Atoy Makes It but Many Ask: Was Fernandez Robbed? (Sports Weekly, 1979)

Sports Weekly Magazine

August 3-10, 1979

Vic Villafranca

 

 

Tradition ostensibly won over performance, myopia over 20-20 vision and last-minute backstage maneuvers over the weight of statistics when Crispa’s Fortunato (Atoy) Co came from behind to win the most valuable player race of the 1979 PBA All-Filipino over a heavily-favored Ramon Fernandez of Toyota and three other nominees for the bauble which carries with it a Php 50,000.00 cash prize.

 

            It was a black day for objectivity and fair play and the general reaction of the crowd at the Plaza presidential hall in Makati to the verdict ranged from total disbelief to total disgust.

 

            One of the judges in the panel of sportswriters, radio and TV men that rendered the pivotal decision in the contest, Ronnie Nathanielsz of GTV Channel 4, howled over what he described as “an obscene decision.”

 

            “I’m ashamed to be part of the group that was instrumental in carrying out what in my view was an obscene verdict and an unmitigated act of unfairness,” said a fuming Nathanielsz. “I wonder how those guys can sleep tonight or look at their faces in the mirror tomorrow morning.”

 

            Five feet away from where Ronnie ranted, Kitchie Benedicto of KBS, shook her head sadly.

 

            Beside her, TV director Bert de Leon asked, “what happened?”

 

            On the floor, a coach of a PBA ballclub which had tangled with Fernandez’s team in the last All-Filipino, put his arms around the poleaxed Fernandez and blurted, “Mon, you were robbed.”

 

            Rene Dalugdog, who represented the TV group in the media panel of judges, shook Fernandez’s hand and said he couldn’t understand what happened. “But I want you to know,” he told Fernandez, “that in my book, you should have been it, I voted for you and I voted in accordance with my conscience.”

 

 

 

            Announced by PBA Commissioner Leo Prieto, Co’s victory over Fernandez, Sonny Jaworski of Toyota, and two other Crispa players, Freddie Hubalde and Philip Cezar, drew only lukewarm applause from the crowd. There were hisses too, and some scattered boos.

 

            Asked what he thought of the crowd’s reaction, Jun Hizon, producer of the PBA games, said he felt “it smacked of indifference; no spontaneity whatsoever.”

 

            Hizon also observed that from what he observed of the winner’s actuations after he received the award, “It seems as if even Atoy himself Is not altogether happy over the way the whole thing turned out.”

 

            At the Vineyard pub, Rod Reyes, now of the National Media Production Center and formerly one of the country’s top sportswriters, said, “Nakakahiya.”

 

            Then also from Rod came the night’s oft-repeated question, “What happened?”

 

            Indeed, what happened?

 

            Going into the fourth and last phase of the four-tiered format of the race for MVP, Fernandez looked as if he had his first MVP all wrapped up with the way he outscored Co in statistical points garnered in the regular games of the last All-Filipino series and likewise in the All-Star games where both he and Co were participants.

 

            Fernandez finished ahead of Co with 2,856 statistical points against Co’s 2,726 in the All-Filipino. That SP total, which gave Fernandez 30 percent, was tops for this phase of the tilt. Co got 28.63 percent for his 2,726 points.

 

            As for their performances in the four game All-Star series, Fernandez was only second to Freddie Hubalde with his 381 statistical points against Hubalde’s 389, but Co fared worse. He finished fifth behind Hubalde, Arnulfo Tuadles of Toyota and Abet Guidaben of Crispa with his 302 SP’s.

 

            Overall, the statistical points earned by both Fernandez and Co showed the Toyota center 209 statistical points up on Co.

 

            Counting the 30 percent garnered by Fernandez in topping the popularity tilt put by the Don Cigarettes, Fernandez went to the awards dinner holding 69.79 percent of the whole cake, or a 4.43 percent lead over Co who had 65.36 percent.

 

            On the basis of all this, it would seem as if all that Fernandez needed to win was some kind of a reconfirmation by the media panel of judges of what the figures proclaimed.

 

            He never got it.

 

 

 

            Out of the 14 sportswriters and a representative each from radio and TV who cast their ballots for MVP, Fernandez only got 4 votes, while Co ran off with 9. There was one abstention.

