Dante's Knightmare (Sports World, 1976)

Sports World Magazine

August 28 – September 3, 1976

Tito Tagle

 

 

            Your adventurous SW reporter set out to cover Cabanatuan’s PBA game between Noritake and Royal Tru-Orange Saturday. Betwixt intent and accomplishment lay not only an egg but a trail of hardship. For I’ve never motored to Cabanatuan, and in this case, one plus one was three: I merely asked friends who’ve been there how the road was and the reply was excellent. Since whenever I went north beyond Pampanga, I always passed through a junction in San Fernando which, I had been told not just once, led to Arayat and on to Cabanatuan, I presumed that this was the excellent road spoken of.

 

            After an hour and 10 minutes of rugged terrain during which I got to the foot of Mount Arayat only to be told that the bridge toward Cabanatuan had gone down in the last typhoon (yet!), I finally exited at the San Fernando junction, motored back to the North Diversion road and took the correct way to Cabanatuan via Plaridel and Baliuag.

 

***

 

I finally made it to the Travel Lodge – where the PBA entourage roosted for the day – at around 6:15PM, or five hours since I started from Manila.

 

 

 

            Of course, none of my PBA friends believed me.

 

            Anyway, exciting as that Cabanatuan game was (Noritake won after an overtime, 139-133, while RTO’s Carl Bird reset the season’s individual game record with an output of 53), the PBA game of the week remained U/Tex’s triumph over Toyota Thursday last week.

 

            The score was 113-103, but it was only in the last three minutes when the issue was really decided.

 

***

 

            U/Tex coach Narciso Bernardo’s key move was the recall of Lee Haven from the scorer’s box where he waited to lift 6’10 Dan Knight, and the key play – ironically – was a miss by Knight from the charity lane which prevented Haven’s immediate entry.

 

 

 

            Knight had just tied the score at 97-all off Howard Smith’s fifth foul when he missed his second charity. Lim Eng Beng got the rebound and drilled in the takeover basket, 99-97.

 

***

 

            Byron (Snake) Jones, who (despite game’s outcome), certainly has the better moves and is speedier than the hulking Knight; for that matter, Smith is faster than Knight though foul-prone, subbed at the last three minutes point, and promptly missed a hook, Knight recovering. Rudolf Kutch drilled from the side for 101-97. Sonny Jaworski missed a jumper, Knight recovering. Lim Eng Beng banked one for 103-97.

 

            The game down to just 50 seconds, was far from over. Jones had charitied twice off Kutch’s sixth and final foul, and Dante Silverio had ordered the damning press that might have still turned the tide of battle. But Bernardo had one timeout left, and he used it to fashion out the final strategy to foil Toyota’s bid to reverse the impending outcome.

 

***

 

            Dante’s gamble was to two – or even three-man the ball carrier, and in the event of failure to recover, foul for possession. So, Odie Segura, Francis Arnaiz and Jaworski committed six fouls in those last 50 seconds of play.

 

 

 

            Unfortunately for Toyota, Lim Eng Beng was on the receiving end on four occasions, and the ex-Quasar star delivered twin charities each time to finalize the margin at 10 points.

 

***

 

            Victory for U/Tex would have been impossible, however without the brilliant Kutch, who routed Mon Fernandez in a beautiful display between two of the country’s best slotmen turned forwards. Kutch delivered 31 points, and almost half of these came when Toyota threatened to break away in the closing minutes of the third quarter and early in the fourth.

 

            Against Kutch’s 31 points, Fernandez could only make 10 – testimony to the defensive difficulties Mon ran into which greatly whittled his normal output.

 

***

 

            During intermission, NMPC’s Emy Arcilla took the mike and made an appeal for contributions for Mindanao’s earthquak victims. Dante Silverio made a pledge of Php 50,000 – Php 14,000 from the 14 Comets and Php 36,000 from management. Tommy Manotoc, U/Tex team manager, also pledged in behalf of his company Php 50,000. The some-20 girls who went around for contributions in the ringside, lower box and upper box sections, garnered Php 4,312.71. The bleacherites must have added a good sum to the take after the game, Emy told them the girls be waiting at the exits.

 

            It was the best move of the evening.

Floro's Folly: Cyrus Mañana (Sports World, 1976)

Sports World Magazine

August 28 – September 3, 1976

Beth Celis

 

 

            Cyrus Mann has done it again! For the third time in a span of five weeks, the whimsical, unpredictable hardcourt prima donna upped and flew the coop.

 

            His excuse?

 

            Problems back home. Personal problems which he never seems to run out of.

