The date with destiny was finally fulfilled after a long 13-year wait.
The Barangay Ginebra San Miguel, the biggest crowd-drawer in the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), snagged its first Philippine Cup title it last won in 2007, winning over the TnT Tropang Giga, 82-78 in Game 5 and captured the heated but otherwise short best-of-seven series, 4-1, and capturing their 13th title overall.
Hailed as Honda PBA Philippine Cup Finals MVP was Gin Kings veteran guard LA Tenorio, who averaged 13.6 points, 2.8 rebounds, 6.2 assists and 1.4 steals throughout the series. He tallied 10 markers and dished out 6 dimes in the title-clinching game marked with another brilliant display of quarterbacking, particularly toward the end game.
It is the first Philippine Cup title ever for the veteran guard they call the “Ironman” for his long streak of 663 consecutive games played. Many feared the streak will be broken after Tenorio came in late for the bubble after undergoing an appendectomy procedure a few weeks before season re-opening.
Best Player of the Game honors went to Japeth Aguilar, who tied his career-high score of 32 points.
Despite several challenges to its lineup, where it again missed the services of Bobby Ray Parks, Jr. and ace guard Jayson Castro to injuries, the Tropa did not go down without a fight.
The scoring per quarter was so tight in the low-scoring game that no team led in double digits, and no team scored more than 20 points in a quarter, except only in the last canto where things started to heat up between the two teams.
In a remarkable season filled with drama, tension, sacrifice, anticipation, and otherwise came out to be a unique and ultimately successful “bubble” format, PBA Commissioner Willy Marcial was profuse in his thanks.
The lone conference of the 45th Season of the PBA is really one for the books, where all people involved, from the government to the teams and their players, team owners, the PBA Board of Directors, and the PBA staff, all worked together and sacrificed a lot to make this bubble conference a rousing event.
(Photo credit: tv5.espn.com)