 

            With his surprising win in the sportswriters’ ballot, Co finished with 95.36 percentage points against Fernandez’s 83.12%.

 

            It was a stunning, unbelievable reversal, a breakaway from a probable outcome of the race when gleaned in the light of statistics. “Incredible,” said one league statistician, expressing shock over the way the vote of the media panel went.

 

            Incredible it really seems to be, and it’s just too bad that because the media poll was by secret ballot, those who asked the pointed question – what happened? – will never get to know how Fernandez lost in the polling booth in what he appeared to have worked so hard to win on the hardcourt.

 

            Aside from Co, the other winners of silver cups and cash prizes for outstanding performances in the last All-Filipino were:

 

            Arnulfo Tuadles of Toyota – rookie of the year

            Abe King – most improved player of the year

            Tito Varela – most sportsmanlike player

            Crispa Coach Baby Dalupan – coach of the year

           

            Winners of slots in the league’s mythical selection were Fernandez, Co, Jaworski, Hubalde and Tuadles.

 

            Tuadles won out over Ronnie Albor of Honda, Bing del Rosario of Gilbey’s Gin, Ely Capacio of Tanduay, and Fritz Gaston of U/Tex, while King was chosen over a cast of nominees that included Rudy Lalota of Royal, Willie Tanduyan of Gilbey’s, Tito Varela of Crispa and Oscar Rocha of Honda.

 

            Varela got the nod over Tony Torrente of Royal, Larry Mumar of Filmanbank, Jesse Sullano of Honda and Mike Bilbao of Tanduay for the most sportsmanlike player plum.

 

            Dalupan had as his contenders the coaches of the eight other ballclubs in the league.

 

            In winning the 1979 MVP award, Co, who led the league in scoring and was credited as the first man in the PBA to score 5,000 points, approximated a feat he scored in 1976 when he was named pro basketball player of the year in the All-Filipino sports awards sponsored by Seven-Up.

 

But unlike ’76 when he made top pro honors without a breath of dissent from anyone, it was different this time around. For as Co will no doubt find out in the days to come, aside from winning the Wimbledon-style silver cup and a Php 50,000.00 paycheck, he also – through no fault of his own – lit the fires of another controversy in an already controversy-ridden PBA season.

Home are the Redmanizers (Sports Weekly, 1979)

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.

The '79 PBA All-Filipino: It Looks Like a Comeback by Crispa and Here's Why (Sports Weekly, 1979)

Sports Weekly Magazine

March 30-April 6, 1979

On the Line, Vic Villafranca

 

 

            It takes all kinds of forecasters and forecast and here, for whatever they are worth, whether you believe in tea leaves or tarot cards, in JQ or Madam Auring Erfelo, mumbo jumbo or kung fu, are some of them.

 

            Back in his old familiar role as the most strident defender of the faith that holds Crispa, Joe (Papa Crispa) Quirino was regaling the host and visitors at last week’s “Taray ti Amianan” press conference about his belief that this time around, the Redmanizers, despite a title drought last year, are going to eat everybody alive in the 1979 PBA All-Filipino.

 

            “Siguradong sigurado ang Crispa,” said Joe without waiting for somebody to pass the mike to him, “walang katalu-talo in the All Filipino.”

 

            Then JQ, whose near defection to the Toyota camp three weeks now appears to be part of his “kahapon lamang,” went on to explain the reason for his bold forecast of a Crispa win despite the fact that last year, the Redmanizers kept running against a swinging door in their three ties for a PBA title.

 

            “Wala nang sentimyento ang mga bata,” said Joe, taking it away – the mike from a Toyota fan who was trying to grab it away from him. “Binigay nang lahat ni Danny ang gusto nila.”

 

 

 

            “So now everybody is happy as you might have noted if you have caught the Redmanizers on my show two Sundays ago on Seeing Stars on Channel 13, 8:30PM to 10:30.”

 

            But what about the Toyota Tamaraws who, after all, are the defending champs?

 

            “Wala na,” he rasped, “tapos na ang Toyota. Without Sonny Jaworski, saan sila pupulutin?”

 

            This observation naturally sparked a lot of eyebrows and spilled so many cups of coffee because in so far as everybody can remember, the Big J remains very much part of the Toyota team.

