everything by way of PBA feats, including a rare grand slam conquest in 1976, this choking statement of Danny must have come as a surprise until the man himself explained why.
“They thought Crispa will never win again,” Danny said, trying to duck the klieg lamps that were beginning to highlight the gush of tears on his cheeks. They thought we are losing games…ngayon, wala na siguro silang masasabi.”
On that last tearful point which he stressed, Danny probably is right: with what they showed in the game that mattered the most in the down-the-wire race for this year’s prestigious All-Filipino title of the PBA, the Redmanizers may have ended once and for all whatever growing misgivings the public may have entertained about the team’s will to win.
And like the public, the nagging doubt inferred by Crispa’s grand old man himself, Don Pablo Floro, who had said once that if there was one thing he’d like to see is a Redmanizer win. “Win…I’d like to see you win,” Don Pablo told Danny, and last Saturday, it was a team hell bent on winning despite the odds that Don Pablo saw as the Redmanizers shook off the numbing after shock of a fourth game loss that tied the playoff series at 2-2 to pull off a tension-packed homestretch triumph over the fired-up Tamaraws of Toyota.
The winner of the first game of the best of five playoffs by a whopping 15 points, the Redmanizers had lost the second game, 121-114, but then had come back in the tough third game to win, 112-109, and moved to only a victory shy of taking their first PBA championship in four conferences.
But they never made it as a back-against-the-wall Toyota ballclub came through with the clutch hits in Game 4 while the Redmanizers, notably Atoy Co and Freddie Hubalde, were choking on theirs, to win by eight points, 118 to 110, and hurl the playoffs all the way down to sudden-death fifth encounter.
It undoubtedly was this loss in a pivotal match that sent the Crispa camp into a crisis, spawned all the ugly talk that there was more than met the eye in the Redmanizers’ defeat in Game 4, or as Danny himself said, “pati raw ako, nagbebenta ng laro.”
Under the circumstances, it seemed that it was more than a conference title that was at stake for Crispa in the fifth playdate of the playoffs. More than a championship, what Crispa stood to regain in Game 5 was the public’s confidence and that of the ballclub’s owner.
Undoubtedly, the team got both last Saturday as it went flat-out all the way – “Bagsak na, lumalaban pa,” Coach Dalupan was to say later – to turn back a constantly pressing Toyota outfit and score a victory that came off a display of true grit basketball in the closing minutes of the last quarter.
Jarred right off by a quick Toyota getaway that sent them eight points down in the first quarter, the Redmanizers barreled down with an 8-0 blitz late in the period to cut Toyota’s edge to one at 29-28. The period ended with Toyota up by three, 35-32, but early in the second, Crispa spurted ahead for the first time at 40-39 on an 8-4 blast touched off by Abet Guidaben.
It was, however, a short-lived fling out front for Crispa. Ramon Fernandez, playing the heads-up game that has made him the leading candidate for MVP in all serious form charts, grabbed the lead back for Toyota at 41-40, and from here, the lead swung back and forth before Crispa uncorked a 9-0 binge that enabled it to take the half by 5, 63-58.
Early in the third, Emer Legaspi and rookie Arnie Tuadles triggered off an 8-0 Toyota rally that enabled the Tams to one up, 69-68, on Crispa. But just as quickly, Freddie Hubalde almost single-handedly came through with a comeback thrust that sent the Redmanizers back on top.
In this period, Crispa got into a seven-team-foul bind with five minutes left but the Tamaraws were unable to cash in heavily on it – the end of the third showing Toyota still down by three, 89-86.
Bong Dela Cruz and Guidaben upped this edge to seven on a pair of quick hits early in the fourth, but three minutes later, the Redmanizers found themselves down by one as Tuadles, Francis Arnaiz and Nick Bulaong put together an unanswered string of four field goals.
It looked like Toyota was on its way. But with Sonny Jaworski and Arnaiz saddled with five fouls apiece and likewise the team’s power rebounder, Abe King, one doubted how the Tams could push their bid for a turnaround all the way.
True enough, when Jaworski glumly followed Abe King to the sidelines after incurring his sixth foul with Toyota still up by one, 107-106, Crispa had the break it needed to break the Tams.
It was Freddie Hubalde who started it all – the 10-point Crispa assault that would eventually spell Toyota’s doom. Scoring on a jumper, Hubalde sent Crispa back on top, 108-107, and when, after Freddie fouled out, Atoy Co and Philip Cezar banged in eight points on two successful three-point plays and a field goal, the cue was there for the Crispa partisans to unfurl a streamer which read, “Crispa Redmanizers, 1979 PBA All-Filipino Conference Champions.”
Crispa’s last field goal was made by Bogs Adornado on a long pass from Philip Cezar and it seemed a fitting capstone to Adornado’s scintillating performance for the evening which, as his 20-point accomplishment showed, could only mean that like his ballclub, the comebacking Adornado had also made it all the way to the mountaintop.
Summing up the factors that led to Crispa’s triumph, a drained Coach Dalupan said, “we were the lucky team.”
For his part, the losing coach, Fort Acuña said, “The fouls got us.”
The way Acuña said that, it would seem as if like just about everybody in the Crispa camp, Fort had all the reasons to also cry.
For whatever it is worth, here’s a rundown on how the guys who went out on a limb with forecasts on the probable windup of the Toyota-Crispa playoffs for the PBA All-Filipino made out:
Tito Eduque, Joe Quirino and Recah Trinidad, all of whom opted for Crispa, hit it right on the nose and thus may now remove the grocery bags from their heads.
Billy Robinson, who said it will be Toyota, and TV basketball analyst Rizal Marte, who was cornered by Emy Arcilla into also going for Toyota, both bombed out and will probably be ducking JQ in the weeks to come.
As to how this corner made out, the back files of SWM said Crispa it was whom we said will take all the marbles in the All-Filipino and Crispa it was that did just that. Not that we wanted to crow, but just to serve notice to some guys who said we’re nuts to go for Crispa that we intend to grow fat and sassy with all the dinner bets they’ve lost.