Magnolia celebrates 14th PBA title in another banner year for SMC

The Magnolia franchise celebrated its 14th overall PBA title at San Miguel headquarters in Ortigas Friday night.

“Let’s just enjoy tonight!” Finals MVP Mark Barroca told the fans, who braved the Christmas traffic just to celebrate with their team.

“I hope we partake in more events like this in the future,” added coach Chito Victolero.

The Hotshots ended a four-year title drought in the PBA at the expense of the Alaska Aces in Wednesday night’s Governors’ Cup Finals Game 6 in Antipolo.

Magnolia’s latest crown puts them in the ranks of other San Miguel teams that churned out successful campaigns this year.

San Miguel Beer and Petron kicked off 2018 with respective titles at the PBA and PSL. Crowd darling Barangay Ginebra followed suit with a crown in the mid-season. Over at ABL, Alab Pilipinas scripted a massive turnaround punctuated with a title. Just last Thursday, the Spikers notched their second crown.

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Alfrancis Chua, San Miguel’s sports director, pointed to the unity within its teams as the key factor that sets them apart from other sports clubs.

“We’re like family. We treat each other like family, that’s why we’re like this,” alluding to SMC’s title-laden year.

“[This] just shows that San Miguel, especially Boss Ramon S. Ang, is focused—not only on the business side of it all,” he added. “He’s hands-on with everything.”

“We’re not going to stop now. 2019, 2020, we have to find ways to make us competitive,” Chua closed.