MANILA—For these guys, it was more than a mere change of uniforms.
When Danny Seigle, Dorian Peña and Dondon Hontiveros, players who have donned the Beermen’s tees long enough to be embedded in the franchise’s identity, learned about the trade that shook the league by surprise, it wasn’t basketball they first thought about.
“The first thing I thought about was how much I’ll miss those guys,” said Seigle, who spent his entire 12-year-career with San Miguel.
“The relationship that I’ve built over the past the years, the friends I’ve made. The players, the coaches, through the good times and the bad times,” said Peña. “Those are the things you can’t replace.”
Seigle and Peña were acquired by the Beermen a year apart on a direct hire more than a decade ago.
Even Hontiveros felt the jolt of reality wearing an entirely different shade—purple and white—but he needed to actually sweat in his new jersey for the bizarre turn of events to sink in.
“Actually it was only during the game that it finally became real. Even before the game parang hindi parin ako makapaniwala,” shared the jolly Hontiveros, who wound up with 24 points in his Air 21 debut against Talk ‘N Text last Saturday.
“Hindi ko ineexpect na mattrade ako. Akala ko dun na ako magreretire,” added Hontiveros, whose jersey # 7 with San Miguel is taken by rookie Nonoy Baclao.
Hontiveros could vividly recall the day that changed the course of his career: He was doing some extra shooting after practice before the bosses and head coach Ato Agustin informed him that he was going to be a part of the trade to acquire Air21’s top three rookies.
“Unang feeling ko, nagulat siyempre,” Hontiveros said. “Pero tinago ko nalang at dinaan ko sa biro.”
Hontiveros, like Seigle and Pena, has spent years of his fruitful career playing for the winningest club in PBA history after his first two years with Tanduay.
But the numbers of the sharp shooter from Cebu has gone down in the recent years and was virtually non existent during San Miguel’s meltdown in the recent Philippine Cup finals.
The trade also came as a suprise to Pena, a six-foot-six center who has spent 10 years with SMB.
“I didn’t really expect it to happen. It’ll take a while for me to get over it, said Peña. “ I keep on trying to look at it from a business aspect.”
Even in the San Miguel side of things, finding new inside jokes to crack might take time.
Seasoned veteran Danny Ildefonso, ironically the team clown, is the most emotionally stung
“Kahapon, (Thursday) talagang medyo malungkot dahil sanay na ako na andun sina Seigle, sila Dondon. Parang nawalan ka ng hindi lang matatalik na kaibigan kundi parang mga kapatid mo narin,” Ildefonso told INQUIRER.net last Friday following their team’s thrilling win over Meralco.
“Nanibago ako kasi nakita ko ako nalang yung Danny na natitira, dati marami kaming Danny. Seigle, ako, tapos si Danny Glover,” Ildefonso joked, pertaining to Peña.
“We always thought we would retire together,” wistfully said Seigle on Ildefonso.
“Sometimes (things) don’t happen the way you want,” finished Seigle, who wore a San Miguel jersey during his new team’s practice last Monday.
But neither one of Pena, Hontiveros and Seigle holds gripes against the team that housed their talents for as long as they can remember.
“They’ve been great to me for so many years. I’ve had so many career threatening injuries and they really took care of me, ” voiced out Seigle, who has been sidelined a couple of times because of nagging injuries. “ I’ll always love San Miguel.”
“I have nothing bad to say to san Miguel at all. They treated me really well. Maybe when I retitre from playing basketball, I’ll be back as a coach or an assistant, Peña said.
Knowing that trades are merely routinary in the world of basketball, at the end of the day, all of them know that they have to, at one point move on.
Even Hontiveros sees this as another lease in his career and a chance to prove that they can contribute to whatever name is infront of their jerseys.
“It’s another chapter in our careers. It’s an opportunity for us for to show na we’re still capable of helping any team,” according to Hontiveros.
“I’m happy to be with a good team, and I won’t let my past feelings with San Miguel interfere with this team because it’s unfair to these guys either,” said Pena.
“Maybe every once in a while, we whine a little bit to each other. But we’ll be okay,” Pena finished.