Now a death match
When San Miguel Beer guard Chris Ross finds a reason to get mad and be motivated this late in his career, he turns into the effective two-way player everyone knows throughout his 17-year PBA career.
And Friday saw Ross use a halftime incident with Barangay Ginebra assistant coach Olsen Racela as a fuel the boosted the Beermen in taking their PBA Governors’ Cup quarterfinal series to a decider.
“As a 17-year veteran, there’s a lot of disrespect that I get,” Ross said after a vintage third quarter performance keyed the Beermen’s 108-102 win over the Gin Kings at Smart Araneta Coliseum that leveled the best-of-five affair at 2-2.
The 41-year-old—or 52 as June Mar Fajardo joked after the game—finished with 20 points, six rebounds, nine assists and five steals as the Beermen sustained their awakening from 0-2 down last week to head into the decider with all the momentum they need.
Ross unleashed a third quarter of doom on the Gin Kings, with stops on the defensive end and shots on the other as the Beermen leaned on a 22-0 run that had San Miguel charging back from 17 points down to complete the stunning reversal.
Tropang 5G await
Ginebra appeared to be on the cusp of advancing to the semis to face TNT in a similar best-of-five showdown after taking a 55-41 lead into the the halftime break.
But Ross, who had spent the second quarter arguing with officials over calls, suddenly got into a heated incident with Racela, who appeared to be expressing his own dismay over Ross’ constant complaints, prompting the San Miguel veteran to unleash his tirade at the PBA legend, a former San Miguel guard himself.
Cooler heads prevailed, but the exchange lit a fire on Ross, who at the peak of his career was a menacing two-way player during San Miguel’s dynastic run of one championship after another less than a decade back.
“It just fueled me to play that much harder,” Ross said. “I feel like I get a lot of disrespect from certain people. People that don’t know me, people that never talked to me, had a conversation with me off the court. And I just think it’s very disrespectful.
“I just focused on putting that energy towards my team and my family,” added Ross, whose team now has a chance to become just the fourth side ever to overcome a 0-2 deficit and win a best-of-five series.
Game 5 is set on Tuesday at Ynares Center in Antipolo, and San Miguel will bank once more on Ross, plus an improved George King and Fajardo in dealing Ginebra a harsh exit from the season-ending conference.
“We haven’t done nothing yet,” Ross said. “We just evened the series, they won two straight, we won two straight now. It’s a decider. It’s usually how it goes.
“When we play Ginebra, we go to either six or seven [in a best-of-seven series]. We’re excited. We’re excited to play next game.”
Ross’ demeanor was already different during the postgame press conference, changing from being intense to being a calm father as he brought along with his son Caius June, to the podium.
The two walked out of the press room to cheers from jubilant teammates who witnessed a Ross renaissance.
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