A yearly holiday visitor
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Every year at Yuletide, I get a visit from a prominent PBA personality.
Unless he is out of the country, Meralco coach Norman Black would drop by my house bringing good cheers and some of the most scrumptious baked goodies.
This time, he brought a big can of European cookies, which his mother brought along with her to Manila from the US.
“Do you realize that I, you and Ronnie (Nathanielsz) belong to the last batch of PBA old-timers?” said Black, who owns a rare Grand Slam in the PBA, as he waxed nostalgic about the past.
Nathanielsz passed away last November in the US and it had been a great shock and loss to Black.
Black first strutted his wares in the PBA in 1982 with the league’s oldest franchise, San Miguel Beer.
Now, he’s turning 60 and has been a fixture of Philippine basketball—amateur and professional.
Aside from his collection of PBA titles, Black piloted the Ateneo Blue Eagles to five straight UAAP championships before he was brought back by Manny V. Pangilinan to the PBA as coach of Talk ‘n’ ’N Text and, later, Meralco.
After struggling in the beginning, Black unexpectedly steered the Meralco Bolts to a classic final series against Barangay Ginebra, mentored by Tim Cone, also a Grand Slam coach—twice over, in fact.
Black said he will keep on coaching as long as the opportunity is there.
“Coaching is so addictive. It gives you a continuous adrenaline rush” said Black.
He watched the UAAP championship between La Salle and Ateneo, where his 20-year–old son Aaron was a vital cog of the Blue Eagles.
If Black takes pride in his son, he is also all praises for daughter Dominique, who graduated from Ateneo Law school and works with accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Black was saddened by the loss of the Blue Eagles but said he was happy for his former boss and the biggest supporter of the Green Archers, Danding Cojuangco, whom he saw walking at the venue.
“Danding looked good, healthy and energetic. He looked like he did 25 years ago. I’m very happy for him,” said Black.
