IF you are a close buddy of LeBron James, chances are there’s also a bit of basketball greatness in you. Birds of the same feather flock together, right?
And, it follows too that James’ abundant skills—he is “only” the world’s No. 1 player in the planet today—can easily rub off on you. I surmise Romeo Travis is a bit like that.
Did Travis not appear so that way on Friday night, when he poured in a career-high 50 points to power Magnolia to the PBA Governors Cup Finals past Barangay Ginebra?
That output was a totally mind-blowing rebound from his mere 12 career-low points in Game 3 that allowed Ginebra to cut Magnolia’s lead to 2-1. But Travis became a thoroughly different animal in Game 4.
Despite a feared hamstring injury, Travis simply plodded on, summoning the last remaining ounce of his strength to anchor a 112-108 Magnolia victory at the jam-packed Ynares Center in Antipolo City.
A series-tying loss for Magnolia would have spelled imminent doom for the Hotshots with Travis possibly sidelined by injury in the rubber-match.
“I don’t want to play a Game 5,” Travis said after Magnolia’s series-clinching 3-1 triumph. “I wouldn’t have been able to play a Game 5 the way my leg hurt.”
Riding out the storm, Travis capped his heroics with the night’s biggest three-point play for Magnolia’s 108-106 lead time down to 44.1 seconds.
Those three Travis points punctuated a blazing 7-0 Hotshot blast that Travis himself had sparked to erase Ginebra’s 106-101 bulge with 1:44 left.
Employing next an airtight defense, the Hotshots would never look back.
Back in 2014, Magnolia was then the San Mig Coffee being coached by losing Ginebra coach Tim Cone when the Coffeemakers won the Grand Slam that year.
Ginebra’s elimination killed Cone’s coveted “three-peat” dream of the Governors Cup, affording Magnolia coach Chito Victolero an added joy as precious and few are those who could defeat Cone that easily.
And Victolero even got luckier since the Finals will begin only after the Fiba World Cup qualifiers on Dec. 3.
By then, Travis would be a brand-new warrior. Again.