 

            Ironically, the symptoms of wanderlust appeared as soon as he got here early in July. Dazed by the long flight from the States, Mann was sedate and relaxed at least for a few hours. Then, restlessness struck. Three days after he set foot on Philippine soil, he was itching to fly back home. He had to get the luggage containing all the important vitamins prepared specially for him, he claimed, which he left accidentally at the Detroit airport.

 

 

 

            That would’ve passed as a sound and valid excuse. But in the course of an interview with Daryl Davis (who happened to be staying in the same hotel with him), we discovered that the luggage he’d been waiting for was already in his possession hours before he boarded the plane that would take him to Detroit.

 

            Anyway, Mann promised to be back that same week. He left Wednesday afternoon and vowed to make it by Friday, possibly to join the team on their tour of Hongkong.

 

            Friday came and went but there was no sign of Cyrus. The Denims left for Hongkong and returned – still, no Cyrus.

 

            Danny Floro started complaining of sleepless nights and nightmares. What if Cyrus doesn’t come back?

 

            Floro, however, realized that all was not yet lost. There was still time to scout around for a replacement. If only Cyrus would level with him and admit outright that he wasn’t coming back at all.

 

            But Cyrus kept promising he’d be back tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. And finally, after about what seemed like a hundred tomorrows, he did come back with a sad story to tell. His daughter of one year, he bewailed (droopy eyelids and all), was suffering from a brain tumor and had to undergo immediate surgery. This goes without saying that the unfortunate soul needed some dough. Whether he got some or not, we do not know. But several hours after the woeful narration, Cyrus was on the next flight to Honolulu, with the oath that he’d be here in a day or two.

 

            As August 8 drew to a near, Cyrus was besieged with frantic phone calls coming from the Far East. Crispa demanded to know when and if he was coming back at all.

 

            “Tomorrow,” was Mann’s assuring reply.

 

            At this stage, Danny Floro had already resigned himself to the thought that Cyrus was never coming back. He started negotiating for another import and talent scouts in the States recommended a certain Lawrence Johnson. The 6’10 center of the Prairie View Athletic Club who was reputedly a very strong slotman.

 

            Johnson was already at the airport on route to Manila when he was tagged on the sleeve and told that his services were no longer needed. He found out that Cyrus Mann, along with his wife and his kid (who seemed like she was in the pink of health), had made it after all.

 

 

 

            Needless to say, Cyrus Mann’s arrival paralleled something like the advent of a long-awaited messiah. To many a Crispa fan, the coming of the prince of darkness made the sun shine, the birds chirp, the flowers bloom and the angels sing. Hallelujah to the savior!

 

            If Cyrus was the great (Indianero) is indeed worthy of all these adulation and anguish (on Floro), he still has to prove it.

 

            A few days ago, he called long distance asking again for plane tickets for himself and his wife to get back to Manila.

 

            At this point, Danny Floro has no choice but to grant his request. But it’s about time he kept a tight rein on his mercurial import. It’s the only way to get a padnag on his toes.

To Raise Moral (Sports World, 1974)

Sports World Magazine

November 23, 1974

Beth Celis

 

 

            At last, they’re forming a professional basketball league.

 

            Good. Now there is a chance to restore morality to Philippine basketball.

 

            The eight breakaway MICAA teams – Mariwasa, Crispa, Toyota, YCO, Concepcion, U/Tex, Seven-Up, and CFC – led by no less than the association’s former president (Domingo Itchon of YCO) and current president (Mariwasa’s Emerson Coseteng) have declared they’re going pro in order to “clarify” the status of their players and of the league itself.

 

            The BAP, on the other hand, wants a “transition” period. In other words, they want more time under the status quo.

 

            And the BAP argument is based on their fear, a valid one, of course, that national representation will suddenly become much weaker until stronger amateurs can be developed by a more competent development program.

 

            The argument is couched in moral terms, naturally. One side speaks of “honesty,” the other of “patriotism.” 

 

 

 

            But we all know that the breakaway MICAA teams simply, finally got fed up with the BAP’s honing in on the playing time of the best MICAA players. And playing time means money at the gate and from TV.

 

            Remember when the BAP wanted to ban the champion ABC players from playing in the MICAA from December, 1973 to July, 1974 because the BAP said, they wanted to keep training the team for the Puerto Rico games? That would have been eight months of fundraising games for the BAP.

 

            The MICAA hasn’t issued any income announcements, but the players know that its take went down this year owing to frequent BAP requisitions of playing time.

