Basketbol Baliktanaw
I HAVE not been really following nor been watching the PBA for a long time but my interest in basketball will always be there.
And that is why I readily accepted the invitation of Doc Rico Mesina, now acknowledged as among the country’s top experts in basketball memorabilia with his extensive collection of basketball-related items, to be one of the two moderators, the other one is Rick Olivarez, in the first-ever Basketbol Baliktanaw event.
It was held last March 31 at the Ortigas Museum in Greenhills and Doc Rico was able to get basketball luminaries and legends to share their knowledge and experiences about the sport, starting off with Sev Sarmenta.
I raised the question to Sev during his talk as to why women’s basketball here has never really taken off in terms of public acceptance and popularity like the men’s side.
He said he believes the mindset of most Filipinos is that basketball is for men, volleyball is for women, remember, it is the opposite in volleyball where it is the women’s side that is popular.
Gil Cortez, the inaugural PBA season Rookie of the Year, also shared his own experience being in the PBA, saying he was very thankful to have been part of that fabled Crispa-Toyota rivalry and the opportunity to play alongside with the greats of Philippine basketball.
It was after lunch already when the duo of pre-PBA days cager Jimmy Mariano and our version of Bobby Knight, the highly-respected Joe Lipa, delivered their talks.
But it was more of their personal sharing with Joe bringing the house down with his no-holds barred way of talking about his career with UP where he won his UAAP title in 1986 after then highly recruited Benjie Paras opted to play under him after graduating high school from San Beda.
Jimmy was very candid at one time that he lost track of what he was talking about. Actually he could have really shared a lot more as his career included two Olympics, 1968 in Mexico and Munich in 1972 where remembered playing billiards against George Foreman, plus a few years playing in the PBA and a coaching stint in the pro league, highlighted by winning an All Filipino conference with Great Taste, powered by Allan Caidic.
Women’s basketball national head coach Pat Aquino with his assistant Julie Amos shared how they have been growing the sport with a developmental program that starts with U 16 up to the senior level.
And it is a fact that in terns of performance, our women’s teams have delivered in recent years, we are now ranked 44th in the world but needs more competitions abroad to improve its ranking.
I asked Pat directly too if he has any formula in place for getting Fil-foreign players in the team, I was happy that he is looking at a 50-50 mix of home grown and imported talents on the team.
National University’s HR guy and basketball historian Jay Mercado had the best sharing though of the history of the PBA, dissecting the domination of Crispa and Toyota , winning 22 of the league’s first 29 titles until they disbanded.
In fact, according to Jay, a Crispa or Toyota team was in the finals of 27 of the first 28 conference titles disputed from 1975 to 1984.
He also did not hold back in his observations about Tommy Manotoc vecoming the Commissioner and about the Fil-Sham issues in the league in the late 90s.
But the best was yet to come with the arrival of 90’s legends, Jeffrey Cariaso and Bong Hawkins from Alaska, Benjie Paras, the only rookie of the year to also win the MVP title in the same year, and Vince Hizon.
And with Rick doing a good job in moderating, a lot of things were unearthed, among others.
The choices of the 4 as to who should be the PBA Goat.
All 4 were unanimous in naming Robert Jaworski as the GOAT, but two of them said Mon Fernandez should be a co-Goat with Sonny, just make a guess as to who voted who.
They also shared their experiences as to who they found to be the hardest to defend, the names that came out included Bong Alvarez, Vergel Meneses, Johnny Abarrientos, and Marlou Aquino among others.
For best imports, it was a natural choice for them to consider their own teammates like Shell’s Bobby Parks and Alaska’s Sean Chambers.Tony Harris’s name also came out, same with Ken Redfield and Kenny Travis, of course the earlier imports like Andy Fields did not get into the equation.
Bong also shared that the the biggest rivalry for Alaska was with Great Taste, simply because of product competition, he knew that because the bonus was doubled for a win.
And a lot more stories.
Congrats to Doc Rico for putting this event together.
