Mendoza: Siot digs his own grave in PBA finals

IT was an accident waiting to happen.

How many times has that line been used to illustrate the grievousness of a mistake?

The mistake was the creation, mainly, of Siot Tanquingcen.

Well, circumstances would seem to point to that.

It went this way.

Siot is currently the San Miguel Beer coach.

Some time ago, L.A. Tenorio and Larry Fonacier, the stars in Ateneo’s recent title conquests in the UAAP, were taken by SMB.

When selecting players, the coach has both the initial and final say.

So, without belaboring the issue, Siot took Tenorio and Fonacier in.

Things were going smoothly fine, especially with Tenorio. Seemingly, Siot felt comfortable more with Tenorio than Fonacier.

Then it happened.

In a rather stunning move, Siot--as I said, a coach’s word has a 99.99 percent weight in every decision made within a basketball team--shipped Tenorio and Fonacier to Alaska.

Maybe Siot only wanted Fonacier traded but not Tenorio?

But that’d be impossible.

Tenorio and Fonacier are like the horse-and-carriage thing: inseparable.

So off to Alaska Tenorio and Fonacier went.

And so, as history tells us, to any team a good player joins, he’ll always be good.

Tenorio isn’t the only good one, though. Fonacier, too.

In their Ateneo days, Tenorio manned the back court, Fonacier the firing range. If Tenorio wasn’t unloading bombs of his own, Fonacier would be doing it – gladly, and with monotonous consistency from afar.

Now, let’s zero in on the just-concluded PBA Fiesta Finals.

Alaska raced to a 2-0 lead and after San Miguel Beer had closed in at 2-1, Alaska quickly sped to a 3-1 bubble.

And then, after the Beermen had inched to within 3-2, it became all business once more for Alaska in Game 6.

It also became, almost, a Tenorio-Fonacier show.

I give credit to Alaska coach Tim Cone. He sure knew whom to dispatch to put closure to SMB’s posturings in Game 6.

And who else would have the most lethal reason to defeat SMB than Tenorio and Fonacier?

Cone exploited this, let the duo frolic in vengeance in Game 6 and the rest, as they say, was history.

Accidents are also a coach’s undoing.

(alsol47@yahoo.com)

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