La Tenorio of Ginebra fouls the driving Cyrus Baguio of Alaska at Smart Araneta . INQUIRER PHOTO/AUGUST DELA CRUZ
MANILA, Philippines — Barangay Ginebra San Miguel’s improbable run came to an end via three-game sweep at the hands of Alaska Sunday night.
But as the Kings’ head coach Alfrancis Chua looked back on the conference that was, he could only speak of the positives.
“First of all, gusto kong magpasalamat sa fans hindi sila sumuko [I want to thank the fans because they didn’t give up]imagine we had 24,000 who showed,” he said of the 23,436 crowd at the Araneta Coliseum -setting a new PBA record. “I’m so proud of my team, my players it was a wonderful ride from 0-4.”
“In this series, with the many things that this team had to go through, a lot of players came to life,” Chuua said in Filipino.
“Kerby Raymundo came to life, Rudy Hatfield’s game returned, Jayjay came to life, Elmer did his share, Robert Labagala,” he said.
Raymundo and Helterbrand turned back the clock in the playoffs as they played a big part in the quarterfinals against Rain or Shine while Hatfield played quality minutes to give import Vernon Macklin relief.
With Mark Caguioa out and other key guys also hurt, only few believed the Kings would even be able to get past the Elasto Painters in the first round and perhaps no one had the Kings advancing past Talk ‘N Text and into the Finals against Alaska.
Not even Chua himself.
“The feeling was good because when I held the trophy, I didn’t realize that we’d get this far to the championship,” said Chua.