IT’S what you might call dominance.
Teams from the giant conglomerate San Miguel Corp. were able to finish 1, 2 and 3, respectively as Barangay Ginebra, San Miguel Beer and Star ended up in a three-way tie for the lead at the end of the elimination round of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup.
The three teams wound up with a 9-2 mark with the Gin Kings taking the top seed and the reigning three-time champion Beermen grabbing the No. 2 seat. Both squads will carry a twice-to-beat advantage heading to the playoffs.
The Hotshots, the team that had the inferior quotient, settled for no. 3, but that won’t be a problem for head coach Chito Victolero, who guided the team’s rise this season following a turbulent campaign under then head coach Jason Webb.
“We’re happy at where we are right now. The players worked hard for this. It doesn’t matter where we end up as long as we continue winning,” added Victolero, whose team put together a five-game winning streak heading to the playoffs.
Rene Pardo, the long-time team executive of the old Purefoods franchise, who continuously serves as the team’s representative to the PBA board, deflected the credit to the man who made responsible in bringing Victolero on board — Alfrancis Chua.
“I think credit should be given to Boss Alfrancis Chua, who made things possible in bringing Chito Victolero to become our head coach,” Pardo said. “He was also the one who initiated the James Yap-Paul Lee trade and look what is happening to us now. He has been helping us the past few years and look at where we are right now.”
Like Pardo, fellow executives Robert Non and Gee Abanilla of San Miguel Beer lauded Chua’s big involvement as far as movements and improvements that transpired within the three teams under the SMC stable.
“Ever since he came here, malaki ang ipinagbago ng takbo ng mga teams. He started as consultant of Ginebra, then became the head coach and brought the team to the finals after a 0-4 start,” added Non, San Miguel Beer’s representative to the PBA board. “When my BFF (Chua) became our sports director, he was able to set the direction within the three teams. San Miguel won three straight all-Filipino, Ginebra won a championship for the first time in eight years and Star made significant improvement the past two conferences.”
Abanilla knows where Chua is coming from and he wasn’t surprised why the former coach-turned executive was able to know the nitty-gritty of a basketball organization.
“Boss Alfrancis is a coach, so he knows what basketball is all about. He knows how to interact with the players. He knows when coaches are performing to the task and most of all, he’s on top of everything to make sure that all three teams would remain competitive. He was able to bring the good rapport among the coaches and the players and was able to bring in the good mix of players and coaches,” added Abanilla, team manager of San Miguel Beer, who like Chua started out as coach.
In the 42-year history of the PBA, no team within one stable was able to finish in the top three and share the lead at the end of the eliminations.
SMC’s dominance was clearly felt in the past 10 conferences as all teams from the stable — San Miguel Beer, Ginebra and Star — have at least won a championship each with TNT and Rain or Shine sneaking in by winning a title apiece.