There was one grim reason to believe the PBA Philippine Cup championship series between San Mig Coffee and Rain or Shine could go the full route of seven matches.
Reason: Rain or Shine was to show up for Game 6 (scheduled Wednesday night) the underdog. Based on fan confidence, the Coffee Mixers could turn Game 6 into a party of sorts. But there was the bigger promise of a bruising contest.
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That may not be exactly good for the health of the players from the two rival clubs, but coach Yeng Guiao couldn’t care less.
The way Guiao had put it, his men should go claw and climb up to the coliseum rafters, if need be, to prevent the victory balloons, readied since last Sunday, from descending on the floor in honor of the favored San Mig team.
Guiao no longer had to repeat the marching orders he sent out last Sunday, when he said any sign of weakness or soft-pedaling on the part of a player could cost the cager his job.
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That may sound rather harsh, a little exaggerated, but Guiao was making it stoically clear the series could not be won on sheer skill and talent alone.
Fortitude, and loads of never-say-die spirit, should be there above everything else.
Guiao, in fact, could’ve used the Ginebra team case, when the Gin Kings inexplicably folded up in the do-or-die 7th game of their semifinal series against the Coffee Mixers, to warn his men.
There’s no denying the Ginebra fable got seriously dented after that tragic 27-point loss to sister team San Mig, when the Gin Kings crashed in fragments.
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Maybe this need not be told, but there were also Ginebra diehards who have started looking hard at Rain or Shine after that detestable fall of the Gin Kings, that all but impaired the Barangay Ginebra legend. Of course, there will never be another team as great as the intrepid gang—built around certified enforcers led by Bobby Jaworski himself—in the PBA again. But it must be told here that Rain or Shine, with its unyielding underdog stand in many contests, has started to gain votes as Ginebra surrogate.
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(BYE, FATHER ELY: Last night’s match was specifically dedicated by the San Mig Coffee squad to the late PBA stalwart Ely Capacio who, after serving as neophyte in the 1975 national basketball team (in Bangkok under Kiko Calilan) went on to star in the PBA, before making waves as PBA coach, and rising to the top of the San Miguel corporate ladder. We missed each other out in the last PBA launch press conference.
Capacio had never failed to act as my official host among PBA board members in that annual affair which I failed to attend. A former seminarian, the ever competent Capacio, 58, has come to be fondly called Fr. Ely for his cool, compassionate ways, Goodbye, Father.)