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Cone does it again, but Pingris is my hero
By Al S. Mendoza
THE beauty of the last championship clash in the PBA is that, although San Mig Coffee and Petron Blaze were sister teams, they fought tooth-and-nail so to speak.
It made Ramon S. Ang, the San Miguel Corp. president, proud.
No quarters were spared.
If it were war, take no prisoners had been the overriding battle cry.
San Mig Coffee prevailed in the end, outlasting Petron Blaze 4-3 in an epic struggle that took the distance.
Always, I have always believed that in every best-of-seven series going the full route, it could easily qualify as a classic.
Petron Blaze, being the favorite to win, won Game 1 by almost a rout.
But when San Mig Coffee equalized with almost a similar rout of a win in Game 2, pundits started to entertain second thoughts.
Not me.
Although I had believed Petron Blaze had the upper hand in the series, being the topnotcher with an 8-1 record in the 10-team elimination round against San Mig Coffee’s 6-3, always, a title showdown takes a different form compared with pre-championship tussles.
In playoffs dictated by a race-to-win-four comprising a best-of-seven series, the team with the better coach would mostly likely win it.
Man-for-man, Petron Blaze was ahead of San Mig Coffee.
But coaching-wise, San Mig Coffee had a big advantage.
Look, while coach Gee Abanilla of Petron Blaze was a rookie coach, coach Tim Cone of San Mig Coffee had been a head coach for 24 years going to the Finals.
Not only that. Cone had 14 titles tucked in his belt, including a Grand Slam in 1996 while coaching Alaska.
Cone was even driven to win as a victory would tie him with the legendary Virgilio “Baby” Dalupan with the most number of PBA crowns won with 15.
Of course, there were other heroes in the San Mig Coffee triumph than Cone.
The biggest of them was Marc Pingris, the 6-foot-5 power forward/center, who banged home 19 points and grabbed 17 rebounds in San Mig Coffee’s title-clinching 87-77 victory over Petron Blaze in Game 7.
With still 48.6 seconds remaining, and Pingris at the free throw line for two charities for the so-called icing in the cake, the pride and joy of Pozorrubio was already in tears. They were tears of victory, of course.
And when he won the Most Valuable Player award, Pingris said: “This is for God, for the San Miguel Corp. management, for the people of Pozorrubio, Pangasinan, and, finally, for my wife, Danica.”
That’s one thing I have always admired in Pingris—his being grateful to everybody. His mention of Pozorrubio each time he addresses the public, and even during media interviews, is an all-time favorite of mine. Only a few do that.
I pray you never change, kabaleyan Marc.
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