 

            JQ, however, had an explanation for his outright elimination of Jaworski from the Toyota lineup. “With what Jaworski is doing these days,” JQ said, “he may as well kiss his old role as Toyota’s take-charge man goodbye.”

 

            And what is Jaworski doing these days, asked the boys from the PBA press box, their pencils in mid-air; their feet on the starting block.

 

            “Making movies, among other things,” says Joe. “And also, he has this TV show, this printing press and tell me, how can you appear on TV, in the movies and in the printing press without somehow suffering a letdown in your performance?”

 

            But Joe, one of the boys pointed out, you have two TV shows and a daily column to boot and kin so far as we know, you remain your old sparkling, dazzling self in front of the cameras.

 

            “Thank you,” said JQ, trying to bow from the waist but failing, “that’s very kind of you. But I don’t have to win a championship for Dante Silverio.”

 

******

 

            For his part, Dick Ildefonso, one of the country’s most astute basketball observers, says that although he belongs to another TV channel, he feels he has to go along with JQ.

 

            “Crispa’s All-Filipino lineup remains the most potent in the league,” said Dick without looking around and worrying about Emy Arcilla. “If Crispa plays as it should play, no team can beat it…no team.”

 

            Not even Toyota?

 

            Instead of coming out with a forthright reply, however, Dick merely looked at his salad. Which probably means that either Dick doesn’t think Toyota without Danny Florencio stands a chance against Crispa or he felt it was time he attended to his salad before the waiter, that’s right, the waiter, and not JQ, “teks it away.”

 

******

 

The way this corner views the possible shape of things to come in the PBA pennant picture, it really looks like Crispa, more than any other team in this year’s All-Filipino, will figure prominently in the final frame.

 

            All because more than defending champion Toyota, pennant-hungry Tanduay, team-to-watch Royal Tru Orange and unpredictable U/Tex, Crispa has the most loaded combination in the league as well as the deepest bench.

 

            And since this year, the Redmanizers are in the uncharacteristic position of outsiders looking in, a ballclub starved for a pennant, they may be expected to play every game of theirs in the series as if it was championship night and as if on the sidelines, Danny Floro has put the Crispa industrial empire on the block.

 

 

 

            Toyota, of course, remains the big threat to Crispa’s comeback campaign, but Toytoa’s title retention drive hinges on how well a Tamaraw lineup with a scaled-down firepower can match Crsipa’s high-caliber scoring sock.

 

            As for Tanduay, it ought to be a cinch for the semis, and probably Royal Tru Orange, but not the Wranglers who, without Boy Kutch, look like a howitzer that had been stripped off its firing pin. Like a concert pianist too, with both arms in a cast.

 

            So Crispa it is which is this corner’s pick to win the All-Filipino, not only because of what JQ said, but despite it. Not because without Florencio, Toyota is a firecracker without a fuse but just the single fact that when they are lean and hungry and embarrassed as they are this season, the Redmanizers claw and bite back like a king stripped of his crown, a cowboy robbed of his horse or a JQ separated from his mike.

 

******

           

Here’s a comforting bit of news from basketball fans who’ll be following the new PBA series on the boob tube. Dick Ildefonso will again anchor Channel 4’s coverage of the league with laughs – as usual – being supplied by you know who.

 

The only twist in the TV coverage of the PBA games this season is that unlike last year, the Channel 4 sportscasting team won’t have a sit-down “analyst.” But every now and then, says Jun Hizon, they’ll have an expert to sit alongside Dick. And by expert, he probably means somebody who won’t make a lot of grammar school teachers all over the country cry over their dictionaries.

 

******

 

Elsewhere in sports ----

 

It has turned out the reason a golf impresario in the south dispensed with the services of a golf promoter was that the promoter was asking for something in the neighborhood of Php 80,000 for the simple task of putting out press releases, posters and passing out envelopes…The problem with telecasting a golf match is that no matter how hard the sportscaster tries, he almost always sounds like somebody describing a necrological service…With what PBA President Doming Itchon said about the BAP’s Lito Puyat last Tuesday, party-goers are advised not to assign the two gentlemen in the same dinner table.

 

 

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.