Guiao concedes PH Cup title

MAYBE it was because of the sheer frustration of trying so hard and still failing. Or the cold reality that no team has climbed out of a 0-3 hole in a best-of-seven championship series finally hit him.

“I will just try to delay their celebration,” coach Yeng Guiao said Sunday as he conceded the PBA Philippine Cup championship to Talk ‘N Text after the Tropang Texters hammered out an 89-80 win for their third straight win over the Elasto Painters in the playoffs.

Guiao talked so unlike the fiery coach noted for his usual bravado and combative tone that, like his brilliant bench strategies, have defined his PBA coaching career.

Yeng’s goal is to hack out a win in tomorrow’s Game 4 to avoid being a sorry footnote in Talk ‘N Text’s inevitable march to league immortality.

The Tropang Texters, now within another victory of becoming the first squad in 30 years to win this tournament three straight seasons, have four shots to make it happen.

No team in the league—or even in the National Basketball Association—has ever erased a 0-3 deficit to win a best-of-seven series. And of the 12 that have extended the series previously, only one squad was able to take it to a Game 6.

Perhaps out of frustration, Yeng replied sarcastically to a question: Are the Painters willing to court history by becoming the first team to turn 0-3 into a 4-3 win?

“History?Di nga kami maka-isa, history pa” (We couldn’t even win one),” he rued.

Should the Texters win tomorrow, they will complete just the fourth sweep in a title series in the PBA.

Guiao owns one of those three previous feats, when he piloted Swift and Tony Dwayne “The Hurricane” Harris past the Seven-Up Uncolas and Dell Demps in the 1992 Third Conference Finals.

Norman Black, a man no stranger to winning titles, had said after Friday night’s Game 2 win that he wouldn’t talk anything about a sweep. And on Sunday night, the Grand Slam-winning mentor with San Miguel Beer tried very hard not to utter the word.

“Considering we’re up 3-0, we go for the championship on Wednesday,” said Black, on the verge of his 11th career title. “If it ends up being a sweep, so be it.”

Guiao has made a PBA Finals for the second straight conference and said something that defined both tournaments.

Before steering the Elasto Painters to their breakthrough championship in last season’s Governors’ Cup, Guiao came up with that famous declaration of winning the series against B-Meg even with super rookie Paul Lee out for the last five games.

He proved himself right there.

And for this series—even with the Painters clinging to near-impossible chances—the Rain or Shine faithful certainly are praying that Guiao proves himself wrong.