There was a shootout in Angeles, Pampanga just the other day involving two noteworthy gunslingers—the one is still to reach his peak, being young and everything, while the other is an aged, battle-tested warrior who many think should be at his twilight years already.
When the smoke of battle cleared, the aged warrior got the last laugh for he got the better of his young compatriot.
Of course there were no guns, just the hot shooting hands of two basketball players in a heated exchange of 3s late in the fourth quarter of last Sunday’s skirmish between the finalists. In a duel inside the hard court of the Angeles University Foundation (AUF) Sports Center and Cultural Arena , the scarred and more experienced player, with colder-than-ice blood running through his veins, prevailed.
Now, the aged warrior, the so-called “Ironman” of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), has just set a date with destiny. If all plans go into clockwork-perfection, he, together with his cohorts, the crowd darlings of the PBA, will hoist the 2020 Philippine Cup tomorrow night.
Game time is at 6 p.m.
If and when Barangay Ginebra San Miguel wins tomorrow, it will be the first all-local-player conference championship for the country’s most popular ball club in Asia’s first play-for-pay basketball league after 13 years, and an absolute first for 36-year-old Lewis Alfred Tenorio.
If the other protagonists, the TNT Tropang Giga, gets to squeeze enough basketball juice from its already injury-stricken crew, then they live another day. Asia’s Best Point Guard Jayson Castro remains to be a doubtful starter, same with prolific scorer Bobby Ray Parks, Jr.
So it will all boil down to the hotter-than-hot shooting hands of RR Pogoy, whose hands Gin Kings coach Tim Cone refused to shake after the game, of course all in jest. The Tropa’s designated hitter is again expected to burn the hoops from either close to the ring or from downtown.
Pogoy can’t do it alone, however, though don’t count out the Tropa just yet. All the others–Poy Erram, Simon Enciso, Jay Washington, Troy Rosario, et al–have to do is to collect and lift themselves up, and help Pogoy in the scoring load, and perhaps do a more consistent job of controlling the boards and putting added pressure on the Gin Kings’ rampaging players. Maybe then, they have a chance to live another day.
If not, then that will be the end of it for the once-mighty and proud, multi-champion TNT franchise, an early contender this year. It will just boil down to watching a basketball battle between the barangay tanods against the Avengers, to put it bluntly. No need for rocket science to know who will prevail.