 

            So, if you go behind the value-attached terminology (such as “amateurism” and “patriotism”), what you get is a struggle over income between the MICAA teams and the BAP. And the BAP, it turns out, will be the loser since its position is basically parasitic and usurping.

 

            Doming Itchon told us that it won’t take six months before the pro league gets going. They’re waiting for the papers from the NBA so they’ll profit from the American experience. But at the same time, their local preparations are also quite advanced. As he says, it won’t take six months.

 

            One good sign is that the organizers are concerned over the moral aspects of pro basketball. According to Itchon, they would want the players to consult their lawyers before signing contracts with their respective teams.

 

            This is the current attitude. The overwhelming majority of MICAA players want a professional league, but there are also others who have a wait and see attitude. Their reason?

 

            “If the terms of our contract with a pro team are just going to be the same as with the MICAA teams at present, there will be no improvement really.”

 

            This is from a leader among the players.

 

            But it seems that the pro league’s organizers, judging from Mr. Itchon’s statement, are out to do justice to the players.

 

            That’s a very crucial point. It should lay the basis for a moral attitude towards every other aspect of pro basketball in the Philippines. Another word would be “honesty” – it should be an honest to goodness professional league and not just an escape from the clutches of the BAP.

 

            Nobody could really complain about certain irregularities in the MICAA, or in other amateur leagues, for that matter. An organization, for example, could not be criticized for recruiting only mediocre players. And players could not be concretely faulted for holding back. After all, there are more “important” things than amateur play.

 

 

 

            But a pro league will be different. A much higher standard of competence and, yes, morality will be demanded by the public. For the public will be paying for entertainment. Juan Dela Cruz in the bleachers will be a customer, not just a spectator as in amateur sports.

 

            That will mean he will have a right to demand more balanced teams, better conditioned players, more knowledgeable coaches, better officiating, better coliseum facilities, more competent league leadership (such as keeping of statistics), more professional behavior from the players, etc.

 

            The public will henceforth be paying customers. They’ll be more demanding than the present “audience” who can’t really kick about shortcomings in “amateur” circumstances.

 

            In short, there will be a morality to professional basketball, the obligation to give a good and honest show. Since this is basketball country, I’m betting that the pro league will do a good job.

 

            The technical level of basketball will improve, just as the NBA has raised the level not only in the United States but all over the world. We’ll be seeing the exciting return of imported American players. Playing for real money, the pros will have to be and they will be better (At present, the only truly full-time team is the Crispa Redmanizers).

 

            From the point of view of basketball, we like what’s coming. In less than six months.

MICAA '73: A Postscript - Heroes, Highlights of a Stormy Season (Sports World, 1973)

Sports World Magazine

September 8, 1973

E.A. Perez de Tagle

 

 

It’s what could have been time for the MICAA, and Sports World pinpoints five incidents which in no little way contributed to Toyota’s magnificent triumph in its maiden year and only in its third tournament (including the time it played as Komatsu).

 

These are:

 

1.     The decommissioning of Willie Adornado of Crispa on a fractured left hand for seven games.

 

2.    The banning for life of Rudy Soriano and Rey Franco of Crispa.

 

3.    “Lax officiating” in the second game between YCO and Universal Textile.

 

4.    Orly Bauzon’s “Shot of the Year” without which Toyota would have made an early exit during the Comets’ semifinal playoff with San Miguel Corporation.

 

5.    Roger Melencio’s suffering a fractured rib in the second game of the championship series and his being lost to the Concepcion cause in the rubber match.

 

The 1973 MICAA campaign was, as far as memory serves, the most extensive, with two round-robins among 10 teams for an average of 18 games per team. As recounted in last week’s issue, Manila Bank played 15 and forfeited three, Squibb, CFC, Crispa, Mariwasa and U/Tex with 18 each: SMC 22, Yco 23, and both Toyota and Concepcion 24 each.

 

During which Mariwasa, the defending champion, strung up five wins in a row only to lose eight of its nine succeeding games including a 95-85 upset by Manilabank and finish seventh from the top. And Ciso Bernardo’s Consolidated Foods Corporation quintet upset SMC, 87-80 only to yield to Squibb’s only victory in the campaign in the Prestos’ very next outing by 92-91.

 

As the semifinalists took over, Squibb stood at 1-17, Manilabank 3-15, CFC 4-14, Mariwasa 8-10, Crispa 10-8 and U/Tex 11-7.

