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PBA/ Coffee Mixers at SCOOP sa KAMAYAN By Eddie Alinea PhilBoxing.com Sun, 16 Sep 2012 MANILA (PNA)- An opening ceremony like no other awaits PBA fans when the country?s and, for that matter, Asian?s first professional league raises its curtains of its 38th Season on September 30 at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum. ?It will be one of the best, if not the best opening rites our fans will witness in the 38-year history of the league,? newly-named PBA chair Robert Non said during yesterday?s episode of the SCOOP Sa Kamayan weekly session at the Kamayan Restaurant. ?The ceremony was designed to conform with the league?s main focus this season and that is to bring back to the playing fields our fans who made the pro-league as it is now ? the biggest sports and entertainment show this part of the world,? Non, representative of the popular Barangay Ginebra in the PBA Board of Governors, told his audience in the public service forum, sponsored by Powerade, AKTV and FILA. ?I just cannot reveal the details yet today, but suffice it to say that all the 10 teams in this year?s cast will be contributing their share to make our opening a moment to be remembered for a long time,? Non, who came to the SCOOP session with Purefoods? Rene Pardo and team manager Alvin Patrimonio and the Gins coach Siot Tangquincin, said. Pardo, himself a former PBA chair, concurred with Non?s pronouncement, saying, after enjoying themselves with the opening day ?palabas? the fans, both old and new, will keep coming back to see the games. Pardo, likewise, announced that the Purefoods franchise, which played carrying the banner of B-Meg the past three seasons, will be known starting this year as the San Mig Coffee Mixers, a product of SMC subsidiary San Mig Super Coffee Mix Inc. ?This is following San Miguel?s tradition of changing team name right after winning a championship for the purpose of winning more,? Pardo explained. ?Every time we win a title kasi, we change the product we are endorsing, tapos nanalo uli,? so following that the management decided on bannering a new product para manalo uli,? he pointed out. ?Naunsyami kami last season na manalo ng back-to-back when, after stashing away with the Commissioner?s Cup, we lost the Governor?s Cup to Rain or Shine,? he recalled. Non said that the PBA board and the office of the commissioner have lined up programs that are youth-oritned and geared towards sustaining the momentum of the gains that marked last season in terms of attendance and revenue. ?Last year is one of our most successful years so that commissioner Chito Salud and myself will try our very best to improve on the accomplishments we made the past season,? Non said. ?We, for instance, will be reaching out to our fans and would be fans more starting this season. Mag-start ang program to as low as the barangay level where we planned to undertake clinics and seminar to invite our youth to involve in sports activities, particularly basketball, instead of in front of their computers, which are not health conducive,? he said. Tournament format, he added, will be the same as in the past with the All Philippine Cup opening the season, followed by the Commissioner?s Cup and the Governor?s Cup. ?The Commissioner?s Cup, as in the past year, will have unlimited imports for each team, while the Governor?s Cup will have reinforcements not taller than 6-foot-5,? Non disclosed. Ginebra and newcomer Global Port will fire the opening salve when they clash in the opening day on Sept. 30. Winning at least a conference will be San Mig Coffee?s (formerly B-Meg) modest target when the 38th season of the Philippine Basketball Association unfurls September 30 at the Smart-Araneta Coliseum. COFFEE MIXERS Former mainstay of the Purefoods franchise and now team manager of the Coffee Mixers Alvin Patrimonio, however, declared that realizing that goal would not stop the Commissioner?s Cup defending champions to aim higher ? that of gunning, too, a franchise?s first back-to-back crown, and, perhaps Grand Slam. ?Every team naman competing in any league, siyempre ang goal is to win the championship. We are no different,? Patrimonio remarked in Friday?s SCOOP Sa Kamayan weekly session at the Kamayan Restaurant-Padre Faura. ?But if God permits that we emerged winner of the All-Filipino (First Conference), then our second aim would be to defend the Commissioner?s Cup and hand the management our first ever back-to-back championship, hindi naman masamang mag-aim pa kami ng mas mataas,? he reasoned out. ?Libre naman ang mangarap, di ba? So kung manalo kami ng dalawa, hindi naman siguro masamang pangarapin na kunin din ang Triple Crown by winning, too, the Governor?s Cup,? he added with a smile that led Purefoods? representative to the PBA Board of Governors Rene Pardo to respond with eyes wide open. ?That would more than make up for our frustrating experience last season where we got eliminated in the last conference by Ginebra, thus, failing us in our quest for what could have been our second straight title,? he quipped. Besides the heartache of having been ousted by sister team Kings, the then Llamados were also ousted from further title contention by Powerade despite ending up the no. 1 team in the elimination of the All-Filipino. ?That (annexing a back-to-back title and a Grand Slam) would be a tall order for coach Tim Cone,? was Pardo?s immediate response to Patrimonio?s pronouncements. Pardo, himself a former PBA chair, who was also at the session, sponsored by Powerade, AKTV and FILA, with new chair Robert Non and Barangay Ginebra coach Siot Tanquingcen. Patrimonio, one of only two league MVPs with four and the man responsible for the franchise?s first five of nine title conquests, agreed with Pardo that accomplishing the feat is easier said than done, adding though that it, indeed, is not that remote a possibility. ?First, the team that ended up champion in one conference and runner up in another, has been kept intact with the re-signing of five whose contracts expired last year,? Patrimonio, ?Cap? to the Mixers and PBA circle said in reference to Yancy de Ocampo, Rafi Reavis, Jerwin Gaco, Jonas Villanueva and Josh Urbiztondo. Patrimonio said he personally worked for the retention of the 6-foot-9 de Ocampo because of his proven effectiveness at the post where ?he can draw the opposite team?s defense and pass to our open shooters like James (Yap), which to me is crucial sa triangle offense ni coach Tim.? The acquisition of a pair of tall rookies Aldrech Ramos and Jewel Ponferrada, both from the draft, added ceiling to an already tall combination of Cone that prior to the acquisition was built around De Ocampo, Mark PIngirs (6-4), Joe de Vance (6-7), John Christopher Intal (6-4) and Reavis (6-8). ?We, probably, is the tallest team in the 10-team field, having an average 6-foot-5,? Pardo butted in, adding that the arrival of Chris Pacana, likewise, added quickness to the team already manned by PJ Simon and Mark Barroca. ?it?s a complete team ? tall, quick and with a lot of shooters. Pardo also said that Intal, who saw action sparingly in the Governor?s Cup due to injury has started practicing with the team although lamenting that De Vance, who went under the knife recently due to fractured bone won?t be back until October. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Eddie Alinea.  |
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