San Miguel players at the victory party at SMC Compound.
Smack in the middle of Mandaluyong, a modern-day corporate fortress hosted a night of jubilation on a Thursday night.
In the middle of a raucous celebration, one man decided to reminisce on a historic seventh game when sports mythology finally became sports history.
“Even before the game, when I was shooting around, I was making a lot of shots so I really felt good,” San Miguel guard Chris Ross said when fans celebrated inside San Miguel Corporation’s main building during the Beermen’s victory party.
It was Game 7, a matchup the Beermen forced against Alaska after being down 0-3 in the PBA Philippine Cup Finals and it was the canvass of what would be the greatest comeback in league history.
Ross, known more for his slashing and defense, decided to square up and launch a triple, it went in and it proved to be the start of a campaign he would never forget.
“When I got my first one to go in the game, and the second one to go, my teammates really gave me more confidence,” Ross, the MVP of the Finals, said. “They kept feeding me the ball and telling me to be aggressive.”
“That feeling made me trust myself more.”
Ross finished with 21 points, 12 of which came off three-pointers, to go along five rebounds, and five assists on that fateful night on February 3.
San Miguel’s “beeracle” though was not a Disney fairy tale; the Beermen had to crawl from utter loss and it was Ross who propelled them in the pivotal Game 4 en route to an inspirational overtime period.
Down 11 points with four minutes left, sheer guts were the Beermen’s foundation to achieve eternal glory.
“I looked at the jumbotron [at Philsports Arena] and it said who will be the Finals MVP and I saw three guys from Alaska, and I just said ‘man it can’t happen tonight, it won’t happen this way,’” Ross said. “And I gathered the guys and told them ‘one last push, there’s a lot of game left, four minutes and we’re only down 11 points.’”
“When all five guys on the floor including the guys at the bench believed at each other, nothing is impossible.”