HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PBA
San Miguel Beer, the PBA’s remaining charter member, hopes to celebrate the league’s 50th birthday on Wednesday with a sense of belief that the Philippine Cup will be its redemption tour.
“We can’t blame anyone for our shortcomings last conference,” CJ Perez said as the Beermen tackle the defending champion Meralco Bolts at 7:30 p.m. inside the historic Rizal Memorial Coliseum. “But now, we have a chance to bounce back.”
The Beermen will be gunning for a 2-0 slate to open the all-Filipino tournament, which they have historically dominated, having won the title 10 times since the conference’s inaugural staging in 1977.
Much of that run happened in recent history, including five in a row from 2015 to 2019. The Beermen also won the 2022 edition of the tournament.
That success is what San Miguel hopes to rediscover after missing the playoffs of the Commissioner’s Cup when it won just five of 12 games in the eliminations, owing to multiple import changes.
“Everybody’s thinking that this is our conference,” said coach Leo Austria. “But it’s not a guarantee that we could get a win easily because there’s a lot of teams vying for the championship of this very prestigious conference.”
The way the Beermen performed in getting a 98-89 win over the NLEX Road Warriors last Saturday showed the two sides of Austria’s squad.
San Miguel led by 15 but saw NLEX climb back in the fourth to take the lead. The Beermen then displayed their championship poise down the stretch to prevent a colossal setback.
But Meralco will provide an even tougher test, especially after the Bolts posted two wins out of their two games to start off their quest to keep temporary possession of the Jun Bernardino Perpetual Trophy.
Retro jerseys
Converge and Magnolia face off at 5 p.m., with FiberXers rookie Justine Baltazar looking forward to facing his Kapampangan idols Calvin Abueva and Ian Sangalang of the Hotshots.
San Miguel and Meralco will don retro jerseys to mark the golden anniversary of the league. Tickets are worth P50 for lower box and P30 for general admission, while fans born in 1975 can watch for free.
The PBA opened shop on April 9, 1975 at Araneta Coliseum, with Joy Dionisio scoring the first basket before his Concepcion-Carrier squad fell short to Mariwasa-Noritake, 101-98, behind 48 points from import Cisco Oliver.
That was followed by Toyota’s 105-101 triumph over U-Tex behind the high-scoring Ompong Segura, Big Boy Reynoso and the eventual pillars of the fabled franchise: Robert Jaworski, Ramon Fernandez and Francis Arnaiz.