 

Crispa was the antonym of luck personified. With four wins behind them, the Redmanizers were leading the Concepcion Motorolas when Bogs Adornado tripped off Jimmy Noblezada. The resulting fall fractured Adornado’s left hand and Crispa went on to lose the game and five of their next seven.

 

Then, with Adornado back in the lineup and the Crispans still in contention, Rudy Soriano and Rey Franco were adjudged guilty of point-shaving in games played during the MICAA All-Filipino and they joined six other Crispans previously banned for life in the sidelines. Without them, Crispa lost two of its last three games and finished two games out of fourth place.

 

 

 

Note that before the Adornado disaster, the Redmanizers had whipped Toyota, 80-78 and YCO, 81-69; that Danny Floro’s charges only lost to SMC in overtime, 88-86 (with Soriano and SMC’s Boy Velasco being thrown out of the game for exchanging blows, each getting automatic three-game suspensions), and by 94-92 the next time around. (Crispa’s luck continued to sour even after the league ended. One of its mainstays, Fortunato Co, was found guilty of point-shaving and joined the ranks of the banned. Comparatively luckier were Jesse Sullano of Mariwasa and Ramon Lucindo of Concepcion, who each drew one-year suspensions for failing to notify basketball authorities of attempts to bribe them into shaving points.)

 

Crispa with an intact lineup would have been a tough match for any MICAA team.

 

U/Tex had the bad luck of starting off against top competition and lost four in a row before notching a first win. It was 4-5 coming home, when the Weavers started playing the games of their lives. First, Concepcion 81-78, next Toyota 82-76, then SMC 78-71.

 

U/Tex was in the process of adding YCO to its list of victims when Coach Lauro Mumar at a crucial point of the game recalled son Lawrence to the bench and kept him there. Without Larry, the Weavers fast lost ground and U/Tex absorbed one of only two defeats in second-time-around play.

 

Mumar explained afterwards that he took Larry out “to save him from mayhem.”

 

U/Tex finished a win shy of figuring in a fourth place playoff with Concecpion and SMC, and the last was seen – for the tournament – of Bay Mumar’s patented slowbreak tactics.

 

The Braves were ahead, 76-75, with seven seconds to play when the Comets made their last play. It was the second game of the semifinal playoff between SMC and Toyota, with the Braves toting a 70-62 first win. Alberto Reynoso dribbled toward goal and the SMC defense drifted with him. Reynoso passed back, to Orly Bauzon. With the big bulk of Big Boy as screen, Bauzon had a clear view of the basket. He jumped, and his basket in the last four seconds of play gave Toyota a 77-76 victory.

 

Toyota was back in the race, and there was no stopping the Comets from there.

 

(Joy) Dionisio did a Bauzon in the second game of the championship playoff series to give Concepcion a 73-72 triumph. The shot also came in the last four seconds, a lay-in after Dionisio managed to spin away from Bauzon.

 

But Melencio was under an x-ray apparatus at the Makati Medical Center and the attending doctor’s worst fear was realized: the 10^th rib on the left side was fractured. He had rammed against the massive leg of Big Boy on a lay-up and crashed to the floor with a thud.

 

Without Melencio, the Concepcion defense lost cohesiveness and the triumvirate of Big Boy Reynoso, Ed Camus and Mon Fernandez dominated the backboards in the finale, and only Concepcion obstinacy and never-say-die spirit made it a game until the last quarter when the Comets decisively pulled away.

 

 

Team Profile – Toyota: Shaky Start, Stretch Drive (Sports World, 1973)

Sports World Magazine

August 11-17, 1973

E.A. Perez De Tagle

It was as big a bash as could be, had any old noontime that press conference that was to propel the Komatsu Komets into the limelight of bigtime Philippine basketball last week of March. Only, it was not to be, because the morning dailies carried the news that Komatsu, together with E.R. Squibb and Consolidated Foods Corporation was still outside the MICAA looking in. So all there was for newsmen that day were a terrific lunch, a more terrific bevy of beauties, and Dante Silverio, wearing instead of familiar garb as one of motor racing’s aces a barong with the new bodyfit cut – affable, somewhat apologetic, at the abrupt turn of events but determined to make as good a go of the affair as could be.

 

If the frustration hurt, Dante didn’t show it. The show went on and the brand-new Komets were introduced.

Robert Jaworski, Alberto Reynoso, Fortunato Acuña, Francis Arnaiz, Cristino Reynoso, Ramon Fernandez, Rodolfo Segura, Ulysses Rodriguez, Edilberto Canamo, Edward Camus. That was nearly five months ago.

