I DIDN’T dream of becoming a sportswriter. All I wanted back then was to watch playing coach Robert “Sonny” Jaworski and his never-say-die Ginebra team in the PBA without paying for my seat.
But while in college, I got the opportunity to work as a sportswriter with Junep Ocampo, now my kumpadre and a revered PR man, in a Filipino evening tabloid.
Back then, the PBA was considered the premier sports beat and we were in an era when the Jaworski-led Ginebra cult following was at its peak.
Every game was like, as they say, filled with a hometown crowd for the Gins.
There was a time when the PBA ran out of tickets and Ginebra diehards, who were stuck outside the Philsports Arena in Pasig during a Shell-Ginebra championship game, destroyed the metal barriers and banged the glass panels as they attempted to get inside. Riot police intervened in time and put things back in order.
Inside the jampacked arena, the game would be halted several times as Ginebra fans, unhappy with some referees’ calls, pelted the court with coins and half-filled water bottles.
We would then hide under the officials’ table and pick those coins as many as we could, coins which we, as working students, would become our “extra baon” for the next day in school.
Jaworski was so competitive that you either hate him or love him.
As for us sportswriters, we love Jawo for his quotable quotes after the game.
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Several years after he retired from the PBA and politics (he served as senator for one term), Jaworski took time out from his busy business schedules for a rare chat with his media friends.
His wit and humor remain the same. The line “Kung away mong masaktan, mag-chess ka na lang” would forever be etched in basketball articles as truly his own.
When, he was asked about his age, he paused for a while, before retorting back “Ha, sa UE.”
The former University of the East Warrior is turning 70 on May 8, and now, he leaves the door open for a possible return to the PBA either as coach or team executive.
The Living Legend or the Big J is giving himself another chance to bring back the kind of Ginebra magic that he has brought to the league years ago.
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Jaworski also had some words of advice for the national team.
A former national player himself, Jaworski extolled the would-be members of the Gilas Team that will take a shot at an Olympic slot, to give it their all.
“Aba, ibigay niyo na lahat (Give it all what you’ve got),” Jaworski said when asked about what he can advise the players.
Jaworski said there’s no better feeling for an athlete than represent his/her country in international competitions.
“Maaring maalala kayo na naglaro kayo ng basketball, pero mas maalala nila kayo na nag-national team kayo. Saka ang national team, ibig sabihin nu’n, ni-represent niyo ang lahi niyo. Pilipino ako.”
Jaworski was a national player in 1966 and was a member of the 1973 Philippine team that won the Asian Basketball Confederation championship trophy. As a national coach, he piloted an All-PBA team to a silver-medal finish in the 1990 Asian Games in Hiroshima.
When asked about the difference between then and now, Jaworski said nothing should change.
“Pare-pareho naman ang dapat na maging damdamin at isipan ng sumasali diyan o sasali diyan at ‘wag ka nang mag-isip ng iba pa.”
But then, one must be ready to go to war.
“Kung iniisiip mo ma-iinjure ka, hindi naman tangke ang sasalubungin mo. Basketball lang naman ‘yan kaya mag-prepara ka.”
Which goes back to his famous line, “Kung ayaw mong masaktan, mag-chess ka na lang.”