Arben+MVP=Asian Games basketball gold

By Al S. Mendoza

DO you still dream of an Asian Games basketball gold medal for the country?

I do.

The last time we won was in the 1962 Jakarta Asiad.

So, it can be done.

Our closest brush after that was in the 1992 Beijing Asiad, when Robert Jaworski, with Norman Black as assistant coach, piloted the country to a runner-up finish behind China.

I think I’ve found the formula for reclaiming the Asian Games basketball gold: Arben E. Santos plus Manny V. Pangilinan (MVP).

Unknown to many, Santos, a low-key businessman, is the major architect in Ateneo’s resurrection from the grave to the grand rise of the Blue Eagles in the UAAP.

Since Arben unraveled his winning formula for Ateneo in 1998, Ateneo has won no less than five UAAP titles already, including the last three years; the Blue Eagles have also consistently finished among the Top 3.

“A good recruitment program, giving the players a mix of tender loving care and a motivation process that would make the player become part and parcel of the Ateneo way of life,” Arben says.  “Encouraging the players, almost assuring them of a good life after Ateneo, is also a major component of our system.”

Arben alone handles ex-Ateneo Eagles now playing in the PBA, like Enrico Villanueva, L.A. Tenorio, Wesley Gonzales, Rich Alvarez and, yes, Larry Fonacier.

But what stands out in Arben’s relations with these players is this:  He receives not a single centavo after clinching juicy contracts for them.

“Just my way of showing appreciation for each and everyone of them who had given honor to Ateneo,” says Arben, a rabid Ateneo supporter who has silently rallied prominent Ateneo alumni to the cause of the Eagles.

It is his intrinsic winning ways in dealing with people that has put Arben a cut above the rest in the often wild and wooly world of basketball.

To me, Arben is the missing link to our basketball resurgence on the Asian scene.

Now, why did I include MVP?

Simple.  MVP, one of the most astute businessmen around, has the logistics – tons of it, actually.

With MVP injecting unlimited budget, Arben can build his Dream Team composed only of the tallest ever Philippine Team to be coached by Chot Reyes and Black.

“Unlike before, we now have a lot of giants to choose from,” Arben says, stressing that Cebu-born Greg Slaughter is just “one among many of them.”

Slaughter, a rookie on the Ateneo lineup this year, stands just a shade under seven feet.

Arben mentions several more – like “6’9” Japeth Aguilar and three or four more standing easily above 6-feet-7 inches.

If we begin to build that Dream Team now, we have three years to hone it up for the next Asian Games in 2014.

Should it be realized – Arben plus MVP equals Philippine Basketball Team – remember, you read it here first.

Indeed, nothing is impossible.

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