(From Business Mirror)
THE first time Alaska and Purefoods met in a Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) finals, coach Ryan Gregorio was all of 18 years old, fresh into college at the University of the Philippines and playing for his college team called the College of Mass Communication Wildcats.
That was 1990. And Ryan—with no inkling yet of what he would become in local big-league basketball—was nothing more but an avid intrams player. He was his team’s hero though—a streak shooter of threes that made the unheralded Wildcats the champions of that year’s intramurals, via a sweep.
The Wildcats coach during that magical 1990 run was—guess who—The Point Laureate Ronnie Magsanoc, then the star point guard of the Shell Turbo Chargers and the PBA, now Ryan’s second on the Purefoods bench.
In 1990 Alaska still had to win its first PBA championship. But Tim Cone was already at the helm and the team exuded an aura of excitement. One reason was that the team had on its roster a player named “Mr. Excitement.” It also had a very kinetic, very spirited point guard, and probably the league’s coolest shooting hands at that time, barring Ronnie Magsanoc’s netless beauties. Paul “Bong” Alvarez, Ric Ric Marata and Elmer “Boy” Cabahug were Alaska’s newest additions of the day and boy, did they make the team rock. From a harmless team name which was The Alaska Milkmen, Wilfred Uytengsu’s franchise went by the name of The Alaska Air Force starting in 1988, mainly because of the sky-high trips of its star rookie (Alvarez) during those days.
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As far as we know, Tim Cone—then as now already a master of the game with an intense, laser-like gaze at court proceedings and a volcanic temper ready to erupt at any sign of a bad call—had not heard at all of Ryan Gregorio. He matched wits and crossed game-plan swords with his contemporaries of those days—Derick Pumaren, Norman Black, Arlene Rodriguez, Baby Dalupan and yes, Sonny Jaworski, just to name a few.
Under Tim Cone Alaska would emerge to be one of the strongest powerhouses in the PBA. Alaska won nine PBA championships in the 1990s and punctuated the decade with a rare Grand Slam in 1996. They were regarded during that decade somewhat like the way the Chicago Bulls were in the National Basketball Association. In fact, Cone was known to have introduced the triangulation approach and the so-called swarming defense to the PBA arena. Alaska was intense and in a league of its own in the ’90s, which it practically owned.
Purefoods was certainly not left out of the parade in the ’90s. In fact, the decade proved to be Purefoods’s glory days as well. In the Third Conference of 1990, Purefoods actually defeated the Alaska Air Force in dramatic fashion. A best-of-five series, Alaska started out strong with a 2-0 lead and seemed headed to chop up the Hotdogs. Purefoods, then coached by the legendary Baby Dalupan who was on his last stand, denied the Air Force all the way to the finish line, 3-2.
THE first time Alaska and Purefoods met in a Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) finals, coach Ryan Gregorio was all of 18 years old, fresh into college at the University of the Philippines and playing for his college team called the College of Mass Communication Wildcats.
That was 1990. And Ryan—with no inkling yet of what he would become in local big-league basketball—was nothing more but an avid intrams player. He was his team’s hero though—a streak shooter of threes that made the unheralded Wildcats the champions of that year’s intramurals, via a sweep.
The Wildcats coach during that magical 1990 run was—guess who—The Point Laureate Ronnie Magsanoc, then the star point guard of the Shell Turbo Chargers and the PBA, now Ryan’s second on the Purefoods bench.
In 1990 Alaska still had to win its first PBA championship. But Tim Cone was already at the helm and the team exuded an aura of excitement. One reason was that the team had on its roster a player named “Mr. Excitement.” It also had a very kinetic, very spirited point guard, and probably the league’s coolest shooting hands at that time, barring Ronnie Magsanoc’s netless beauties. Paul “Bong” Alvarez, Ric Ric Marata and Elmer “Boy” Cabahug were Alaska’s newest additions of the day and boy, did they make the team rock. From a harmless team name which was The Alaska Milkmen, Wilfred Uytengsu’s franchise went by the name of The Alaska Air Force starting in 1988, mainly because of the sky-high trips of its star rookie (Alvarez) during those days.
****
As far as we know, Tim Cone—then as now already a master of the game with an intense, laser-like gaze at court proceedings and a volcanic temper ready to erupt at any sign of a bad call—had not heard at all of Ryan Gregorio. He matched wits and crossed game-plan swords with his contemporaries of those days—Derick Pumaren, Norman Black, Arlene Rodriguez, Baby Dalupan and yes, Sonny Jaworski, just to name a few.
Under Tim Cone Alaska would emerge to be one of the strongest powerhouses in the PBA. Alaska won nine PBA championships in the 1990s and punctuated the decade with a rare Grand Slam in 1996. They were regarded during that decade somewhat like the way the Chicago Bulls were in the National Basketball Association. In fact, Cone was known to have introduced the triangulation approach and the so-called swarming defense to the PBA arena. Alaska was intense and in a league of its own in the ’90s, which it practically owned.
Purefoods was certainly not left out of the parade in the ’90s. In fact, the decade proved to be Purefoods’s glory days as well. In the Third Conference of 1990, Purefoods actually defeated the Alaska Air Force in dramatic fashion. A best-of-five series, Alaska started out strong with a 2-0 lead and seemed headed to chop up the Hotdogs. Purefoods, then coached by the legendary Baby Dalupan who was on his last stand, denied the Air Force all the way to the finish line, 3-2.
Purefoods won again in 1993, this time as the Coney Island Ice Cream Stars, and under a new coach, Chot Reyes, who made PBA history by winning the title in his first conference as coach.
Purefoods tripped Alaska anew in the 1994 Commissioner’s Cup, with Kenny Redfield as Best Import. It was a bruising, hard-fought series, but it earned Alvin Patrimonio his second Most Valuable Player title. Purefoods went on to win again in 1997 in the All Filipino. But even if Alaska would go some years without PBA trophies to display in its trophy room, it did have the habit of taking two or three titles a year. Witness.
Alaska’s strong suit seems to have been the third conference in the 1990s. It sewed up the third conference championships of 1991, 1994 and 1995. (It won nothing in 1990, ’92, and ’93.) 1996 was the year Alaska won all three conferences, then in 1997 it took home the Governor’s Cup as well. As if to prove that it could hack the first and second conferences, too, Alaska took the first and second conferences in 1998, and lorded it over the All Filipino (first conference) again when the new season and the new millennium opened in 2000.
In the new millennium, Purefoods went on to win the Governor’s Cup in 2002—this time under the nascent Gregorio, whose world had begun to intersect with Cone’s, finally. Alaska won another championship—the Invitational—in 2003. Then Purefoods took the Philippine Cup (the new All Filipino under the new format) in 2005-06. Alaska countered with a Fiesta crown in 2006-07. And although they did not win their respective crowns against each other in recent times, their orbits were bound to collide again, sooner or later.
The sooner or later happened last night. And although the results are not known to this writer at the time this column is being written, the pundits say Alaska has the upper hand. The Aces are well rested, and they are in that place where they were when they won that Grand Slam in 1996. The Purefoods team—now called the Giants—are weary, pressured and playing catch-up.
But never, never mention the word “impossible” to coach Ryan Gregorio, because the word has been expunged from his dictionary. Never doubt the aces that are up coach Tim Cone’s sleeve either no matter what the odds or wherever the territory.
In short, what we’re trying to say is that this is going to be a classic of a series. It’s the Master versus The Whiz Kid. The championship score so far is 12, Alaska and 7 Purefoods. Will the new number be 13? Or 8?
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