TO thousands of long-suffering fans of Ginebra, it was a prayer answered.
To Tim Cone, who ended the Gin Kings’ run of extraordinary heartbreaks, it was the “storybook” finish to all the championships he has had. “It was a magical time,” he said.
Many seasons from now, it would be remembered by fans and foes alike simply as “The Miracle Shot” by the miracle man of October 19, Justin Brownlee, who nailed the Philippine Basketball Association (PBA) Governor’s Cup title.
It was like a shot launched blindly. Between him and the basket was an eternity of space in those 5.5 seconds it took for Brownlee to dribble to the top of the key, aim and fire over the outstretched arms of Allen Durham.
Yet, it was a shot launched with the delicate calculations of math, which reside in the shooter’s muscle memory, and the force needed to carry a 22-ounce spheroid on a trajectory from 27 feet out that ended with the game-clinching trifeca. The Gin Kings escaped from the clutches of the Meralco Bolts, a dangerous underdog that did not run out of good defense until he triggered the game winner.
But then, this has been, for the Gin Kings, a campaign highlighted by their capacity to produce near-impossible rallies and unimagined comebacks one after another, and defined by their refusal to accept a hellish fate. They kept plugging on even when the road got impossibly difficult.
On Game Four, defying Father Time, JayJay Helterbrand pulled them from the brink of a disastrous 3-1 series deficit by playing his best fourth-quarter in a long time. He was like the old Jayjay mixing his dazzling brand of basketball with a never-say-die spirit that typified the Gin Kings’ terrific stand.
The same can be said of Mark Caguioa, the ageless warrior. He was as inspirational with his courageous play as he was instrumental with his relentless tough defense and rebounding.
There was, above all, LA Tenorio, whom fans adored for his talent and, rightly or wrongly, scorned for his occasional lapses in the years he has been in Ginebra uniform. Last night he was a man finally redeemed.
Last night, when critical instant decisions had to be made on the court, like seizing small openings to the basket and exploiting defensive lapses, he unhesitatingly made the critical plays, and was making shots against Meralco’s swarming defense. In the critical stretch in the third, when Ginebra stared at a double-digit deficit, he was the take-charge guy. On the brink of another painful Ginebra collapse, he brought back to life a team hounded by adversity and self-doubts to begin with.
When their first choice of an import came down with an injury right on their first game, it seemed to doom the Gin Kings to yet another self-destructing finish. It became worse in early September, when their main man around the keyhole, the 7-foot Greg Slaughter, came down with a scary ACL tear in his knee that needed surgery to mend.
Let’s face it. Though the Gin Kings have grown invincible on the outside with the armor of a hard-earned mass popularity, which would have earned them canonization if popularity were the sole criterion for winning titles, internally they have been rendered unstable by constant players’ departures and coaching changes.
They have lost quite a few players who have made won championships with different PBA teams. This season was remarkable for yet another episodic change on the bench.
Sol Mercado and Joe Devance traded their uniforms for Ginebra’s red and white and rookie Scottie Thompson ended up playing with his boyhood idols Caguioa and Helterbrand.
And most remarkably, 19-time PBA winner Tim Cone was put in charge of team strategy. Finally, the Gin Kings had the man who could impose that one element many fans thought was lacking on their bench—a disciplined system, and an imagination to weave this talented team into something it ought to have been many seasons ago.
Still, the way for the Gin Kings was blocked by foes of huge reputation and seemingly unlimited talent. Like a lightweight boxer sent out to the ring to face the heavyweights, they went to battle knowing the odds were against them. The title, it seemed, was for the picking of either Talk ’N Text with its pedigreed Gilas crew led by Jason Castro, Ranidel de Ocampo and Larry Fonacier, or San Miguel Beer with the league’s best player the past two seasons, Junmar Fajardo.
From where I say it was Ginebra-esque. It was a night when faith prevailed, when even the legend of our time, Robert Jaworski, paid a visit to the team dugout and whispered to them a prayer. You are not playing your game, he told them.
“The guys refocused,” Cone would say later. “Senator Jaworksi got us thinking straight.”
The miracle in October was done.