Blog » Aguilar, Talk ‘N Text could find redemption in each other

Talk ‘N Text could not have picked a better way to dust off the patchwork job it had done on its derailed war machine, right in its first game since Petron ripped the hinges off the Texters’ Grand Slam bid.

Against a sister team that almost too willingly froze at the sight of the first significant cluster of points Talk ‘N Text assembled in the game—a Japeth Aguilar-fueled run in the second period—the Texters engineered a masterful 98-80 victory over Meralco that shredded all doubts over the state of the team’s morale.

Think the Texters would go into the game with sagged shoulders; that they had the swagger beaten out of them by Petron Blaze?

In hilly Antipolo, the league’s most powerful team roster-wise had but one message: Think again.

When the 6-foot-9 Aguilar flushed out his Fiba frustrations with a highlight slam against former Smart Gilas teammate Jason Ballesteros to seal that strong second quarter surge by the Texters, it was clear the swagger returned. Ten-fold in fact.

But that was only what was happening on the surface. When the Texters held court after the match in post-game interviews, things got even more interesting. Both Aguilar and coach Chot Reyes hinted that the woes of the former Atenean who had a stint in the US NCAA Division I are about to end.

“My teammates gave me the confidence I needed,” said Aguilar of the 27-point performance that heralded his return to the PBA after a messy divorce with Burger King (now Barako Bull) led to his mostly, though unexpectedly, uneventful stint with the national team.

Aguilar said he would thrive in the Texters’ system because of the offensive freedom he gets within it. “Coach Chot isn’t so strict” with offensive sets, he added.

“Japeth’s a fit for our system because he loves running up and down the court and we are the kind of team that runs up and down the court,” Reyes said at the Ynares Center press room.

Raise your hands if you think that’s what Aguilar meant.

After toiling almost futilely with the Powerade PH squad and hearing some of the harshest locker room pep-less talks ever—witnesses swear this is the reason Aguilar broke off with the team that made him the No. 1 pick, to never hear those words again—and then struggling to collect playing time with the Smart Gilas PH, Aguilar could be (mis?)construed as saying this is the coach he needs, the system he deserves, to flourish.

He never got to shine, and was criticized sharply by some sectors, because no one ever put him in a position to reach his potential.

In a way, Reyes lent credence to that interpretation. He said Aguilar’s emergence in Friday’s game wasn’t an offshoot of a change in scenery—Reyes said he doesn’t see any difference between Aguilar playing in Fiba and Aguilar playing in the PBA.

“Japeth’s a basketball player. There is no other Filipino with such a combination of height and athletic ability and it’s my job as a coach to utilize his skills,” Reyes said.

Whether that was a nudge at Rajko Toroman’s direction or not, no one will ever know.

What’s certain is this: Aguilar and Talk ‘N Text were meant for each other and things will only get better for both of them now that they have found each other.

For Aguilar, he finally gets to show what he is made of, without being limited by the restrictions of a to-the-letter system or the fear of getting verbally bitch-slapped at every halftime break.

For the Texters, they get their swag back. They get to tell people that last season was not a Sunkist-circa-‘95-style Grand Slam blowout, where a team comes achingly close to a triple crown, fails to complete it and then slips to irrelevance and dysfunction in the following years.

This wasn’t even ‘85 Great Taste or ‘86 Tanduay, where teams fail to complete a Grand Slam but are still good enough to compete one or two seasons later.

This is Toyota of ‘75 or Crispa of ’77, teams that failed to complete a Grand Slam but dominated for nearly a decade so every other team outside of the two squads was reduced to almost an afterthought.

Even Reyes, normally a straight shooter who is one of the best at layering statements when he needs to, issued a threat that was in no way veiled.

“Our problem now is getting our three national players (reigning MVP Jimmy Alapag, athletic rebounder and rim rattler Kelly Williams and versatile forward Ranidel de Ocampo) back from injury,” Reyes said.

If you think we look good now, he was really saying, wait till we get our main guys back.