- Photo credits: Ariel D. Morales uploaded via Allan Caidic‘s Facebook Fan Page
I just stumbled upon on this picture from Allan Caidic’s Fan Page and the first thing that came to my mind is that I want to blog about this, I am a die-hard PBA fan from the 80’s and 90’s that’s the time that we had no television set in our household as we don’t have electricity available yet in our community. Luckily, there is a rich family in our neighborhood that could afford to have electricity, a television set and a huge house back on those years. The owner of the house even the rest of the family members are a fan of Philippine Basketball like me when there is a live telecast on PBA Games or delayed air time of the NBA as expected they’re hooked with it and I benefited every night haha.
I’m sorry tele-novela addicts you won’t get a chance to see your favorite Tagalog TV series. Imagine this, this house is like a mini-cinema in our community where almost people flock to his house just to see a night show or even a late night show and yours truly is one of those. How generous is it? It is how I ended up watching PBA and been a fan and following San Miguel Beer games (now Petron Blaze Boosters) now and then to support my second favorite team is the Brgy. Ginebra because of my fellow Pangasinense Marlou Aquino not Robert Jaworski haha, though my father named my brother Obet next to him because he was born on 7th of June as Jawo is famous in #7 jersey, it makes since my father is a certified Jaworski fan haha. 😀
The most memorable championship that I could remember is the 1989 San Miguel Beer Grand slam championships were they win all three conferences in a year the PBA Open Conference Finals, PBA All Filipino Conference Finals and PBA Reinforced Conference Finals. If you are a San Miguel fan you know this all games in the finals almost go over time not just once twice even thrice I’m not sure haha and which is a good game that you wanted more action and prayed that the clock never stops because of that exciting game and heart pounding action on the hardwood.
Thanks to the likes of Samboy Lim, Ato Agustin, Alan Caidic, Hector Calma, Abet Guidaben for the good show and winning moments not to mention Nelson “The Bull” Asaytono. This fascination of mine to San Miguel Beer players extended to Rodericko Cesar “Olsen” Escueta Racela, my fellow Pangasinense Danilo “The Demolition Man” Ildeponso, Donaldo “Dondon” Hontiveros among others. Isn’t great to have a memory lane on those epic championship games? How about you do you have childhood memories of your favorite PBA Team?
The lists below are the of PBA’s 25th Anniversary All-Time Team in no particular order:
Click on their names to see their profile/autobiography made possible by of Wikipedia.org.
Name |
School |
Nationality |
PBA teams |
Johnny Abarrientos | FEU | Pilipino | Alaska, Pop Cola, Coca-Cola, Barangay Ginebra |
Bogs Adornado | UST | Pilipino | Crispa, U/Tex, Great Taste, Shell, Hills Bros/Alaska |
Renato Agustin | Lyceum | Pilipino | San Miguel, Sunkist/Pop Cola, Sta Lucia, Red Bull |
Francis Arnaiz | Ateneo | Pilipino | Toyota, Gilbey’s Gin/Ginebra |
Ricardo Brown | Pepperdine, DLSU | Pilipino | Great Taste, San Miguel |
Allan Caidic | UE | Pilipino | Great Taste/Presto, San Miguel, Barangay Ginebra |
Hector Calma | Adamson | Pilipino | San Miguel |
Philip Cezar | JRU | Pilipino | Crispa, Shell, Great Taste/Presto, Ginebra |
Atoy Co | Mapúa | Pilipino | Crispa, Manila Beer, Great Taste/Presto |
Jerry Codiñera | UE | Pilipino | Purefoods, Mobiline/Talk N Text, FedEx |
Kenneth Duremdes | Adamson | Pilipino | Sunkist/Pop Cola, Alaska, Sta. Lucia, Coca-Cola |
Bernie Fabiosa | USJ-R | Pilipino | Crispa, Shell, Presto, Purefoods, Diet Sarsi/Swift |
Ramon Fernandez | San Carlos | Pilipino | Toyota, Beer Hausen, Tanduay, San Miguel, Purefoods |
Danny Florencio | UST | Pilipino | U/Tex, 7-Up, Toyota, Galerie Dominique |
Abet Guidaben | USJ-R | Pilipino | Crispa, Tanduay, Manila Beer, San Miguel, Purefoods, Alaska, Pepsi/7-Up, Shell |
Freddie Hubalde | Mapúa | Pilipino | Crispa, Tanduay, Purefoods, Shell, Añejo |
Robert Jaworski | UE | Pilipino | Toyota, Ginebra |
Jojo Lastimosa | Ateneo, USJ-R | Pilipino | Purefoods, Alaska, Pop Cola |
Lim Eng Beng | DLSU | Pilipino | Carrier, U/Tex, San Miguel, Crispa, Manila Beer |
Samboy Lim | Letran | Pilipino | San Miguel |
Ronnie Magsanoc | UP | Pilipino | Shell, Sta Lucia, Purefoods |
Vergel Meneses | JRU | Pilipino | Presto, Sta. Lucia, Swift/Sunkist/Pop Cola, Ginebra, FedEx, Red Bull, Talk N Text |
Manny Paner | UV | Pilipino | Royal/San Miguel, Great Taste, CDCP |
Alvin Patrimonio | Mapúa | Pilipino | Purefoods |
Benjie Paras | UP | Pilipino | Shell, San Miguel |
As of this writing, I am still reading each players profile above and I would say to my self ahhh, okay I learned something about that person today haha. 🙂 Thanks for certain Rafe “Paeng” Bartholomew in publishing a book “Pacific Rims” that introduced me to dig deeper in the history of basketball in the Philippines. Kudos! 🙂 That book by the way lended by a friend in response to my Facebook shout out that I want this book. Thanks to you to, you know who you are he he many likes for you don’t worry I am taking care of your book.
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- PBA 37: Cone loses first game as B-Meg coach (caloysports.wordpress.com)
- Hontiveros helps Gilas reach Jones Cup semifinals (cebulive.wordpress.com)
- Hontiveros back in San Miguel’s squad (cebulive.wordpress.com)
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On the PBA yearbook, this is how they rank the top 5:
1. Ramon Fernandez
2. Robert Jaworski
3. Alvin Patrimonio
4. Bogs Adornado
5. Allan Caidic
By the way, thanks for using my photo! 🙂
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Double thanks to you Ariel. It is so inspiring to blog PBA Legends and history of our own.
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cno ang huling tinawag na lima noong tinanghal ang 25 greatest players???
kilala mo ba pao???
ika nga ei best five………
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Classmate, after researching pati nga archives na ng PBA binasa ko wala eh, they selected 25 greatest players in random and they didn’t ranked them who’s number one or who’s the least siguro ang reason is magkakaiba sila ng season at years na naglaro.
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I’ll still check on this pa rin di ba. Interesting ang tanong mo pre eh. I’ll try to dig an archive clip ng Awards night nito.
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