RULER OF KINGS
When Rey Nambatac won his first PBA championship the previous conference, he was content playing a supporting role for TNT.
Friday night saw the southpaw guard taking the lead role in the Tropang Giga’s triumph over Barangay Ginebra to annex the Commissioner’s Cup title in a thriller of a finish that needed overtime, 87-83, before 22,361 fans at Smart Araneta Coliseum.
Nambatac was hailed as the PBA Press Corps’ Finals MVP after capping off a series where he successfully filled the void left by the injured Jayson Castro, shooting 22 points that went with four assists.
“I’m just motivated because of Jayson,” said Nambatac after posting series averages of 17.9 points, 3.1 rebounds, 3.4 assists and 1.0 steals.
His play was magnified ever since Castro went down with a season-ending knee injury during their semifinal series against Rain or Shine. But Nambatac, as Rondae Hollis-Jefferson earlier said in the Finals, played with big boy pants.
The hobbling Hollis-Jefferson gave his all on both ends, while Glenn Khobuntin provided some much-needed lift late in regulation and in the extra five-minute period as TNT beat Ginebra for the third consecutive time in a big series.
Undoubtedly, though, this is the most difficult one.
Short the first time
TNT produced its 11th PBA title after claiming the second championship of the league’s 49th season, setting itself for the possibility of completing the ultimate team award: the coveted Grand Slam.
“There will be a huge target on our backs [in the Philippine Cup],” coach Chot Reyes said after, interestingly enough, winning the 11th title of his coaching career that also saw stops with two other teams.
Reyes and TNT fell short of completing one in 2011. Fourteen years later, he and the Tropang Giga hope to do it this time.
Hollis-Jefferson finished with 25 points and 12 rebounds despite a pulled hamstring, which Reyes finally bared after the series. Khobuntin delivered big baskets to finish with 14.
Record denied
Brownlee scored 28 points, but his bid for what would have been a record seventh championship for an import was denied again by Hollis-Jefferson and TNT.
But Brownlee gave himself a chance in regulation with a three-pointer, making it 79-all to force extension.
Amid the revelry was Castro, who later expressed his gratitude to Nambatac when the two shared a hug.
“Thank you,” Castro was overheard telling Nambatac.
But it was not just a one-man show by Nambatac.
The Tropang Giga are now in a position like a horse winning the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes of the American Triple Crown series or a European football club on the cusp of producing a treble following two trophies within a season.
