IT WAS not the intended play. Coach Tab Baldwin said it himself.
But just the same, SJ Belangel took matters into his own hands. Under the circumstances, he had no choice. Time was expiring. Do-or-die.
And so, fire SJ did.
Result? A bankshot beauty of a three that produced an 81-78 Gilas victory over South Korea on Wednesday, June 16, 2021, at Clark in Pampanga.
Gosh! Only SJ’s mother believed the shot would go in.
Barely seeing an opening through the armpit of a Korean giant for a guard, SJ, 6-foot-flat, leaned sideways then flung a fade away, somewhat off-balance shot inches behind the arc at right quarter court as the game-ending buzzer sounded.
The ball hit the glass first before swishing the net.
“I intentionally banked the shot,” said SJ, 21, whose game-winner made him an instant star in only his first international game as a rookie of Gilas Pilipinas.
More importantly, SJ’s dagger gave the country an outright ticket to the Fiba Asia Cup proper in Jakarta in August.
Again, how did I meet SJ (Samjosef), landing him an Ateneo basketball scholarship in no time?
While vacationing at Ramon Uy’s exotic May’s Organic Garden in Bacolod City some six years ago, I met SJ through Chris Javelosa, the 6-foot-5 former center of the La Salle Green Archers married to Ramon’s beauteous daughter, Mayra.
“This kid is fantastic,” Chris said to me. “He easily scores baskets in bunches. Twice, he scored 100 points in a tournament. I want you to see him play.”
Immediately that morning, I went with Chris to the gym where SJ was playing. And true enough, I saw in SJ a diamond in the rough.
I told the kid, barely 15 then, if he was interested in playing for Ateneo. He quickly said yes. It helped that SJ idolized Kiefer Ravena, then Ateneo’s star player; Steph Curry, too.
I talked to SJ’s father, Sammy. And the rest, as the cliché goes, is history.
Chris gave me a video clip of SJ in action, which I gave to Pareng Arben Santos, a staunch supporter of Ateneo basketball.
“I trust your instincts, Pareng Al,” said Arben.
In just minutes after SJ’s historic game-winning triple went in, Chris, Arben and I were furiously texting each other. Reminiscing. Rejoicing. Roaring.