INQUIRER Sports

MANILA, Philippines - Ricardo Brown, the first Filipino-American to win the Most Valuable Player award in 1985, and ace gunner Allan Caidic will lead the third batch of inductees to the Philippine Basketball Association’s Hall of Fame.

Former seven-time Best Import winner Bobby Parks and ex-San Miguel stalwarts Hector Calma and Avelino “Samboy” Lim will also be honored along with former PBA president Carlos (Honeyboy) Palanca III and the late commission Emilio (Jun) Bernardino Jr.

The new inductees will be honored in fitting ceremonies on Sept. 19 at the Sofitel Hotel before the PBA opens its 35th season.

Brown, among the first batch of Fil-Ams who initially suited for the Philippine team in the ’70s, was the key factor when Great Taste Coffee won the Open and All-Filipino titles in 1985.

The southpaw deadshot Caidic out of University of the East won the MVP in 1990 when Great Taste played under the Presto banner, before joining Calma and Lim at San Miguel Beer.

Bernardino, a former UP Maroon who died in March 2007, served the PBA in various capacities before taking over as commissioner from 1993.

He started out with the TV coverage firm Vintage Enterprises as its “Man on the Ball” before making his way into the defunct Tefilin squad’s management team.

Jun B took over from Reynaldo Marquez when the league started playing at the Cuneta Astrodome in Pasay in 1993, then stepped down in 2002 because of a near-fatal heart attack while vacationing with his family in Baguio.

Palanca, a former PBA chair while representing La Tondeña Inc., guided the league to one of its most profitable seasons in the mid ’80s while building the core of what is now the PBA’s most popular team from the Robert Jaworski-Francis Arnaiz-led Gilbey’s Gin squad.

The final seven were picked by a committee chaired by former Vintage Enterprises bigwig Bobong Velez from 10 nominees.

Also in the selection panel were commissioner Renauld “Sonny” Barrios, league chair Joaqui Trillo, governors Lito Alvarez and Tony Chua, former PBA technical head Ricky Palou, Andy Jao, chair of the Hall’s nomination committee; media bureau chief Willy Marcial, and sports editors Ding Marcelo of the Manila Bulletin and Teddyvic Melendres of the Inquirer.