SLAM SEEKERS
Amid the revelry of TNT’s latest mastery of Barangay Ginebra and capturing the PBA Commissioner’s Cup crown, a beaming team manager, Jojo Lastimosa, grabbed Kelly Williams and immediately gestured the No. 1 sign.
“We got one more to go! We got the All-Filipino!” Lastimosa was overheard shouting at Williams after the Tropang Giga moved on the threshold of completing the league’s ultimate team accomplishment.
The coveted Grand Slam has been pulled off five times by just four teams in the 50-year history of the big league, with Crispa doing it twice in 1976 and 1983, San Miguel Beer in 1989 and Tim Cone’s Alaska in 1996, and San Mig Super Coffee in 2014.
Lastimosa knows a thing about pulling off the triple crown, being part of that 1996 Alaska squad. Williams, meanwhile, had a firsthand experience of being inches short of being part of that exclusive club.
It was back in 2011 when Williams, Jayson Castro, Jimmy Alapag, Ryan Reyes, Harvey Carey and Ranidel de Ocampo, and coach Chot Reyes were also on the cusp of glory, bringing home the Philippine Cup and the Commissioner’s Cup.
But the Grand Slam dream was dashed in the season-ending Governors’ Cup when San Miguel Beer, then known as Petron, beat TNT in the deciding Game 7, and was left to join the likes of Toyota in 1975, Crispa in 1977, Great Taste in 1985, Tanduay in 1986, Sunkist in 1995, Alaska in 1998, and most recently, San Miguel in 2017 and 2019 as teams that fell one title short of the triple crown.
“Boss Jolas has brought it before. But we’re just gonna enjoy this win,” Williams later said.
Reyes was initially deflecting any Grand Slam talks after Game 7, which saw the Tropang Giga needing overtime to prevail, 87-83, before 22,000 fans at Smart Araneta Coliseum. He did acknowledge that it’s something that can’t be avoided.
‘Enjoy this first’
“I don’t think we can escape the talk of it,” Reyes said. “But right now, we just want to enjoy this [Commissioner’s Cup title] first. We’re absolutely drained and what we need is to rest and recover, and then we can think about the All-Filipino.”
But to win the Philippine Cup, TNT will need to show the same grit that led to the midseason conquest against all odds, especially without Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and veteran leader Jayson Castro.
Castro is expected to miss the rest of the season after his knee injury in the semifinal series against Rain or Shine, and the impression before the Finals was that TNT would be in for a difficult task to beat Ginebra anew without his presence and leadership.
But PBA Press Corps Finals Most Valuable Player Rey Nambatac filled major shoes in his absence, and his outstanding showing in the championship is something that is going to be the bare minimum in the third conference.
“I believe in my guys,” Hollis-Jefferson said. “I believe that the energy, that the aura that I’ve come in with that I continue to give to them, that they would let it lead them into the All-Filipino. You know, the sky’s the limit [as long as] everyone stays healthy and everyone works hard.”