 

When the team was formed, Jaworski and Big Boy Reynoso were not yet sure they could play in the MICAA for they were nine months away from completing a two-year suspension for going after referees rather than the goal. The word was that the MICAA, regardless of how it acted on Komatsu et al’s petition for reconsideration, would insist in the event Komatsu was accepted that the two fully serve out their suspension.

 

All of which is water under the bridge. The MICAA reconsidered and took in all three teams. The MICAA also reconsidered and allowed the Big J and Big Boy to play. And now, Komatsu turned Toyota and Komets turned Comets are on the verge of a Cinderella finish in their first year of action.

 

But if anybody should say that all it takes to win a championship is to get Jaworski, Reynoso, Bauzon, Fernandez, Segura, Arnaiz and mix, Dante Silverio will be first to say not on your life. For the making of a team, he found out (Toyota Coach Claustro Verona whom everybody calls Nilo being a veteran cager knew all time) meant a lot of sweating it out. Practice, practice and more practice. Exposure to competition – the team grabbed every opportunity to play.

 

A good word from friends went for an invitation to join in from the Panamin organizer, Manda Elizalde. And Toyota (as Komatsu) was in its first tournament.

Was there a fairy godmother? Did the slipper fit? If there was, she didn’t show, and the slipper was big enough to wobble in. In other words, the guys now known as Comets dropped five games in a row to bring up the rear in the standings with YCO winning the crown.

 

The next tournament – the National Invitational – the Comets sat out, and they would have sat out the last meet for the 1972-73 season, too – the Palarong Pilipino – but for the failure of the UAAP to field a complete team. The university selection was scrapped, and Toyota moved into the slot.

 

It was much the same glory for their first game as they lost to Mariwasa, 79-84. But Bauzon was now playing together with Fernandez whom San Miguel Corporation decided to release. SMC must have rued it for Toyota scored Victory No. 1 in official play against the SMC Braves, 73-66.

 

Crispa and Concepcion prevailed against the newcomer, but the Comets dashed the NCAA selection, 102-77, and humbled YCO, 87-82, for a 3-3 showing. Dante and Co. were ready for the MICAA.

 

Saddled early with a setback (by Crispa) after an initial win against Universal Textile on MICAA opening day, June 3, the Comets next won six of seven matches to finish the first half of the marathon 18-game preliminary round second from the top on a 7-2 record, bettered only by YCO’s 8-1.

 

 

Like some other big teams, Toyota fell victim to Lauro Mumar’s foxy tactics in second half play, but as of this writing, appear certain of second place in qualifying round standings. At worst, it would figure in a three-way tie for second with Concepcion and SMC, a win in its last two games will cement second place, behind YCO which definitely has nailed first place regardless of the outcome of the Painters’ game with the Comets Thursday.

 

Why has Toyota progressed from whipping boy to championship form in just a matter of months? It was just a matter of weaving the team together, Nilo Verona would tell you. For the team on paper had everything: height in Fernandez, Camus, Jaworski, the Reynoso brothers, Bauzon, Acuña, Segura, Carlos Concepcion. Bauzon, Jaworski and Arnaiz can be excellent as court generals. Further, Toyota’s tall men except for Big Boy and a couple of others are fast and rugged.

 

Segura is beginning to blossom into a receiving whiz. Arnaiz’s outside shooting is deadly, Jaworski, despite a tendency to go individualistic, is not the Big J for nothing: he has the shots, the drive, the speed, the bulk. So long as he controls his temper, he is among the very best.

 

Big Boy, despite a bulging middle, has shown he is the best exponent of the hook – with either hand – hereabouts. His give-and-go plays with younger brother, Cristino, shattered many a tight defense.

 

Fernandez is impeccable when he wants to be. Belligerent to the point of hurting at first, he has foregone rough play in his last few games (his latest tactic was harmless: he tickled Fortunato Co just under the right floating rib everytime the Fortune Cookie kid had the ball) and concentrated on assists, at which he is smooth and slick.

 

Bauzon, seemingly relutctant to take shots because of so many good shots around is among the best spotters when he decides to take aim. A little encouragement from Verona is probably what Bauzon needs to start pumping in those long toms of his.

 

Sunday night, just after YCO throttled Concepcion’s bid to be YCO’s third conqueror in the tournament, the Comets lazed away practice time. Meaning they didn’t exert too much efforts, just loosened their muscles. But they were impressive in built, in movement.

 

“Ang lalaki (how big!),” exclaimed a boy trapped by Sunday night’s hard rains.

 

So long as it’s not their heads that grow, big things are bound to come out all right for the Comets.