AS a member of the 10-man jury to select the 10 players to complete the 50 Greatest Players in the highlight of this year’s 50th Year celebration of the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA), I had the rare bonus of working with three PBA player-legends during the three-session deliberations.
A moment to behold.
But to be sure, not only did I have the chance to mingle, chat, and cajole with Ramon Fernandez, Atoy Co, and Allan Caidic — three of the PBA’s Greatest 50 players earlier voted in the first 25 batch in 2000 — I also had the golden opportunity to have as fellow judges the likes of Sonny Barrios, Dante Silverio, Quinito Henson, Andy Jao, Nelson Beltran, and Ding Marcelo.
Barrios, our non-voting chair, was the 7th PBA commissioner from 2008 to 2010; Silverio, the first PBA champion coach in 1975, was a 5-time titlist for Toyota; Henson is still presently the top-notch sportscaster for PBA games; Jao is the inimitable Dr. J whose razor-sharp analysis of PBA games remains the envy of many; Beltran is currently the eagle-eyed sports ed of PhilStar; and, Marcelo is now the No. 1 columnist for Spin.ph and the one spark that made me a sportswriter.
My heartfelt gratitude to PBA Commissioner Willie Marcial for including me in the star-laden panel, which was truly a career milestone in my 50-year coverage of Asia’s first play-for-pay league beginning April 9, 1975. It’s one legacy deserving of applause from the grandkids.
Lest I forget, thank you also to deputy commissioner Eric Castro for providing us with voluminous documents containing the statistics of all the 2,000-plus players, including the 50-plus deceased. It made our job easier than we thought.
And, finally, here’s our 10 additions to complete the 50 Greatest Players in the last 50 years of the PBA: June Mar Fajardo, Scottie Thompson, Nelson Asaytono, Abe King, Bong Hawkins, Jeffrey Cariaso, Arnie Tuadles (+), Danny Seigle, Elpidio “Yoyoy” Villamin, and Manny Victorino.
Fajardo and Thompson were automatic inclusions for their being voted Most Valuable Players (MVP) earlier, raising the total to 27 MVPs in the 50-member list.
The beauty is that all 10 of us in the jury, voting independently, never actually had any heated debate whatsoever. In short, we were practically unanimous in our choices. True unity at work.