INQUIRER Sports

THE VETERAN BASKETBALL mentor, possibly under the influence of alcohol, blurted it out straight to the man’s face:

“You are not a coach! You have not proven anything. I cannot call you coach.”

These harsh words were uttered during one of the nocturnal unwinding sessions of the Philippine basketball contingent in Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand, where the 2007 Southeast Asian Games were being held.

I shared the same table with the veteran coach, Lawrence Chongson, the other PBL coaches and the members of the press.

The other coaches laughed and joined in the mockery but Lawrence didn’t seem to mind.

Was he dense or insensitive? I wondered.

He was none of the above.

Everyone was making fun of him, but he kept the hurt all to himself. He knew that while he had been a coach in the PBL and in the NBC for many years, no one took him seriously.

His team finished third twice in the PBL, but everybody regarded his feats as flukes. The other coaches never treated him as a colleague. They all believed he got his coaching job on the merits of his close friendship with Bong Tan, son of business titan Lucio Tan, who owns the University of the East. Bong was a classmate from his kindergarten days at St. Jude’s Catholic School.

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“I was getting no respect from my peers,” Lawrence said. “I knew that everybody was making fun of me. But instead of letting it affect me, I used them to motivate me positively.

“I hung on to the job no matter what they said because coaching is a passion. More importantly, I had an obligation to my son and to my friend Bong who had complete faith and trust in me, not to mention patience, with a capital P.”

Even before he got his feet wet, UE supporters started agitating for the Warriors coach.

“When we started to lose a few games, they filed a petition to have me replaced, but they did not succeed.”

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What are his expectations in the UAAP championship series?

“I expect to win every game, although what I expect does not always happen.”

Lawrence, 45, said he dedicates every game to his son Dale Martin, who is now 20.

“He gets upset over some of the negative things he reads about me. I want to win this championship for him.”

The Warriors will not be doing anything new against the Ateneo Blue Eagles, according to Lawrence.

“We will just be playing with our hearts. Patay kung patay!”

But even if Lawrence doesn’t win the crown, to be finally called “coach” by his peers is already celestial music to his ears.

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Ateneo coach Norman Black is a stark contrast to the highly emotional Lawrence.

Norman was as cool as a cucumber when I talked to him. He said he and his team have put the Game 2 loss behind them.

They had already analyzed what caused the 20-point blowout, which was described by foremost Ateneo patron Manny V. Pangilinan as “nightmarish.”

“Of course I was disappointed that we were unable to execute our game plan,” said Black. “But that’s water under the bridge now. We have recognized our mistakes and have corrected them.”